ABOUT MOSCOW CONTEMPORARY

MISSION

Moscow Contemporary connects, supports, and creates community through art and arts education.

VISIT

TBD

LOCATION
Moscow, Idaho
83843

HOURS
TBA

STAFF

Director

Roger Rowley

director@moscowcontemporary.org

Executive Director, Roger Rowley, has an MFA from Visual Studies Workshop, where he worked in the exhibitions program immediately upon arrival, then running their traveling exhibitions services and ultimately becoming exhibition program coordinator.

In 2001, he became curator of exhibitions/collections manager at the Museum of Art/WSU in Pullman, WA, prior to becoming director of the Prichard Art Gallery. During his 16 years at PAG, he raised more than $1 million in programming funds through increased donations, multiple foundation grants, and 7 NEA awards totally $100,000. For his efforts he received the Mayor’s Arts Award, and in 2020, the Governor’s Arts Award.

Assistant Director

Sonja Foard

asstdirector@moscowcontemporary.org

Assistant Director, Sonja Foard, has an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from University of Tennessee, Knoxville in Painting and Printmaking. She has participated in creating multiple alternative and pop-up exhibition spaces around the country. Foard has worked at the gallery under Roger’s direction for more than 3 years, starting shortly after her arrival in Moscow.

She has built out the education programming including tours, after school classes, art lessons and adult workshops, and adapted it to serve a distanced audience during the height of the pandemic. Foard has served on the Moscow Arts Commission since 2019

Education Coordinator

Megan Mack

artsed@moscowcontemporary.org

Education Coordinator, Megan Mack is an MFA graduate from Pratt Institute in 2021. She has worked predominantly as a portrait and commercial photographer for over ten years in both Los Angeles and New York. Currently, she works as a photographer, videographer, and interdisciplinary artist examining social and environmental issues within the more-than-human world. She joined the Moscow Contemporary team in October 2021 and has been building out the education programming including NSAP (A free program for students when school is not in session). Her drive to create community through the arts expands into the programming she facilitates through MosCo.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Board has age and gender diversity with experiences in the nonprofit, and for-profit world. It includes individuals who are artists, business owners, nonprofit leaders, and educators.

Justin Barnes
Amanda Bronowski
Linda Chen
Gary Dorr
Hailey Lewis
Nancy Lyle
Chris Proctor
Stefanie Ramirez

HISTORY

Moscow Contemporary began as an idea for how to preserve  the unique space at 414 S. Main Street as a downtown gallery. What started as a proposal for a public-private partnership with the University of Idaho  evolved into a new standalone nonprofit. 

“The building at the corner of 5th & Main Street has been many things over the decades. This location was first occupied by Shields’ retail storage shed, but he replaced it with the current brick structure in 1891. The building was divided into one sizable space for a general store and two additional storefronts on the south end, which were originally leased to a grocer and a harness maker. Around 1905 Nathaniel Williamson, an extraordinary salesman known for his showmanship, opened his Boston Store in this space. For several years the location played host to Williamson’s “Great Fall Fair,” the precursor of today’s Latah County Fair. Later, following Williamson’s relocation, the building was leased to the Golden Rule general store, which ultimately became the tenth J.C. Penney’s franchise in the country.”