The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada, formerly M.O.C.C.A. is a museum and art gallery in the city of Toronto, in the province of Ontario, Canada. It opened in 1999. It is an independent registered charitable organization with a mandate to promote the work of Canadian and international artists whose work is related to current social issues and innovative technologies. The Museum is affiliated with the Canadian Association of Museums, the Ontario Museums Association and the Ontario Art Gallery Association.
The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art was founded in the former North York Art Gallery. In 2005, the M.O.C.C.A. moved to the site of a converted textile mill in Queen West in downtown Toronto . City officials invested half a million dollars to renovate the building. In 2015, it was decided to demolish the building and build condominiums in its place. At this time, the M.O.C.C.A. organized an interactive exhibition by Dean Baldwin called “Queen West Yacht Club.” The museum began preparing to move to a new location.
In 2016, the museum changed its name, and became the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada. Currently, the museum’s collection is gradually being relocated to Sterling Road in the Tower Automotive building in west Toronto . The move was paid for by the Cultural Spaces Foundation of Canada. The museum is scheduled to open at the new location in the fall of 2017.
The museum’s collection includes more than eighty exhibits and projects by about eight hundred artists. The collection includes works by Canadian authors Susie Lake, Chris Knight, Harold Klander, Barbara Astman, William Ronald, Barbara McGiven, Tony Sherman, Joseph Drapell and many others. Each year the museum presents the M.O.C.C.A. Contemporary Art Award. In 2010, the award was presented to Edward Burtinsky, a Canadian photographer of Ukrainian descent.
The museum also hosts group exhibitions of works by foreign authors. Since 2001, M.O.C.C.A. has been organizing exhibitions and projects abroad. Exhibitions of works from the museum’s collections have been held in the USA, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Taiwan.