MOAH was gifted with Eglash Collection, a group of contemporary art works gifted to the museum by developer Steven Eglash and his wife, artist
Gisela Colon. The collection includes works by artists Lisa Bartleson,
Brad Howe,
Eric Johnson, Thomas Pathe, Ann Marie Rousseau, Nike Schroeder and Eric Zammitt.
Gisela Colon,
Joshua Dildine,
Guy Dill, Andrew Frieder, Stevie Love, Thomas McGovern, Christopher Russell, David Ryan,
Bradford J. Salamon, Andrew Schoultz. MOAH has also acquired works by street artists from and/or working in Southern California, including Cryptik, David Flores, Hueman, Teddy Kelly, and Aaron "woes" Martin. MOAH's grand opening included exhibitions focused on the Antelope Valley and included a contemporary landscape painting show, an exhibit of artifacts from the Museum's permanent collection, and a solo exhibit by local artist Stevie Love. The headlining show, "Smooth Operations: Substance and Surface in Southern California Art," co-curated by Andi Campognone and art critic/historian Peter Frank examined the use of new and non-traditional materials in the fabrication of art objects, many of which came directly from the aerospace industry. Setting the tone for future exhibitions, "Smooth Operations" concentrated on the postwar years in and around Los Angeles, when experimentation with unorthodox materials and techniques led to the emergence of artistic movements such as “
Finish Fetish” and “
Light and Space.” Among the artists featured in Smooth Operations were
Larry Bell,
DeWain Valentine,
Ronald Davis,
Craig Kauffman,
Judy Chicago,
Roland Reiss,
Norman Zammitt,
Fred Eversley,
VASA, Doug Edge, Terry O’Shea and Jerome Mahoney ==Green initiatives==