Knowledge from Our Ancestors
This exhibition will feature MOCHA Teaching Artist alumni Joaquin Newman and Founding MOCHA Teaching Artist, Kaya Fortune. Joaquin is an artist, activist, and art instructor, who works at Ashland Youth Center. Kaya has been working as a Teaching Artist at MOCHA for more than 30 years. His current position at MOCHA is Director of Curation and Culture Keeping. Together, they have inspired children in the Bay Area for more than 25 years and are mentors for countless young artists.
Reception: September 26, 2024 | 4:00pm to 7:00pm
Exhibition: September 6 - October 31, 2024
Location: 1221 Broadway LL-49 Oakland, CA 94612
(Lower Level of Oakland City Center)
About the Artists:
Joaquin Alejandro Newman currently lives and paints in his hometown, Oakland, CA. The son of an artist mother and a scientist father, Joaquin’s heritage of Yaqui, Mexican, and European culture has fueled his creativity. Joaquin has created multiple public artworks in the Bay Area, including commissioned public art for the City of Oakland, murals at the Fox Courts Apartments in Uptown Oakland, and public art creations for the Alameda County Arts Commission, created with collaborator Eduardo Pineda. (Forrealism)
Kara “Kaya” Fortune, he/him, born in Oakland, California and raised in Compton, California. He has been working as a Teaching Artist at MOCHA for more than 30 years. His current position at MOCHA is Director of Curation and Culture Keeping. Fortune is a visual artist whose art represents African-American history, music, and visual arts as well as spiritual and social concepts. John Outterbridge was one of Fortune's primary artist inspirations as a young artist. Outterbridge's mixed media and found object works helped create a style called Assemblage.
For more information, contact Director of Curation: Kaya Fortune (kaya@mocha.org)
Past Exhibitions
In the Spirit of Creativity
March 21 - April 20, 2024
MOCHA provides a space for students to experience their art in an exhibition at the Museum. We want our students to see themselves represented through their art, giving them confidence and pride in their expression. MOCHA sponsored an exhibition for our Department of Education (DOE) schools, which include Laurel Elementary School, OAK Academy and Bridges Academy. Madison Park Academy Primary was an additional in-school program represented in the exhibit. Teaching Artists will exhibit their students' work from grades TK thru 5th Grade.
Community Futures School
May 21 - July 11, 2024
MOCHA's Community Futures School (CFS) program uses Afrofuturism, arts integration, and futures literacy as part of a community-building toolkit to imagine and to implement their communities and their world. CFS Interns from MetWest and Castlemont High Schools created future forecasting projects including: Futuristic Portraits, Dioramas, Spirit Bowl Project, Scanning and Prototypes. In these projects, students present ideas about how they want to see the future with methods to solve social justice issues.