YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY
“I know I wouldn’t be where I am today if Hudson Valley MOCA, and the programs it provides, didn’t exist in Peekskill.”
- Steven Crisostomo, Ph.D. Candidate, UC Irvine & former HVMOCA student (from ages 11 -18)
Alice Mizrachi collaborates with Peekskill High School students to paint a school mural, 2019
We opened in 2004
and first met Steven in 2005 as an 11 year-old student in our after-school program at Hillcrest Elementary in Peekskill. Like many of his classmates, he was from a low income family, was struggling in school and had never been exposed to art. Our weekly art classes, which are cultural investigations inspired by our exhibitions, captured his imagination, and he grew up with us. He remained in our afterschool programs through middle school and became one of our interns as a high school student, learning everything from technical systems management to more about art, history, and our community. Because of the support of Hudson Valley MOCA, Steven acquired real skills that enabled him to land a job right out of high school, as well as a full scholarship to Hunter College.
Currently a Ph.D. graduate student in physics at UC Irvine, Steven recently wrote a letter to us and shared “I attribute my later successes as a student, in large part, to exposure to the arts as a child.”
Artist Kelcy Chase Folsom working with Peekskill High School students, 2019
It is stories like Steven’s that explain why we do what we do. Everything we do in the museum, we bring to the community. Peekskill was struggling in 2004 with only 30% of students attending college. In 2019, 90% go on to college and the town is vibrant. Hudson Valley MOCA’s involvement in the community was instrumental to this extraordinary revitalization.
But there is more work to do, and we can’t do it without you.
As school funded arts curricula becomes scarcer, it becomes more imperative that we step in to fill the gap. This year we brought literacy-enhancing arts enrichment programming to over 2000 pre-K through 12th grade youth in Peekskill and the surrounding area. With your support, we will be able to sustain and expand our programs in Peekskill, and reach other at-risk school districts whose arts education is lacking or absent.
2019 was an incredible year of change and growth. It was our first full year in our new brand as Hudson Valley MOCA; Death is Irrelevant brought in record attendance; and our leadership imagined a new future for the museum that would enhance our look and expand our reach.
Woodside Elementary student works on collaborative class sculpture, 2019
Your early support was vital to the development of our educational programs.
You can help us with a gift towards Education or the Downtown Revitalization Initiative Projects.
$10,000 would help support the creation of one community public art project
$5000 puts art experiences in the hands of 100 under-resourced school children for the semester
$2500 puts art experiences in the hands of 50 under-resourced school children
$1000 covers transportation costs to bring 200 school children to Hudson Valley MOCA
$500 covers the cost of art materials for Saturday Academy, which reached 700 local families in 2019
$250 covers the cost of art materials for one 3-session in-school artist residency