Origin

(Left to right: 2001 MOCA Teens, Avigail Moss and Nick Doyle in the boardroom presenting the outline of their final project)

Since its inception, the MOCA Teens program has followed its motto, “For Teens, By Teens.” Before the program, the Museum of Contemporary Art had an outreach program called First Visit & Beyond designed to introduce new and diverse audiences to MOCA through visiting schools and organizations to lead workshops. A group of students at Belmont High School did not want their relationship with the institution to end after the eight weeks and, with the assistance of MOCA educators, they initiated a pilot teen program: MOCA Mentors. In the Fall of 1992, the original seven students from Belmont High School and Jefferson High School began to meet every Sunday evening at the museum.

“Their original intention [for the program] was to use art as a tool to connect with young people through creating a program, not necessarily to create a factory of artists, but through [providing an opportunity of exploring the arts].” - Fabrizio Flores (MOCA Teens ‘93)

The program has since been renamed to MOCA Teens and has expanded its cohort, each year welcoming up to eighteen students from different backgrounds across Greater Los Angeles. Teens have had the opportunity to collaborate on projects with artists. Past artists include Pepon Osorio, Gronk, Todd Gray, Marnie Weber, and iris yirei hu. Teen Night, the program’s most iconic yearly nightly event for teens by teens, did not exist until ten years after the program’s establishment when twelve students challenged themselves in creating an event that can excitedly bring teens to the museum. On the night of April 12, 2003 teens crowded MOCA Grand Avenue in attendance for Synergy. Through the program, teens get the chance to explore their position in the arts.

“MOCA opened the possibility that there are living artists currently making art at this moment, and they were like, ‘They want to go meet them. Like, yeah, let's let's do it.’ So it really just blew up my preconceived notion of what art is and what it could be.” - John Ildefonso (MOCA Teens ‘94)

(2003 MOCA Teens cohort’s visit to the Getty. Left to Right, top to bottom: Aaron Mills, Daniel Flores, Alondra Rodriguez, Rachel West, Jessica Hernandez, Melissa Little,  Brandon Rosenbluth, Alivia Zappas, Sam Graham, Jia Gu, Lauren Ino.)

Projects of the Past

  • MOCA Teens in Gronk's studio in 2000

    Y2Gronk

    As part of an artist residency at MOCA in 1999, Gronk created a project, Y2Gronk, that included a series of painting and poetry workshops and creating a collaborative mural. The 2000 MOCA Teens cohort assisted with the mural and the culmination of the project through performance and leading a panel.

  • City of the Future

    The 2002 MOCA Teens cohort collaborated with artist Todd Gray to create models of a futuristic Los Angeles, considering how different communities will face a dystopian and utopian future.

  • Walls with Permission

    The teens of 2003 and former MOCA Teens alumni, MIDZT (Andy Rios), organized a temporary outdoor installation at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA with graffiti sprayed-painted by the public.

  • The House Project

    In conjunction to a previous MOCA education program, Public + Artist, the MOCA Teens of 1994 assisted four artists (Faith Wilding, Kim Abeles, Ernesto Pujol, and Beth Bachenheim) in creating a collaborative installation that focused on the domestic lives of different people and the immediate community the project was held in.

  • Photo by Paula Goldman

“Origins” was organized by Sabrina Mendoza (MOCA Teens ‘22 and MOCA Education Intern ‘24) as part of Education Department’s archive project