Within just a little more than a year from now, on May 2, 2017, Toronto will be opening a new museum devoted to the art of the 21st century, named the Museum of Contemporary Art_Toronto_Canada. This is a new step for MOCCA (Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art), the art centre formerly located on Queen Street West for 10 years (2005–15).
The museum will develop an international program of exhibitions, events and publications. It will generate new exhibitions of international calibre and develop a global collection based on new and innovative ideas, with the year 2000 as a start date for the collection. It will co-produce exhibitions and new works with national and international partners such as: curators, museums, major galleries, collectors and foundations, in Canada and internationally. In the city of Marshall McLuhan, the museum will base much of its work on developing a digital archive of relevance to contemporary art, artists, researchers as well as all visitors. It will also be connected to specialized and unique archives globally. Working with the World Wide Web in a proactive and creative manner, the museum will develop a larger audience, both on-site and online.
The basic philosophy of the new museum will be based on the idea of the “agora,” a public space for working out democracy today, and the “nexus,” a space for exchange and networking. It will be “everyone’s living room.” As a space for knowledge production, it will be working out world issues through today’s art practices.
The Museum of Contemporary Art_Toronto_Canada is putting forth the “20/20 Plan” with the objective of meeting the needs of today’s art and today’s society. A 20/20 vision is the best vision possible and by the year 2020, the world will have already experienced two decades of what life is like in the 21st century, a common horizon and challenge for all.
The “20/20 Plan” will unfold itself in two main phases:
Phase I will open in 2017, the year of Canada’s 150th anniversary, in the heritage-designated Auto BLDG. (Auto Building). The Museum will occupy five floors of the ten-storey building (55,000 square feet) that was built in 1919.
Phase II will open in 2020 in a custom-made building situated on the same site and will add approximately 75,000 square feet to the first building. Phase II will enable the museum to host a larger attendance, increase exhibition spaces and spaces for live art, room for the display and storage of the developing collection, spaces for research, workshops and meeting rooms, and studios for artists and curators in residency from Canada and other countries.
First year program
The Museum of Contemporary Art_Toronto_Canada will offer three major exhibitions during its first year. Every year, programming will be comprised of three cycles of exhibitions and events with all exhibitions playing out tropes of what it is to live in the 21st century and how artists enhance our vision of the contemporary globalizing world in our midst.
Odyssey 2040
May–August 2017
Curator: Chantal Pontbriand, CEO-Director of the Museum
Toronto: You Are Here
September–December 2017
Curator: David Liss, Curator Advisor of the Museum
China: Body To Body
January–April 2018
Curator: Catherine David, Associate Director, MNAM, Centre Pompidou, Chinese curator TBD
Click here to read the Museum’s full announcement details, including first-year programming, pre-opening event, programming, magazine and journal publication plans, and more.
Thank you
The Museum is supported by Castlepoint Greybrook Sterling Inc., BMO Financial Group, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP., Leo Burnett Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Culture, The Ouellette Family Foundation, The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation, MSLGROUP, private donations, and individual members.
Media contact
Mark Savoia
Head, Marketing & Communications
Museum of Contemporary Art_Toronto_Canada
msavoia [at] museumofcontemporaryart.ca / T +1 416 395 7490
