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Read the press release here.

MoCADA Planning Move to BAM South Building

By Janet Upadhye | May 15, 2015 4:05pm | Updated on May 18, 2015 8:55am
 Renderings of the site show a tower that will rival the nearby Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower in height.
Renderings of the site show a tower that will rival the nearby Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower in height.
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Grain Collective

FORT GREENE — The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) is planning a move to the sprawling BAM South development in 2018, sources said.

The new location is not "signed, sealed and delivered," but the museum is in the final stages of securing space in the 32-story tower currently under construction at 286 Ashland Place, a source said.

BAM South, which sits across the street from the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), will also house the arts organization 651 Arts, BAM movie theaters and archives, and a Brooklyn Public Library branch. They will be joined by 300 apartments, a 20,000-square-foot public plaza and retail space included in the development.

MoCADA — located in a 1,500-square-foot space in Fort Greene since 2006 and founded in a Bed-Stuy brownstone in 1999 — is in the process of raising $11 million to move into BAM South. The new space will be "six times the size of the current location," director James E. Bartlett told Brooklyn Magazine.

"It will offer a lot more new opportunities, programing wise and exhibition wise," Bartlett said in an interview with the magazine. "We’ll have multiple gallery spaces so we’ll be able to show multiple exhibitions at once."

Ground was recently broken on the BAM South building bordered by Ashland Place, Flatbush Avenue and Lafayette Avenue. The building is being developed by Two Trees Management and designed by Ten Arquitectos.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2016.

MoCADA, which was founded by City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, is currently located at 80 Hanson Pl. and celebrated its first annual gala event Thursday night by honoring artist Mickalene Thomas, producer Tonya Lewis Lee and director Spike Lee.

Guests included actress Rosario Dawson and Jesse Williams of "The Wire."