LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art today announced an extraordinary $1 million gift from The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation (TCLFF) to support the museum’s nationally-renowned and longest-standing Los Angeles school–based learning initiative, Contemporary Art Start (CAS).

Additionally, MOCA is partnering with TCLFF to expand the reach of the foundation’s innovative Young Sheldon Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Music Grant programs by administering supplemental grants to forty-eight CAS schools.

Initiated in 1985 by MOCA, CAS is an award-winning program with proven results that has provided students and teachers across Los Angeles County with sustained teacher training, classroom curriculums, class visits to MOCA, and family involvement opportunities. CAS currently serves over 167 teachers and 8,350 students on an annual basis and provides a classroom partnership program for 3rd through 12th grade. MOCA was one of six California-based museums to receive the highly competitive 2023 Superintendent's Award for Excellence in Museum Education by the California Association of Museums and the California Department of Education.

“We are deeply grateful for this gift from The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation and this unique opportunity to collaborate with the foundation. With support from this grant, the museum will be able to serve our community of students and teachers in the CAS program, connecting them to the transformative power of the art of our time for years to come,” said Johanna Burton, Maurice Marciano Director of MOCA. “The museum plays an important role as a catalyst for life-changing learning experiences, and this grant allows us to maintain our commitment to providing a consistent level of impact for CAS while offering exciting new STEM and music enhancements to the schools we serve.”

“We are thrilled to partner with MOCA, LA’s leading contemporary art museum, to ensure as many students as possible in Los Angeles’ most underserved neighborhoods have equal access to art, music and STEM education. This new partnership doubles the current reach of TCLFF’s STEM and music grant program which will now be in over 100 LA schools,” said Trisha Cardoso, President & Chief Giving Officer of The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation.

“Through powerful partnerships with teachers, CAS connects a wide range of students to the arts, a subject area whose benefits include deep connection to the human experience as well as tools for navigating an increasingly media-saturated culture,” said Catherine Arias, Director of Education & Visitor Engagement at MOCA. “We’re honored to receive this remarkable gift from The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation, sustaining CAS’s expanded footprint, made possible in 2020 by the Leonard Hill Charitable Trust. The foundation’s robust support, along with our new involvement in the Young Sheldon STEM and Music Grants pass-through initiative, creates exponential impact.”

Funds will substantially support CAS across four fiscal years from 2024 through 2028. Building on the mission of this critical program, MOCA aims to deepen relationships with Southern California schools by helping to administer a portion of TCLFF’s Young Sheldon STEM and Music Grants.