Siu Ming Leung Garber

MOCHA is committed to bringing arts education programs to East Bay schools and communities. MOCHA’s presence is felt—in vulnerable communities, in public and private schools, in libraries, and at our Oakland based museum. Using the power of art as a learning tool, MOCHA collaborates with artists, educators, parents, and students. Arts education is a vital part of young people’s social, emotional, and cultural development. Over the years, MOCHA has enhanced the lives of nearly a million children with hands-on art learning experiences through our school, community, and museum programming. We have witnessed the transformative impact of art on children’s creative thinking, cognitive development, and sense of belonging. As a result of MOCHA’s intimate relationship with the larger East Bay community, we have seen first hand the enormous impact and psychic injury that crime has inflicted on innocent young people caught in its collateral crossfire. We recognize a new approach is necessary to deploy our art education resources for purposes of intervention and prevention. Art administered early and often is a vital ingredient required for emotional stability. Our mission has expanded to deliver on our community’s most recent needs. As a member, MOCHA is concerned about how rising rates of violence are affecting our children. We feel passionately that art plays a critical role in mending communities by generating opportunities to create, share, and connect in constructive ways. MOCHA is a cultural institution uniquely suited for this civic duty because we reach youth at an early age and can harness the power of art to heal and renew their emotional state. Where there are no words, art can articulate. In an effort to engage our connection with our community and to produce a dialogue through arts education, MOCHA is an innovative participatory museum seeking to cultivate the intelligence, passion, and energy needed for a thriving, diverse society.