News & Events

MADWORKSHOP is delighted to support MOCA’s Teen Program, a vibrant program that encourages high school juniors and seniors to engage with contemporary art and museum culture by working together on art-related projects, meeting with working artists, and being able to engage with arts professionals across multiple disciplines (curatorial, editorial, and more). The MOCA Teen Program is dedicated to demonstrating creative and critical thinking skills, outlining the ways in which museums operate, and introducing young people to the extraordinary political, social, emotional, and affective power of art. Throughout the pandemic, MOCA’s Teen Program occurred online; the next cohort will be meeting both virtually and in person, and will participate in a number of in-person artist-led workshops on the weekends. 

Last fall, the program facilitated an exploration of the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist’s exhibition and first West Coast survey, Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor. As MOCA outlined, “Rist’s installations explore relationships of video and the body; exterior environments and interior psychological landscapes; and reason and instinct. They exuberantly probe the video medium’s capaciousness—for vivid color; sweeping views and extreme close-ups; introspection and cultural critique; and, importantly, the creation of shared experiences within the public space of the museum.”

Fifteen teens were chosen from an extraordinary pool of nearly one hundred applicants, each of whom demonstrated passion, enthusiasm, and dedication through their application essays and portfolios.