Museum of Children's Art

Founded in 1988, MOCHA is an Oakland-based organization seeking to uplift and support our youth and families, through the arts, focusing on literacy, healing, and community empowerment. 

With a racial equity and social justice lens, our mission is to use the arts as a vehicle to advocate for self-expression, culture and community-building, and the centering of youth voices. We achieve this through hands-on experiential arts education for Bay Area children, youth and their families, arts integrated Professional Development and curriculum for educators. MOCHA annually serves 35,000 (90% BIPOC) Bay Area children in four core program areas: 

•    School Programs, through which professional teaching artists lead sequential (rigorous) art lessons in classrooms and after school programs; and professional development to teachers;

•    Museum Programs include exhibits, open studios, field trips, art parties, art camps and family workshops in our downtown Oakland space; 

•    Community Programs bring interactive art making and family engagement to libraries, recreation centers, festivals, schools, and more;

•    Creative Youth Development and Leadership, collaborating with local high schools to offer opportunities for teens and young adults to be self-empowered community leaders; and 

•    Art IS Healing/Expressive Arts: non-clinical healing practices; primarily utilizing SEL practices, the Community Reliance Model (CRM), and most recently our Artivism of Environmental Healing outdoor programming and camps.