Mass MOCA

There was risk taking and expensive infrastructure development, last year, when Joe Thompson, director of Mass MoCA, launched Wilco's Solid Sound Festival. Much of the start up costs will be absorbed with a commitment for the the rock band to return over the next few years. We spoke with Thompson about the impact of the event on the museum and Northern Berkshire County.

This weekend the Wilco Solid Sound Festival will bring upwards of 6,000 rock fans to Mass MoCA. In addition to music this young audience will enjoy a massive exposure to contemporary art. It is just the kind of demographic that promises synergy and future audiences for other North Adams/ Williamstown arts organizations including the Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art and Williamstown Theatre Festival. It takes strategy, marketing and PR to promote visiting Northern Berkshire County as more than just a day trip.

In 1950, as a little shaver, Mom took me to the original Broadway production of the then five time Tony winning musical Guys and Dolls. Now, decades later, be still dear heart, the production at Barrington Stage evokes a thrilling rush of childhood memories. I was enchanted then and just as ecstatic now. This is the smash hit and sure sell out that launches a fabulous new Berkshire season.

This summer Arrowhead, the Pittsfield historic site and former home of Herman Melville is presenting its first ever special exhibition of contemporary art "Reflections on Melville." Inspired by the collaboration of Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne this is a project by the painter Arthur Yanoff and the photographer Kay Canavino. A second part of the project will be on view starting June 24 at the Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams.

In 1999 the African artist, El Anatsui, found a bag of foil wrappers from the tops of liquor bottles. They came from a factory near his studio. In the studio he experimented and first showed the works he produced with the recycled material in 2002. Since then he has become an international art star and now employs up to thirty assistants. Three large works are on view at the Clark Art Institute through October. Having written about the work over the past few years it was insightful to meet with the artist and discuss his unique practice.

Asked about the attempt of former Brandeis president, Jehuda Reinharz, to close the Rose Art Museum and sell its renowned collection, the museum's former director, Carl Belz, responds "blah, blah, blah." In this final installment of a dialogue he speaks in greater depth of the contributions of former curator, Susan Stoops, now with the Worcester Art Museum, and the artist/ preparator, Roger Kizik.

In a speech during the Creative Communities Exchange at Mass MoCA on May 20, Rocco Landesmann, head of the NEA discussed a new program. "The notion of “artist-citizens,” is what led me to propose $5 million of new funding at the NEA called “Our Town.” It’s called “Our Town,” frankly, because that’s a play, I am a theater guy, and getting to name things is pretty much the only prerogative of being chairman."

Last February NEA head, Rocco Landesmann, dropped a bomb when he applied the need for Darwin's concepts of Survival of the Fittest for the over expanded and under financed theatre community in the face of diminished audiences. During remarks at a lunch that concluded a conference at Mass MoCA he thanked its director, Joe Thompson, for publicly supporting his controversial but insightful position. It provided a lively bookend to the Creative Communities Exchange sponsored by Berkshire Creative and NEFA.

Artists and arts administrators from all over New England gathered at Mass MoCA for Creative Community Exchange. During breakfast the attendees were greeted by the organizers, Rebecca Blunk, director of New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), and Helena Fruscio, the director of Berkshire Creative.

On Saturday, July 16, at 8 PM Buke and Gass will bring their unique blend of hybrid instrumentation, solid songwriting, dazzling effects and unique harmony to MASS MoCA's Courtyard Cafe.

Berkshire Creative of Berkshire County, MA, and the New England Foundation for the Arts of Boston, MA, will host the Creative Communities Exchange, a major regional event highlighting successful creative economy work on May 19 and 20, 2011, at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA.

The Hunter Center at Mass MoCA was packed for another of the ongoing collaborations with Jacob’s Pillow featuring the Cuban folkloric music and dance group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. If it takes a village a Northern Berkshires audience bonded with the traditions of rural Cuba that span centuries reaching back beyond slavery to origins in Africa.

A crew of high school and college students, and artists created colorful, ersatz Sol LeWitt crossing walks in front of Mass MoCA. Through the summer the organization Art About Town plans to create a series of original designs for the 24 North Adams cross walks. The painting days will be coordinated with summer events.

Several months ago Williams College Art Museum announced its director, Lisa Corrin, will resign as of June. Today we learned that deputy director, John R. Stomberg, at the museum for the past nine years, is also leaving. As of August he takes over as director of the Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art. Come the fall semester it begs the question of who will be in charge at Williams in a transition that may take at least a year.

The summer season at Mass MoCA launches with a concert by Rosanne cash on May 28. Not long after, June 24 to 26, North Adams will be transformed into a tent city ersatz Woodstock for the Wilco Solid Sound Festival. There's also lots to see and enjoy in the galleries of North America's largest contemporary art museum.

The previously announced Solid Ground tent site has been enhanced since its initial announcement. The nearby site, offered by MASS MoCA in partnership with the city of North Adams, will include a food service tent with late night hours, pay-per-use showers and simple recreational gear for kids (basketballs, etc.) plus porta-potties and drinking water.

Ella Baff, the artistic director of Jacob's Pillow, described meeting the President and First Lady during an award ceremony at the White House as a "peak experience." She discussed travel to Cuba where she covered 30 companies in five days. This summer Mark Morris and his company will open the season for Tanglewood and close it for The Pillow.

This spring, Jacob’s Pillow Dance and MASS MoCA come together once again to present acclaimed Afro-Cuban folkloric music and dance group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. The rumba celebration will occur at Mass MoCA April 30 and May 1.

The Berlin based artist, Katharina Grosse, has created an enormous, psychedelic, arctic landscape, One Floor Up More Highly. It will remain on view in the vast Building Five of Mass MoCA in North Adams, Mass. through October. While spectacular to look at we wonder what it's all about.

In this final installment of their dialogue Murray and Giuliano discuss cutting edge theatre which is a mainstay of America Repertory Theatre in Cambridge. And why there is nothing like that in the Berkshires. Murray defines an approach as providing information to readers to help in making informed choices. With so much being offered this summer it is less about competition and more about a critical mass of superb theatre.

The first annual Berkshire student art exhibition was held last night at Mass MoCA. It was a fun event with awards and cash prizes followed by snacks and live music. The exhibition moved to the Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams from March 12 to 27. There will be a panel discussion and reception at the Eclipse Mill Gallery on March 19.

Artist Nari Ward will create a massive new exhibition comprising several interconnected works and encompassing an entire floor of MASS MoCA. Visitors can experience the new show, titled Sub Mirage Lignum, as both a large-scale environment and as a series of smaller yet connected spaces. Ward's dramatic sculptural installations are composed of material systematically collected from the neighborhoods where he lives and works or is personally connected to

In what promises to be one of the most diverse lineups on this year’s festival circuit, the Chicago rock band Wilco, who headline Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25, will be joined by iconic American singer Levon Helm and his band, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, soul singer Syl Johnson, jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas, alternative country twosome The Handsome Family and more.

During its initial seasons the 100-year-old former vaudeville house, the Colonial Theatre, renovated at a cost of some $23 million, seemed more like a white elephant than a tangible asset. Coming into its first season in a merger with the Berkshire Theatre Festival is proving to be a game changer for theatre and the performing arts in the Berkshires. Artistic director, Kate Maguire, is leading with an ace by headlining Randy Harrison in the rock musical Tommy. See me, feel me, touch me.

Jenny Gersten worked under Michael Ritchie as associate producer of the Williamstown Theatre Festival from 1996 to 2004. We discussed plans and ambitions for her first season as artistic director. As a producer she does not direct. She describes administration, budgets and marketing as her "comfort zone" while conveying concerns about the artistic challenges. We discussed welcoming the Gersten era of one of America's great theatre companies.