Qualla: Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rachel Hughes, CC BY-SA 4.0. A.B. "Alec" Jackson chaired the art department at Virginia State College in Norfolk, the historically Black college that would become Norfolk State University. In 1962 he applied to join the Virginia Beach Art Association so he could enter the annual Boardwalk Art Show. The association quietly refused him because he was Black. When the issue became public, the membership voted on his admission. Fewer than a quarter of them bothered to vote. The 1962 show went on without Jackson. In 1963 he was admitted just as quietly as he had been rejected. His oil painting Veronica's Veil won an honorable mention that year and Best in Show in 1966. In 1968 he was exhibiting at the Smithsonian. The art association he had been turned away from is now the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, and in April 2026 it moved to a new building.

Image: Rachel Hughes | CC BY-SA 4.0

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art: From Art Sale to Institution

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rachel Hughes, CC BY-SA 4.0. It started in 1952 with an informal art sale to benefit a local artist. The participating artists organized, called themselves the Virginia Beach Art Association, and by 1957 had a hundred members. The Boardwalk Art Show, founded in 1956, drew crowds and money. By 1962 the VBAA h...

Image: Rachel Hughes | CC BY-SA 4.0

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art: The Buildings

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit This image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:, Public domain. In 1971 the VBAA merged with the Virginia Beach Museum of Art to form the Virginia Beach Arts Center, operating out of a surplus World War II temporary building at Arctic Avenue and 18th Street. In 1989 the institution opened its first purpose-built home at 2200 Parks Avenue, a 3...

Image: This image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file: | Public domain

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art: The Exhibitions

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rachel Hughes, CC BY-SA 4.0. Virginia MOCA does not collect. It exhibits. The exhibition program over the last decade reads like a tour of contemporary American art's preoccupations. Courtney Mattison's Sea Change in 2016 filled a gallery with large-scale ceramic coral, mourning what climate change is doing ...

Image: Rachel Hughes | CC BY-SA 4.0

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art: Moving Inland

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rachel Hughes, CC BY-SA 4.0. In July 2023 Virginia MOCA announced it would move. The new home is on the Virginia Beach campus of Virginia Wesleyan University, several miles inland from the oceanfront. Ground was broken in August 2024 and the building opened in April 2026. The new building will increase progr...

Image: Rachel Hughes | CC BY-SA 4.0

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art: Outreach

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rachel Hughes, CC BY-SA 4.0. Between exhibitions, the museum has long run an outreach program for Hampton Roads schools, sending props, costumes, and lesson plans tied to the Virginia Standards of Learning into elementary classrooms. Students who participated received guest passes that let them bring five fr...

Image: Rachel Hughes | CC BY-SA 4.0