Thompson said that while that gallery could exhibit many kinds of art, the curatorial staff is interested in using it to exhibit regional art. Now a section of the old gift shop space at the corner of Duval and Laura streets will become a permanent gallery. Over the last year the space has occasionally been used for exhibiting art. MOCA’s gift shop closed in July last year, ostensibly so Troy Spurlin, a former MOCA employee who owns an interior design company and a furniture store in Five Points, could open a retail store in the gift shop’s space.īut that plan fell through, Doherty said: “We had a parting of the ways.” MOCA has continued to offer catering even while the restaurant was closed, and that will continue. In addition to seating inside the café, there will be tables and seating on the street. The café will exhibit works from MOCA’s permanent collection. It will be open whenever the museum is open including on weekends. The café also will probably have different operating hours than NOLA MOCA had. ![]() The name will probably change to Café MOCA. But the menu will generally be simpler than NOLA MOCA’s menu was. Some menu favorites will probably return, like chicken salad and quiche. Still, the plan never was to end food service permanently.Ī restaurant will be reopened, but it will be a fast casual restaurant. “We’re in the museum business, not the restaurant business,” he said. One of the findings was that many people who ate at NOLA MOCA had never visited the museum. Then the museum spent eight weeks conducting polls and seeking ideas from visitors, particularly during the May Downtown Art Walk that brought about 1,000 visitors to MOCA. The museum closed NOLA MOCA, its first-floor restaurant. The first step in that makeover surprised many people. He credited Doherty, who became director two years ago, with making a first-floor makeover a priority. “It doesn’t have a strong visual presence,” said Dita Domonkos, a board member who is an interior designer.Įngdahl and Domonkos are members of a task force charged with developing ideas for turning the first floor lobby into a lobby that says “we’re a museum, an art museum,” said Caitlin Doherty, MOCA’s director.īen Thompson, MOCA’s assistant director, who is spearheading the task force planning a makeover, said “the project has been in the making for years.” ![]() “You can walk past it now and not realize it’s an art museum,” said David Engdahl, a MOCA board member who is a sculptor and retired architect. And the only gallery space on the first floor is the Haskell Atrium Gallery, an elevated space that can’t really be seen from the street. Its exterior doesn’t call attention to the fact there is a museum inside. It occupies a building, renovated in the early 2000s, that was originally built as the Western Union Telegraph Building in 1930-1931. The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville occupies a significant space Downtown, at the corner of Laura and Duval streets across from Hemming Park and just around the corner from City Hall.īut the location has one significant disadvantage.
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