Contemporary Art as Public Service

Though many struggle to find the purpose of much contemporary art, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art takes its mission as a truly-public, educational facility to heart in its every activity. Run as a public/private partnership under the Scottsdale Cultural Council, SMoCA offers an enormous array of programming to meet the needs of the diverse community it serves in the Valley.

Firstly, the Museum offers free admission every Thursday, and participates in the citywide weekly artwalk, making itself a constantly-available cultural resource, rather than existent only in a silo. Complimentary entry is also offered to attendees of the numerous annual festivals that take place in the adjacent Civic Center plaza. In these instances, SMoCA removes itself from the perceived ivory tower, and places itself on the level of all people with the ability to reach its doorstep.

In addition to free entry, SMoCA offers tours throughout each month directed to seniors and youth, respectively, making sure diverse demographics are able to see and understand the art on display at the museum. Events like this season's poetry and bike-art workshops specifically offer teens the opportunity to engage in artistic practice modeled after and in response to exhibits currently on display. Year-round, the Visions program visits high schools across the Valley to give teens the ability to create multimedia art, with the potential to have it displayed in the museum's student gallery, located inside the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, next door to the museum.

Lastly, SMoCA offers programming diverse in both media and presentation, ensuring that all people can engage and find something valuable in the work they display. Video installations and sound pieces fill one room, while whimsical sculptures and drawings take over another; minimalist paintings and contemporary portraits take the wall in a single line, while looking-glasses peer into the wall in the next room.

While many view art (and especially contemporary art) as superfluous or non-essential, SMoCA emphatically makes the case for the opposite to be true.