The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA Jacksonville) has a long and rich history as the first organization devoted to the visual arts in Northeast Florida. Founded in 1924 as the Jacksonville Fine Arts Society, the Museum evolved into a contemporary artistic institution with a substantial permanent collection, traveling exhibitions, and special events and educational programs for the community, supported by a permanent staff. At the mid-twentieth century mark in 1948, it was professionally incorporated as the Jacksonville Art Museum and purchased its first facility - the "Fleming Mansion," a historic home on Riverside Avenue. A new and substantially larger building, located in the Koger Executive Center on 4160 Boulevard Center Drive, opened in 1966 and included both permanent and rotating exhibition galleries, a museum store, and an outdoor sculpture garden. In 1978, the Museum was accredited by the American Association of Museums. Efforts by the Board of Trustees in 1995 to clarify its mission resulted in the Museum's name change to the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art.
The end of the twentieth century brought two major changes to the Museum: a new, centralized and visible location in downtown Jacksonville to house its growing collections and a name change to more accurately reflect the Museum's then scope and mission. In November 1999, the Museum acquired the five story Galleria / Western Union Telegraph building across from Hemming Park and City Hall. At the same time, the Museum became the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art (JMoMA). In May 2003, a total renovation of the building was completed, with the addition of updated educational facilities, and a new restaurant, theater, and Museum Shop. The permanent galleries showcase works by leading modernists, such as Hans Hofmann, Joan Mitchell and Ed Paschke, with additional rotating exhibits displayed several times a year.
In 2006, JMoMA officially became the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA Jacksonville). Two years later, in October 2008, it was announced that the University of North Florida (UNF) was planning to take over the operations of MOCA, coincidentally housed in the same Galleria Building where the University had maintained a Downtown Center from 1978 to 1987. On April 16, 2009, the UNF Board of Trustees approved the arrangement, after the University's eleven-month review of the Museum's finances, legal obligations, physical plant, and the art collection. Under the terms of the arrangement, UNF became the building's leaseholder and in control of most of MOCA Jacksonville's 800-piece collection. The symbiotic affiliation and partnership continues to serve both the Museum and UNF as MOCA provides a rich stage for arts education activities, including UNF faculty and student exhibits, workshops and lectures, and special art outreach programs in the Jacksonville community.
From the guide to the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville Collection, 1977-2010, (UNF Library Special Collections and University Archives)
