Support GOCA
Art Perseveres.
Art Sustains.
Because of You.
GIVE TO GOCA. You make art possible.
Since 1980, GOCA has provided artists and audiences a place to explore, experience, and connect with our common humanity through art.
All GOCA offerings, including exhibitions, visiting artists, and special events are 100% funded by donation. Your generosity fuels extraordinary experiences with contemporary art that elevate creative voices, expand access, and nurture human connection. We can’t do it without your support.
JOIN THE GOCA DONOR CIRCLE.
Your $1,000 annual gift ensures GOCA’s future. But that’s not all… you will also join a group of committed patrons equally passionate about the limitless power of contemporary art. You will receive exclusive invitations to peek behind the scenes, engage with artists, travel and attend special events, and be recognized as a sustaining force as a leader in our creative sector.
A donation in any amount supports a bright future of bold contemporary art! Every gift, from a few dollars to a multi-year season sponsorship, helps GOCA bring exceptional contemporary art to Colorado Springs and the Mountain West region. We are committed to advancing innovation, contributing to the creative economy by paying artists working wages, and serving as a hub for critical conversations that resonate in our time.
Special Funds
Learn more about special fund initiatives, all in support of UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art’s present and future.
GOCA’s Mission
UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art (GOCA) is on a mission: to spark engaged dialogue about contemporary culture through visual art exhibitions, public programs, and special events that articulate aesthetics, current issues, and diverse perspectives for university and regional community audiences.
GOCA’s Story
The UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art began in 1980 when $400,000 was raised from regional donors to build an art gallery and support spaces dedicated to contemporary art at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, with the first exhibition in 1981. While the gallery originally served as an academic resource for visual arts students – a campus-based laboratory for exhibitions and studies in gallery management - the mission has always included the community at large. Since its founding and especially in the past decade, GOCA has been widely recognized as a vital regional cultural asset.
In January 2018, GOCA closed the longtime campus gallery space, opened a new gallery, and launched a major public sculpture program at the Ent Center for the Arts. This multi-venue arts center is the result of a successful capital campaign heavily reliant on community-based donors and foundations. In the first 18 months, over 500,000 people have experienced GOCA’s Art WithOut Limits public sculpture program, thousands have taken in our gallery exhibitions, and our innovative collaborations have brought folks from youth to retirement age into the Ent Center for the Arts for the very first time.
In 2010, GOCA opened a satellite gallery in a donated space in downtown Colorado Springs. After 13 years, GOCA closed the downtown gallery to focus on a new gallery space at the Ent Center for the Arts, GOCA Project Space. This gallery highlights Colorado artists and experimental projects.
Since 2010, GOCA has raised funds for one hundred percent of program costs and artist fees from community donors, sponsorships, and foundations. GOCA has successfully produced and launched new, experimental, and ambitious artworks despite obstacles of funding, relative geographic isolation, and a population that skews politically and socially conservative in Colorado Springs and surrounding El Paso County. We have been able to do this by consistently producing aesthetically and conceptually rigorous and innovative art, by intentionally engaging folks to participate in our programs, and through a core value of respect for the artists and creatives who work with us. Our vision is international, intergenerational, interdisciplinary, and forward-thinking (even with programs looking back on history through a contemporary lens). Our audiences and donors respond to this vision and support our commitment to provide access to opportunities to interact with artists, curators, critics, and cultural visionaries in a direct, in-depth way. From performances to exhibitions to lectures and beyond, our programs catalyze conversations about contemporary culture that matter to our community.
GOCA has a long history of working collaboratively with artists in support of new ideas, providing critical funding and the conceptual and organizational support necessary to realize ambitious projects. We leverage vital relationships with regional partners and have built our reputation through critical excellence and word-of-mouth from artists and curators. Exhibitions that originated at GOCA and have traveled nationally and internationally include "Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gestures" with MCA Denver, Cannupa Hanska Luger "Every One" (as part of "Lazy Stitch"), Eric Steen "Beers Made by Walking", M12 Studios "The Black Hornet" and "The Black Forest Institute", Floyd D. Tunson "Janus", and King Khan "The Black Power Tarot".
GOCA’s Director, Exhibitions and Events Manager, and staff of 6-10 student employees produce 6-10 interdisciplinary exhibitions and auxiliary programs seasonally. Curated contemporary art exhibitions showcase work by professional regional, national, and international artists.
GOCA invites artists across a broad range of social, cultural, and ideological difference to share their art, stories, and voices in exhibitions, talks, and performances. Our commitment to inclusion has been recognized through the University of Colorado system with multiple Diversity & Inclusive Excellence Fund grants in support of our programs over the past decade.
