SMoCA

SMoCA brings art, architecture and design to Arizona to challenge expectations. We are not a museum filled with random selections of art from the past; rather we engage the thoughts and concerns of the present. The ideas that interest, trouble and perplex you are the same that artists investigate in exhibitions at the museum.

With last year's opening of SMoCA Lounge--a space designed by Janis Leonard and programmed by our capable staff--the Museum officially announced that it exists as a community space for creativity, imagination, fun and contemplation. The Lounge provides us a venue to present a new film series curated by No Festival Required; twine the words of writers and live music during our new Lit Lounge events; educate about the history of art while eating lunch throughout a Brown Bag Lunch lecture; give money back to the art community by voting at the end of a Good 'N Plenty Artist Grant event; and arm wrestle for a work of art. If all of this activity sounds like too much for one space, visit and you will discover that we offer even more.

Many of the exhibitions this seasons also examine the nature, limitations and possibilities of community. West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977, Architecture + Art: Hector Zamora and Paolo Soleri: Mesa City to Arcosanti all emphasize the unique ways the western landscape and heritage has informed our communities.

And this fall we are adding a new member to our SMoCA community: Emily Stamey, Ph.D. Emily will be our new Associate Curator and her first major exhibition will be presented throughout the summer of 2013. Stamey's exhibition titled Stocked: Contemporary Art from the Grocery Aisles will present some of the most talked about artists in the contemporary art world. If you are not familiar with the artists, however, you will recognize their smart and often humorous riffs on grocery store products.

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