YOUTH CLUB

The MoCA Youth Club educational program was conceived with the purpose of providing active communication in visual arts, as well as general knowledge concerning history and theory of art (both national and global) to high school pupils. The program was created so as to animate high school pupils and their teachers to undertake exploration of the realm of visual culture, via the extensive museum collection (7500 works of art), in a way that yields new knowledge and presents opportunities for the development of creative thinking.

The predominant model of working with high school pupils in our museums is that of guiding the pupils through the permanent museum display or current exhibitions, and providing them with verbal instructions, given by a curator or teacher, as to the content of the display or an exhibition. The groups of pupils are usually rather large, often gathering pupils of different age groups, and it is virtually impossible to address them all in the same time, as well as for them to see every referred object, and even more difficult to choose the information that would be most valuable to the group as a whole. The end effect of this approach is far below the possibilities that the museum collections provide, because there is a disparity between what a large number of high school pupils seek and what the museum has to offer to them, leaving them with the feeling of uneasiness during their stay in the museum.

In contemporary societies, creativity is not only a privilege of artists, but a common tool for problem solving in every filed of human activity.  Thus, the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art provides a thematic repertoire for research in art history and theory, development of critical thinking, and recognition of the place and role of art in the whole of cultural heritage, both national and international.

Contemporary visual production, represented through theme exhibitions, functions as a vessel for adoption and development of visual thought, establishing of a creative relationship between visual arts and education, emancipation of a global creative thinking which is the key to the understanding of contemporary societies and a prerequisite for integration.

MoCA Youth Club is a project in development based on the simultaneity of multiple programs:
The We Are Going to the Museum program is related to the group visits of high school pupils to the museum. This is a year-long program, based on the museum’s exhibition program.
Friday at 2 O’clock is a program created with the aim of providing pupils with a direct contact with artists and works of art.  This is a year-long program, based on the museum’s exhibition program.

The Where to Tonight? program is organized intermittently, within the music programs of the Museum. The aim of this program is to further communication between the Museum and high school pupils.

The Open Door program was established for high school teachers. Its objective is to facilitate communication between the museum and schools.

MoCA Youth Club embraces high school pupils and their teachers and. Club membership provides a number of privileges:
membership card valid for two persons and attendance to all museum programs free of charge
participation in MoCA Youth Club workshops receiving updates on all museum programs via post or electronic mail possibility of communication with the museum via electronic address dkmsub@msub.org.rs
professional guidance through the museum’s permanent display and all its current exhibitions
using museum library fund participation in annual promotions of MoCA Youth Club special discounts in the museum shop

Permanent program contributors:
Olivera Nožinić, fine arts teacher
Olivera Nastić, MoCA contributor

Program authors and executives:
Vesna Milić, senior curator at MoCA and Jelica Radovanović, artist and educational advisor