2025 MoCCA Arts Festival Programming Brings Together Artists, Experts, and Big Ideas
Additional Featured Artists include Brian Blomerth, Caroline Cash, Julia Gfrörer, Edel Rodriguez & More
The Society of Illustrators is proud to announce a dynamic programming schedule for the 2025 MoCCA Arts Festival, taking place March 15–16, 2025. Programming will be held at the SVA Flatiron Gallery (133 West 21st Street), just steps from the Exhibitor Hall at the Metropolitan Pavilion. Admission to programming events is included with MoCCA Arts Festival admission.
Organized by MoCCA Programming Director Bill Kartalopoulos, this year’s programming features a wide range of discussions reflecting the current state of the art form, the industry and the world. A series of exciting conversations between artists forms the core of this year’s schedule: MoCCA poster artist Linnea Sterte and Aidan Koch will discuss comics and ecology; Michael DeForge and Anders Nilsen will consider fictional world-building as a lens on contemporary life; Brian Blomerth and María Medem will discuss how color and composition can elicit authentic human emotion; Chinese artist Badiucao and Cuban-American artist Edel Rodriguez will discuss comics, protest and exile; French-Canadian artist Boum and contemporary horror cartoonist Julia Gfrörer will delve into their drawings of the invisible; and more. Equally impressive are this year’s moderators, including British comics scholar Paul Gravett, Columbia University Curator for Comics and Cartoons Karen Green, environmental artist Matthew López-Jenson, Comics Beat Editor-in-Chief Heidi MacDonald, New York Times comics reviewer Sam Thielman, art director Alexandra Zsigmond, and others.
This year’s programming also includes thoughtful panel discussions on a variety of topics. “Comics and the Arts” will see Drawing Center Executive Director Laura Hoptman and New York Times art critic Jillian Steinhauer in dialogue with artists who work between the comics page and the gallery wall. Other panels will consider the contemporary comic strip and the city of New York as subject matter. In a very special panel called “Rivers of Ink,” artists Charles Burns, Jaime Hernandez, and Adrian Tomine will discuss their lifelong relationships with drawing. Hernandez will also appear in a special spotlight session conducted by Love and Rockets scholar Marc Sobel. Cartoonist/impresario R. Sikoryak returns with another edition of his “Carousel” series of comics readings, starring Caroline Cash, MoCCA badge artist Olivia Fields, Katie Skelly, and more.
Additionally, MoCCA has once again partnered with our programming sponsor, the SVA Department of Continuing Education, to offer two professional development panels to support aspiring and emerging artists. SVA Comics and Illustration BFA Chair Viktor Koen will lead a discussion on first steps after graduation. A second panel will address the specific mental health challenges artists face, including inconsistent employment, rejection, and the need to preserve a healthy relationship with one’s art.
Each programming event will last one hour, with a half hour break between programming events. Admission to programming is included with MoCCA Arts Festival admission. All seating is available on a first come-first served basis. Tickets are available to purchase online as well as at the door. More information about the Fest can be found here.
An abbreviated programming schedule can be found below, with a full schedule available online at: https://www.moccafest.org/25programming.
SATURDAY SCHEDULE
SPACE ONE
SPACE TWO
12:00 – 1:00pm
New York City: History, Fantasy, and Reality
Frances Jetter, Kay Sohini & Mattie Lubchansky;
moderated by Heidi MacDonald
Dissidents in Exile
Badiucao & Edel Rodriguez;
moderated by Paul Gravett
1:30 – 2:30pm
Comics and the Arts
John Hankiewicz, Aidan Koch, Jillian Steinhauer & Laura Hoptman;
moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos
Uncanny Apparitions
Boum & Julia Gfrörer;
moderated by Sally Madden
3:00 – 4:00pm
Drawing Bodies
Lale Westvind & Chloé Wary;
moderated by Kriota Willberg
Rivers of Ink
Charles Burns, Jaime Hernandez & Adrian Tomine;
moderated by Josh Bayer & Bill Kartalopoulos
4:30 – 5:30pm
Professional Development:
I’ve Graduated, Now What?
Sarula Bao, Nakata “Knack” Whittle, Robyn Chapman; moderated by Viktor Koen
SUNDAY SCHEDULE
SPACE ONE
SPACE TWO
12:00 – 1:00pm
Comic Strips Today
Isabella Bannerman, Maritsa Patrinos, Bianca Xunise and Keith Knight;
moderated by Karen L. Green
Between Two Worlds
Anders Nilsen & Michael DeForge;
moderated by Sam Thielman
1:30 – 2:30pm
Color, Composition, and Emotion
Brian Blomerth & María Medem;
moderated by Alexandra Zsigmond
Jaime Hernandez in the Spotlight
Moderated by Marc Sobel
3:00 – 4:00 PM
Comics and Ecology
Aidan Koch & Linnea Sterte;
moderated by Matthew López-Jensen
MoCCA Presents: R. Sikoryak’s Carousel
R. Sikoryak with Caroline Cash, Bim Eriksson, Olivia Fields, John Vasquez Mejias & Katie Skelly
4:30 – 5:30pm
Professional Development:
How to Be a Mentally Healthy Artist
Katie Brookoff, LCSW, Hyesu Lee, Fran Meneses; moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos