The Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (MoCA Arlington) occupies the Maury School, a 1910 brick schoolhouse at 3550 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington’s Virginia Square neighborhood. Founded in 1974 as the Arlington Arts Center and renamed in 2021, this nonprofit museum shows new work by artists from Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., in a building where classrooms now hold galleries and working studios.
Inside, the former classrooms make compact galleries suited to focused solo and group shows. Exhibitions rotate several times a year and often include painting, sculpture, installation, and video by emerging and mid-career artists. Upstairs, resident artists rent subsidized studios, so visitors may catch work in progress during open-studio events. The museum also runs art classes, workshops, and summer camps for children and adults, which makes it a popular stop for families and students. The lawn and historic facade face busy Wilson Boulevard.
Visitor Highlights & Practical Info
Admission is free. Galleries generally open Wednesday through Sunday, but hours change between exhibitions, so confirm current times on MoCA Arlington’s website before you go. Weekday afternoons are the quietest. Exhibition openings and open-studio nights draw the biggest crowds and offer the best chance to meet the artists. The Virginia Square–GMU Metro station on the Orange and Silver lines is a short walk away. Street parking is limited. Arlington Central Library and George Mason University’s Arlington campus are nearby, and Clarendon’s restaurants are a few blocks east.
