Women on the Rise! is MOCA's innovative, gender-specific outreach program that serves over 200 at-risk, teenage girls from throughout Miami-Dade County. Started by Jillian Hernandez and launched in 2004, the program consists of workshops in contemporary art, art history, and creative writing that present contemporary female artists as positive role models in order to boost participants' self-esteem and critical thinking skills. Workshops feature artists such as Ana Mendieta, Wangechi Mutu, Shirin Neshat and Ellen Gallagher and feature projects in photography, performance art, and experimental collage. (To view some of the girls' works, click on the featured artists' names.) The program also includes field trips to MOCA to view exhibitions that feature women artists. Artwork and writing created by participants are featured in the MOCA'zine, MOCA's teen arts journal.
