Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art

I really enjoyed the Susan Wick rooms. Her work exudes joy, fun, humor, color and creativity. I was visiting for the day so I hope I find her art in Az or DC.

The lack of quantity and quality of art at BMOCA was really disappointing, especially because I love art and had high expectations. It took about 15 minutes to walk thru because it was so empty.

Pretty awesome. I mean, its $ 1. Its small, but they were able to hold two installations relatively comfortably at my last visit (³⁄₂₆). As a facility, it seems to do quite well. One star knocked off because the back staircase almost killed me and I accidentally walked into the administrative offices… sort of interrupts the flow of the person experiencing the art if they’re left looking at an intern suckin down coffee because they took a bad left turn.

Super cool modern small interesting interactive museum. Reminded me of a mini version of the Tanks at the Tate Modern in London. Cute little shop too.

Class, sophistication, creativity and all with a funky flair! This place has what it takes to inspire, provoke and expand your perception of reality. Join as a member to receive exclusive invitations to some of the best events in town.

I rarely write reviews however I was so appalled by the museum staff’s attitude, I had to vent.
Not only did they carelessly discard an item left in their lost and found just days after it was lost, they had a major attitude to boot.
It seems they place their own value on items left and, if the item isn’t perceived to be worth holding on to, like my friends $ 100 wig, they could care less.
This is a partially ironic attitude for people who work in a Contemporary Art Museum.

There was nothing there. Just a few thing set up on pedestals one said «broken camera» and there were some old skis from the 80s leaning against the wall. Looked like someone took some junk from a dumpster and set in on display. Good that i went on a free day.

This is a great space. Very nice historic style building on the Boulder Creek, with very contemporary design finishes on the inside. They have too many ongoing activities to mention in one review. I like the children’s activities for my little one and the free entry during the Farmers Market, it’s always nice to take someone from out of town in while enjoying the market. I have been to well over a 100 events at this museum in the past 7 years, including volunteering numerous occasions, and this is my favorite place to get my art fix in town. David Dadone, the Executive Director has really done a wonderful job creating new and exciting offerings.

Bigger doesn’t always mean better and I think this is a good example. I usually fined wonderfully crafted pieces in here. I also worked on a film project on their second story a few years back and found them to be rather accommodating.

BMOCA is a great spot! They bring in lots of interesting exhibitions and artists and put on wonderful events. I joined their email list before I moved to Boulder and was always wishing was in town to attend events I was hearing about!
The building itself is a work of art, as it mixes the typical white walls of a gallery space with the rustic brick. All of the employees have always been kind and helpful, as well! Location is perfect to pair it with a date at the tea house or a summer afternoon at the farmers market. Its a little bit small, but at only $ 5 ($ 4 for students) its definitely worth checking out!

We came here so my wife could display her artwork for the «Open Wall» benefit. It is a time when the museum opens itself to any artist who can find space on the wall to display their art. There is a silent auction and the artist gets to keep a percentage of the sale.
As I walked around looking at the art I realized that Boulder really is a town full of hippies. Hippies who have no talent. My wife displayed a beautiful water color painting of Jackie O. I saw … how can I explain it? Creations of crap by people who would say «I just make what I feel man» (in my hippie voice). But what it really is, is no talent, no training no skill and no chance at ever being considered art.
I admit I’m not a professional critic but I know what art is, and most, not all but most of what I saw was not art. Just because you are angry or sad and you create dark images does not make you an artist. It might make you strange but not an artist, Sorry. I know, I know, people will say art is what you feel or art is in the eyes of the beholder. Have you ever noticed it’s usually people with no talent that say that.
If you look at art from the past you see real beauty. Not all this dark, angry globs of B.S. I hate to be the one to say this but some of you wanna be artists out there should try gardening.

I was surprised that the Boulder MOCA is not bigger. I think of Boulder being a city chopped full of artist types. So I think there would be a lot of local talent to pull from. I would say the main drawback for this place is the teensy size. Because of this they can only have 1 – 3 exhibitions at a time really. Everyone is nice though and the goods for sale in the front aren’t too shabby.
The pieces I saw were nice. If living in Boulder I would definitely stop by this place. But if you are visiting for the 1^st time there are more impressive feats that you can conquer with your time.

My husband and I were back in Boulder visiting family, and we all decided to go to the BMOCA on their freebie day (during the farmer’s market). None of them really seemed to love the museum, and neither did I… Though I do appreciate the fact that it exists as an outlet for viewing others’ creative expression! Just for that it gets three stars. I think a rating for this place would probably depend on the exhibits showing when you go in the museum. There wasn’t a whole lot of interesting stuff, in my opinion, but I’m sure that sometimes it could be better. The gift shop is pretty neat too, but a lot of the items were out of my price range. Anyway, at least stop by when it’s free to see if you like what’s there, and remember to check it out periodically as the exhibits change. You never know what you might see!

Whenever there is an art gallery or art museum close by I go check it out. I was in Boulder, BMoCA was there, I went. It was a Saturday and it was free admission because of an art grant of some sort — nice. We were prepared to pay $ 5 per person so we left a donation on the way out.
Immediately upon entry we were greeted at the front desk by a friendly young woman. BMoCA is not very big but I thought they made decent use of the space. The biggest main gallery had a disturbing, well executed exhibit by Erika Wanenmacher. The installation was in two or three different rooms and I found it to be as I said, very disturbing but also deeply moving and quite educational. The artist really makes a great effort to pull you into her head and world. I went there Erika, I will never be the same.
The other exhibit was a CU Art Museum Video collection. For a small museum I again found the execution of the exhibition to be pretty right on. Great use of space, audio, rooms were dark enough, quiet enough and some rooms were curtained off, overall really well thought out. Personally, I found all of the video art to be a little flat but still glad I got to witness it.
I took off one star because I expected just a little more from a Contemporary Art Museum in Boulder (I honestly thought it would be better than the one in Fort Collins). I will check it out again though next time I am in the neighborhood.

Boulder? Museum? of Contemporary Art?
Yeah… remember you have educated people in your town.
Did I like it?
Not so much.

I went in on the free market day, and I still felt a bit cheated. BMoCA is teensy. It is even smaller than the Dirt Museum in Boston (not kidding).
The galleries felt a lot more like what you might get walking into a fine art gallery (where one buys art) than a museum where one pays to see it. As either a gallery or a museum the art wasn’t terribly impressive or interesting.
I am told the galleries change pretty frequently, how frequently I don’t know. But $ 5 seems a bit steep to look at a few small rooms when $ 12 gets you into the massive Art Institute of Chicago and other huuuge museums like it.
If you’re in the area on a free day check it out. You might have better luck than I did.

BMoCA is not so much a drink as a catchy name for the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.
Now, I worked as an art security guard for several years. What this means is that I’ve seen a lot of exhibits in my time, some of them good, most of them too experimental, some of them just plain shite.
In any case, the BMoCA usually has a $ 5 entry fee, which is waived on Farmer’s Markets days (Sat and Wed). Nice. Free entry? Time to check it out.
Upon entering you notice the small gift shop to the left and a lame exhibition of clothing to your right. The main room had painted linen with a sort of ultra-​real style but with somewhat surreal themes (i.e. one person painted several times realistically but at a circus?). One of these paintings might be interesting, but there were two artists doing the same thing for 15 paintings makes it eh.
But thankfully for BMoCA the photography upstairs by the likes of David Zimmer saved the exhibit for me. «Ether: A Ten Year Study» was surrealist photographs and light boxes, as well as video constructs of birds with some spacey music in the background. At first I thought it was trying to hard, but as I staid in the exhibition area for awhile, I started to see that this art was more about creating a mood than portraying a message. Well, it worked. My girlfriend even said that she would want the video construction of a bird in her house, and I admit it was pretty futuristic/​cool.
So, way to go David: you saved a bad exhibition from sinking this art museum to 1 or 2 stars. Overall, the space is fairly small… and in all honesty, the art over at CU’s art gallery is better. Guess when your art is going to be critiqued, you try to put it together more coherently?

Leave it up to a reviewer like me to tell you that I didn’t go here for the art, I went for a work holiday party. We can leave it at that if that already gave you thoughts of drunken IT guys and dancing diva engineers who used to once be NYC dancers… Anyway, it actually was a great location for a little event and gathering. There was plenty of parking behind the Tea House next door and there was even a coat check on that cold Winter night.
The appetizers and drinks were in the back part of the room and the tables were set up int the front part of the room, with the buffet table dividing the room into two.
The crazy work dance party was an easy set-​up of pushing back some tables (if I recall correctly), and was enough space for the work circle to be made and for buzzed employees to get in the middle to try out The Worm or Michael Jackson impersonation.
The caterer was hired outside of the museum, which can be good or bad depending on your budget or needs, but I think it was great because it leaves more concentration on the food.
* Star one is for having a work holiday party… Anything I can get free from my work I am going to take full advantage of thank you very much (Sorry Mr. Boss if you are reading this, but you can tell that I am very honest!)
** I feel so posh star two was for a unique and intellectual location
*** Take my fur star three is for the coat check, which made me feel like I was at the ball
**** Dancing in the street star four was for the good sound system, which pumped out the IPod play list like no other that night

BMoCA is a nice place to stop in and check out some art while walking around Pearl Street or the Farmer’s Market. The art is varied from textiles to sculpture, to paintings and photos. They have a nice little black box theatre upstairs that local and university groups use to put on some really top notch theatre and dance performances.
It’s a great place to have a party as well since the wall are already decked out with art. =) Just be sure to check what exhibits are planned for the date you want. It would suck to plan your wedding reception there, to show up on the big day to have an exhibit on War and Society, or something.