Twenty-four years ago, the Museum of Children’s Art committed to bringing arts education programs to East Bay schools and communities. MOCHA’s presence is felt—in low-income communities; in public and private schools; libraries and at our Oakland based studios and gallery.

Using the power of art as a learning tool, MOCHA collaborates with artists, educators, parents and students. Arts education is a vital part of young peoples social, emotional and cultural development.  Over the years, MOCHA has improved the lives of nearly a million children with hands-on art learning experiences through our school community and museum programming. We have witnessed the transformative impact of art on children’s creative thinking and cognitive development.

As a result of MOCHA’s intimate relationship with the larger East Bay community we have seen first hand the enormous impact and psychic injury that crime has inflicted on innocent young people caught in its collateral crossfire. We recognize a new approach is necessary to deploy our art education resources for purposes of intervention and prevention. Art administered early and often is a vital ingredient required in any vaccine for emotional stability.

Our mission has expanded to deliver on our community’s most recent needs.

As a member MOCHA is concerned about how raising rates of violence are affecting our children. We feel passionately that art plays a critical role in mending communities by generating opportunities to create, share and connect in constructive ways.

MOCHA is a cultural institution uniquely suited for this civic duty because we reach youth at an early age and can harness the power of art to heal and renew their emotional state.  Where there are no words, art can articulate.

There is a revolution going on in art education and again MOCHA is leading the charge!  We will maintain and grow partnerships with local schools and libraries.  Our core value of being in service to children—and providing them with the highest quality- teaching artists—will always come first. Now we feel it is time to take our collaborative museum and outreach programs to a higher level of interaction.

We are reinventing the type of museum we are.  In our effort to newly engage our connection with our community and to produce a dialogue through arts education—MOCHA is becoming an innovative participatory museum seeking to cultivate the intelligence, passion and energy needed for a thriving, diverse society.