The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art has spent more than 50 years championing emerging artists and bold ideas. Now, under the leadership of new artistic director Jill Desmond, the museum is preparing to write its next chapter.
While plans for a new North Boulder home are on the horizon, Desmond is already looking beyond the building itself. She’s thinking about how BMoCA can become a place where more people feel comfortable walking through the doors.
“I’ve felt very welcome here—at the museum but also in the arts community and community at large,” Desmond says.
Her enthusiasm is palpable as she talks about BMoCA’s future. Instead of changing what makes BMoCA special, Desmond aims to build on its strengths while inviting more people through its doors—and into conversations about contemporary art.
Desmond’s first priority has been understanding what has made BMoCA such an important part of the Front Range arts community. Founded by artists more than 50 years ago, the museum has long been known for supporting up-and-coming artists, with many Colorado creatives exhibiting their work there for the first time before going on to broader recognition.
Since stepping into the artistic director role this past May, Desmond has spent her time listening—meeting with artists, cultural leaders and community members—to better understand the museum’s place in Boulder and the opportunities that lie ahead.
Listening before leading is nothing new for Desmond. Prior to joining the institution’s team, she spent nearly two decades at the Denver Art Museum, where she helped launch major exhibitions and oversaw the opening of the Martin Building; she later served as senior director of programs and campus experience at Breckenridge Create. Now, she sees an opportunity to pair that experience with BMoCA’s artist-first mission. “I’m most excited about writing the next chapter,” she says.
Desmond hopes to strengthen relationships with the creatives who have long defined the museum while expanding its role within the broader community. She envisions BMoCA as a place that continues to champion local and regional artists while inviting new voices into the conversation and creating even more opportunities for artists to grow through mentorship, networking and professional development.
If there’s one idea that has shaped Desmond’s career, it’s what she calls the “blue sky period”—the early stage of a project when possibilities are limitless, and creativity isn’t constrained by budgets, floor plans or logistics. “I dream big,” she says. “And when I say big, it’s not always big financially or big in scale—but big in, ‘What can we be?’”
She adopted the “blue sky” philosophy from former colleague Jennifer Pray during her years at the Denver Art Museum, where she learned that letting artists dream first and solve practical challenges later helps projects fall into place. She recalls moving into the museum’s iconic Libeskind building, when its angular walls and unconventional galleries initially seemed difficult to work with. It wasn’t until artists were given the freedom to experiment in the space that its full potential came into focus.
“If you start with all the parameters and restrictions, it kills creativity,” Desmond says. “If you dream it, it’ll fall into place. Sometimes we do have to scale it back, but you get the best idea.”
It’s an approach she’s bringing to BMoCA, where she hopes to create an environment that empowers artists to think boldly while providing the support to realize ideas they might not have been able to pursue elsewhere. Desmond believes that the museum’s role is to exhibit finished work and help make ambitious creative visions possible.
Desmond also wants to ensure BMoCA’s future isn’t confined to its galleries. She envisions a museum that meets people where they are—whether that’s through exhibitions in libraries and community spaces, partnerships with local organizations or unexpected public art experiences that invite passersby to engage.
That philosophy is rooted in lessons she learned while leading Breckenridge Create, where she realized visitors weren’t necessarily traveling to town to visit a gallery. Instead, art found them along bike paths, hiking trails and public spaces, creating spontaneous moments of curiosity and connection.
Just as importantly, Desmond wants to make the museum itself feel more approachable. That could mean interactive installations, artist videos, family-friendly activities or simply encouraging conversation inside the galleries. “They don’t always have to like it,” she says of visitors engaging with contemporary art, “but they feel welcome and an make [their own decisions] on an informed level.”
Visitors can experience Desmond’s vision now. Through September 13, 2026, BMoCA is presenting Tres Voces, Un Corazón, a multigenerational exhibition featuring a family of artists: Tony Ortega, his wife, Silvia Montero, and son, Cipriano Ortega. The museum’s next exhibition, The Gravity of Light, opens September 23 and explores the many ways artists use light as a creative medium. Summer programming also includes several hands-on workshops and an art market on August 22.
While BMoCA’s move to North Boulder is still a few years away, Desmond sees the time leading up to it as an opportunity to invite patrons into spaces where they can feel connected and inspired.
”Whatever situation we’re in, [arts helps us] step into a world that maybe frees us to feel those very basic but important feelings of belonging and connection and beauty and joy,” she says. “And then you step back into your life, and you bring a bit of that with you and apply it to things. It can be a space of healing.”
