NoCa MoCA brings community art at a small but mighty scale

Claire Ogden The North Cambridge Museum of Contemporary Art is open 24 hours a day on Dudley Street.

A new museum has arrived on the scene: The North Cambridge Museum of Contemporary Art, NoCa MoCA, shining a small but powerful spotlight on local creativity.

This wonderful cabinet of curiosities opened in June. It’s the passion project of founder Deanna Skow and her family. Her son and his uncle built the structure.

The space operates similarly to the Little Free Libraries of local abundance; visitors can take and leave art. The project is also reminiscent of other small and scrappy art spaces that have done a lot with a little over the past few years, such as the bite-sized museum at Martha Friend’s house in Somerville or the 25/8 artspace in Cambridge’s Harvard Square.

NoCa MoCA has been closed for taking and leaving art over the past week due to holding its first curated exhibition. To help promote the artists’ Cambridge Open Studios showcase, Skow’s work was on view with photographs of Rebecca Scott’s jewelry and sea glass art by Vikki Law of the Etsy shop EveryLilThingIsMagic. After open studios this weekend, the lock is removed and the space “reopens” to the public.

Deanna Skow A Deanna Skow spotlight piece.

Skow’s contributions are from her “spotlight” series, a delightful group of hand-embroidered pieces in which a stripe of color cuts through the composition. This technique isn’t just eye-catching; it’s a huge time saver for a notoriously time-consuming art form. Skow’s piece in NoCA MoCA shows a ray of moonlight beaming into a woman’s colorful, art-filled room. (Another piece from her spotlight series is on view at the Cambridge Art Association’s small art works show through Nov. 13.)

In a calendar year that’s held horrors seemingly nonstop, NoCa MoCA is a reminder of how even small collaborative efforts can bring great joy and impact.

North Cambridge Museum of Contemporary Art, 63 Dudley St., Cambridge. Free.