costs of concerts, exhibitions, maintenance, and salaries at the Centre, but grappled with the Centre’s and the Gallery’s fate for 2000 and beyond. An ad-hoc “Save MOCCA” committee anticipated forthcoming struggles, acknowledged that ultimately MOCCA needed to be its own entity, and began to petition City Council and raise funds for exhibitions.
This early fight for independence proved successful, and by February 1999 the committee produced a petition of 1300 signatures in favor of keeping MOCCA. Throughout the year it raised enough momentum and funds to convince the City that MOCCA was a worthy cause. Its success culminated that September when MOCCA successfully opened a major retrospective exhibition. In a letter to the committee, the City Hall Culture Commissioner wrote: “I cannot stress enough the important role … the ad-hoc committee [has] played in providing a focus that is specific to MOCCA and its future … I encourage you to continue this work.” Another official in the culture division commended MOCCA: “It has forced itself to separate from the [NYPAC and] to define itself. And it has brought people and money. You know, when people commit money, that’s when politicians sit up and take notice” (Ross 1999, 62). Following this effort the ad-hoc committee disbanded, morphing into an Advisory Board, and MOCCA began reporting to both the NYPAC board and the City, ushering in MOCCA’s transition over the next decade into what we have called a “civil society museum.”
MOCCA downtown
In 2005, MOCCA relocated to the Queen Street West Art & Design District in downtown Toronto. In an almost unanimous vote, the City Council funded this move and signed the museum’s 10-year lease on a former textile factory that was renovated to serve as a gallery. Between 1999 and 2004 the MOCCA Advisory Board and the people of Toronto fought hard and successfully raised the museum’s profile and proved its value, not only to the arts and cultural community, but also to the overall cultural landscape of the City of Toronto.
As a line department in the City’s Culture division, the City used MOCCA to realize its plans to revitalize and brand distinct neighborhoods in downtown Toronto. With MOCCA as an anchor, the Queen Street West neighborhood has developed its character as an epicenter for art, design, and creativity in Toronto, Canada, North America, and the world. The relationship is one of mutual benefit.
After ten years in its downtown location, MOCCA continues to grow. Its visibility and presence has attracted important partnerships: in November 2010 the National Gallery of Canada launched a three-year program under which that Ottawa institution will co-organize and co-present exhibitions of art from its collection in partnership with Toronto’s MOCCA.
Following its move downtown, MOCCA’s relationship with the City shifted to more of an arm’s-length status, providing MOCCA with discretion to administer and allocate its budget. MOCCA staff report to the City through the managing director. The City provided operating funds and a number of “in-kind” services for the museum. The museum could do some fund-raising; however, it did not have the liberty to issue its own tax-deductible receipts (the City issued the tax receipts), and at times was restricted in terms of the types of donations that it could receive. Finally, in 2012 MOCCA changed its status once again, becoming an independent not-for- profit institution in order that it could do its own fund-raising and issue its own tax- deductible receipts for donations. This new status is expected to give MOCCA more organizational freedom to grow into a world-class center for contemporary art.
MOCCA’s Advisory Board has therefore become a Governing Board. It has been a driving force in enabling the museum to become a successful growing arm’s-length institution as opposed to a passive line item department as it was in its original incarnation in North York. In 2008, under the stewardship of the managing director, the Board introduced strategic and governance planning exercises (which our firm assisted with) to gear the museum up for its next major change in governance: initially something between an “arm’s length” institution and an independent not-for-profit, which they called a “hybrid model.” Under these circumstances, MOCCA would have more freedom in terms of its fund-raising and revenue generating activities. Its Advisory Board transitioned into a Governing Board, with fiduciary responsibility and more accountability to the public. Through this process, MOCCA was once again evolving to become more independent. The City continued to provide off-site collection storage space, but as of 2012 MOCCA acquired a fully independent status.
As its Board has undergone this change, MOCCA has gone to great lengths to consider what it means to represent, build, and lead a museum. During the Livent days, the Gallery’s Director and Curator did not have to report to a Board. While exhibitions at the Art Gallery of North York spoke to and represented Toronto’s diverse public, it was not a requirement of Livent’s in order for the Gallery to receive funding. The museum’s new status relies heavily on support and buy-in from the public. Consequently, the MOCCA board is considering the museum’s broad pool of stakeholders as potential resources for funding, audience, and overall support. Their presence and participation are essential to the gallery’s operations and survival, whereas before they were passive patrons.
Toronto has been defined as the most diverse municipality on the planet, with the largest number of communities of 20,000 people or more speaking a language other than English. More than half of Toronto’s population was born elsewhere. As the Board prepares to recruit new members and strengthen its leadership, it is addressing the need to include the city’s ethnographically diverse communities, diverse professional backgrounds, and developing adequate, transparent procedures in order to be accountable to the public. The museum’s programs will also need to draw in broader audiences to attract a strong membership.
MOCCA is indeed transforming into a civil society museum, acknowledging that every area of its governance and operations require diverse participation from the public at large. The future of this still-evolving institution is full of challenge, and of hope.
Note
1 1 The Corcoran has subsequently negotiated an agreement to transfer its collections to the ownership of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, while another educational institution is taking over the Art College.
References
Anderson, Gail, ed. 2000. Museum Mission Statements: Building a Distinct Identity. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums.
Anderson, Gail, ed. 2004. Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Carver, John. 1997. Boards that Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Non-profit and Public Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fisher, H. 1995. Welcome to the Board: Your Guide to Effective Participation. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.
Florida, Richard. 2003. The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books.
Lord, Barry, and Gail Dexter Lord. 2009. The Manual of Museum Management, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
Malaro, Marie. 1994. Museum Governance: Mission Ethics Policy. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Ross, V. 1999. “Big City Gallery: What Happens When You Pull the Rug Out from Under an Art-World Success Story?” Canadian Art 16(4): 62.
Simon, Nina. 2010. The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz, CA: Museum 2.0.
Weil, Stephen. 2004. “Rethinking the Museum: An Emerging New Paradigm.” In Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on
