Parma Residents Invited To MOCA Cleveland 2014 Spring Exhibitions

MOCA Cleveland's Spring 2014 exhibitions, running now through June 8, feature 22 national and international artists whose work captures, reacts to, reflects on, and contends with mortality, and a new, commissioned body of work by New York-based artist Sara VanDerBeek that references Cleveland’s urban landscape. These upcoming exhibitions connect visitors to established artists from around the globe who have defined contemporary art over the past three decades alongside emerging artists who demonstrate the most current trends. Both exhibitions pursue themes of memory and change through different approaches and subject matter. 

The 2014 exhibition programs are supported in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, and Leadership Circle gifts from the Britton Fund, Margaret Fulton Mueller, Agnes Gund, Scott Mueller, Joanne Cohen and Morris Wheeler, Margaret Cohen and Kevin Rahilly, Doreen and Dick Cahoon, Becky Dunn, Harriet and Victor Goldberg, Donna and Stewart Kohl, and Toby Devan Lewis. All MOCA Cleveland exhibitions and programs are presented with major support from The William Bingham Foundation, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Nesnadny + Schwartz, The Ohio Arts Council and the continuing support of the Museum’s Board of Directors, patrons, and members. 

DIRGE: Reflections on [Life and] Death (Runs through June 8, 2014)

Organized by Megan Lykins Reich, Director of Programs and Associate Curator

The spring season kicks off with an exhibition that uses mortality as its subject. DIRGE features 22 selected artists both living and deceased who work in painting, drawing, sculpture, video, photography, and installation. Spanning the personal to the universal, historic to the present, literal to the symbolic, the exhibition aims to create a substantive space in which we might better understand, even appreciate life, by reflecting on its end. 

In connection with DIRGE, MOCA Cleveland is partnering with many local organizations to generate programs that expand upon the subject matter in significant and progressive ways. Collaborative events are being planned with institutions including The Cleveland Clinic, Hospice of the Western Reserve, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences of Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, among others. 

“Hospice of the Western Reserve is honored to be partnering with MOCA to support this innovative exhibit that shines a light on what has long been a taboo topic in our society,” said Michele Seyranian, the nonprofit agency’s Business Development Officer. By taking a fresh, candid look at the cultural, spiritual and personal experiences that color society’s perceptions, this groundbreaking MOCA exhibition can help dispel many of the myths, and foster a healthy community dialogue about an experience that is inevitable for all of us.”  

 Additional Information

DIRGE: Reflections on [Life and] Death and Sara VanDerBeek will be on view through June 8, 2014. Admission for MOCA Cleveland members and children under 6 years old is free. General admission is $8; seniors 65+, $6; and students with valid ID, $5. MOCA Cleveland’s hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 12 – 5 p.m.; open until 9 p.m. Thursdays; closed Mondays.