Advertisement

Art & Design Culture

Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto to reopen on July 16

alt="Artist Carlos Bunga's installation Occupy on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto in 2020"

The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA) is reopening to the public on July 16.

The gallery is planning a free “community opening” for four days from July 9-12 for the arts community, members, donors and frontline workers. 

Like the Art Gallery of Ontario, Aga Khan Museum, the Gardiner Museum and other galleries and museums that have reopened since Toronto entered stage two of Ontario’s reopening plan, the Sterling Road space now has a fresh set of social distancing rules and protocols.

Tickets will be free to members and students under 18, but can be be reserved in advance for timed visits. Admission for adults is $10 and for seniors is $5. 

There are also new hours of operation: 11 am-6 pm on Thursday to Saturday and 11 am-9 pm on Friday. The first hour of each day will be reserved for seniors and those at greater health risk. 

Masks are mandatory, like in all indoor spaces in Toronto, and the museum will operate at limited capacity. MOCA worked with local design company Whitman Emorson to create wayfinding graphics and distancing guidelines to keep the space free of crowds. 

The reopening exhibitions at the hulking Sterling space are the site-specific works that closed when the province implemented lockdown measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Works by Carlos Bunga, Shelagh Keeley, Megan Rooney and Sarah Sze are being extended into the summer. Digital content running on the gallery’s online platform Shift Key will continue. It features lectures, virtual tours and moving-image art. 

“A major step in this journey is reopening MOCA as a safe and inspiring environment where we can once again come together, at a social distance, to engage, discuss and appreciate the importance that art plays in all our lives,” says new executive director Kathleen Bartels, who started in April after the museum was forced to close. 

The Forno Cultural café will open later in July, while the Art Metropole project shop Clouds & Horizon remains closed. 

@trapunski

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted