MISSION AND GOALS

The MMOMA Education Center on 17 Ermolaevsky Lane was opened in the winter 2017 on the one of the four venues of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. The creation of such a Center has become a logical development of the museum’s activity in the sphere of education and popularization of contemporary art, which allows to consolidate and expand all existing educational projects of the museum. The Center is made with taking into account international experience and modern museum technologies. It widens the diversity of audience experience and gives an opportunity to get new knowledge in the field of contemporary art and related disciplines for all comers, regardless of the previous educational background. The architectural solution was realized by the bureau Masterskaya Be.

MMOMA Education Center aims to become a platform for self-education, creative and social initiatives, academic research and will contribute the integration into the cultural life wide social groups. The exhibition policy of MMOMA, an open library with more than 10 000 publications, the lectures created by MMOMA’s curators for children and teenagers, a series of family art therapy programs will be interesting not only for the professional community, but also for the diverse group of spectators. Moreover, the building is adapted to the needs of people with limited mobility, hard of hearing and vision problems, which will continue the development of inclusive programs as one of the most important specifics of the museum.

An important goal of the center is to support young art by creating a productive environment for the generation and innovative creative initiatives not only in the cultural sphere, but also in the related to the art fields — science, history, philosophy and literature.

EDUCATION CENTER STRUCTURE

MMOMA CAFÉ started to work on the first floor of the Education Center. It’s combined with the MMOMA ART BOOKSHOOP and has specially equipped space for children’s and teenage programs.

The concept of the cafe is based on the trends of modern urban cuisine: a contact between guests and the café team, an open and honest cooking process, as well as using simple and understandable ingredients with maximum disclosure of their potential. The MMOMA CAFÉ menu consists of the traditional dishes and seasonal local products. Furthermore, it has a breakfast menu. The architectural solution and design of the café were made in a collaboration of the MMOMA team, the bureau «Workshop B» and the makers of 16 tons and Swan Lake.

MMOMA LIBRARY on the second floor, in the hall with a fireplace, will present more than 10 thousand publications. Visitors will have access to the books on history and theory of contemporary art, catalogs, scientific works published as a part of the museum’s publishing program and collection of Russian and foreign periodicals specialized on art. The library also presents the MMOMA’s archive and media library, which will allow visitors to get acquainted with various aspects of the museum’s activities and its history.

The museum curatorial team prepared a special exhibition program «The Collection. Vantage Point» for the MMOMA Education Center, which is available to viewers since December 2017. Understanding the language of contemporary art requires knowledge in a number of areas — philosophy, sociology, history, political science, etc. Exhibitions in the MMOMA Education Center will have an analytical nature and help to contextualize works of contemporary art.

In space A on the 3rd floor of the Educational Center are research exhibitions of works from the MMOMA’s collection. These projects are not only as the of the thematic collection displays, but also allow curators to focus on narrower topics and art phenomena.

Space B on the 4th floor is intended for international exhibition projects and the representation of current trends in art theory and practice. The exhibition program of this floor was opened with a large-scale programm «Space for Art», produced in partnership with the Goethe-Institute in Moscow. Independent art spaces from different cities and regions of Germany are invited to Moscow for studying the local context and art problems, as well as to establish intercultural dialogue. The exhibitions and the educational program realized within the framework of the project and united by researching issues of self-organization of the contemporary art sphere. The organizers invite independent German spaces with various forms of organization, funding and program policy to participate in the project. They hope that this experience can be interesting and useful in the local context.

The exhibition program of the Education Center is integrated into all aspects of its activity — visitors will have the opportunity to be acquainted with the special collection of books in the library, participate in reading groups, analyze individual texts and attend special lectures.

The fifth floor will become a central venue of MMOMA Lectures. Updated multifunctional space will allow for multiple events at the same time, organize film screenings, conferences and other events. MMOMA Lectures will include a series of guest lectures with participation of MMOMA partners: Microsoft company, «Seasons» school, «Direct Speech» lectures and invited speakers.

COLLABORATION WITH OTHER INSTITUTIONS

MMOMA Education Center would not be possible without the support of partners and patrons of the museum. In order to strengthen inter-institutional relations the Center launched a series of educational activities aimed at supporting of the Russian contemporary art and its popularization among the citizens in the autumn of 2018.

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art is grateful for the preparation and implementation of the project to PAO Novatek, Gazprombank Private Banking, Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation, Aksenov Family Foundation.

MMOMA also thanks the following institutions that have submitted their publications to the library of the Center: the Russian State Library of Arts, the Russian State Humanitarian University, the State Institute for Art Studies, the Goethe-Institute in Moscow, the Strelka Institute, the Baza Institute, the Institute of Contemporary Art, National Center for Contemporary Art NCCA / ROSIZO, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, V-A-C Foundation, Regina gallery.