Previous Exhibitions

Visual Art Students from Bayside, Green Run Collegiate and Tallwood High Schools explored the current MOCA exhibition surrounding themes of water conservation. They then travelled to The Brock Center in Virginia Beach. Lynnhaven River Now and The Virginia Aquarium presented in-depth overviews of the condition and status of our local waters. They also learned about the decline of the oyster population and how it directly affects the natural habitat and ecosystems. 

The students created over 150 ceramic oyster shells and mounted them on gradient blue wooden planks.  The oyster shells are arranged aesthetically to show the growth of oysters needed for the survival of the local water’s habitats.  After studying ‘The Obliteration Room’ by Yayoi Kusama, where a space is changed interactively by the audience, students were inspired to create change within our space.  An oyster shell cage is located on the table within the space filled with small plastic bag pieces. MOCA visitors are encouraged, through knowledgeable facts listed on the wall learned from our visit to the Brock Center, to consider their environmental interactions, and to make a promise to benefit our local waters.  This may be recycling, not using balloons, limiting fertilizers, participating in local clean-ups, etc.  These promises can be written on the plastic bag pieces and adhered to the wall amongst the ceramic oyster shells.  The goal of the project is that these promises will fill the wall as symbol of the tragedies of water pollution but then in turn create awareness through personal promises for change.

"The Promise" is the students' response to what they learned.