MOCA opened with a three-day celebration, launching on time, on budget, and debt-free. In its first year, the museum presented four major exhibitions, hosted over 150 tours, a film festival, and an ambitious slate of public and private programs. Our Joan Lehman Building was named in honor of sculptor Joan Lehman and U.S. Congressman William Lehman, who was instrumental in securing federal funding for the museum’s construction.
MOCA launched its first Creative Arts Summer Program, reinforcing the museum’s dedication to providing accessible, hands-on art education for the community.
Miami-based, Cuban-born artist Pablo Cano premiered The Art of the Play, launching an annual tradition featuring his surreal, found-object marionettes inspired by historic music and drama.
Jack Pierson’s neon Paradise was acquired through the “Buy a Piece of Paradise” campaign, funded by 12 donors. Installed in the outdoor courtyard, the glowing work has become an iconic backdrop for countless gatherings—signaling the museum’s early and ongoing support of Pierson years before his later exhibition in 2002.
MOCA presented Keith Haring’s first American retrospective, tracing his career from late-1970s subway drawings to his later works. The exhibition reframed his pop-raffiti language within art history, social activism, and 1980s New York culture, cementing Haring’s legacy as a bridge between street culture and the museum canon.
