Mass MOCA

In just an eye blink we morphed from the last gasp of winter, two inches of snow on April 27, to a blast of Spring. The social season is heating up. On Wednesday night we attended Nancy Jane Fitzpatrick's Facebook party at Porches. Including a rare glimpse of Porches owner John S. Wadsworth, Jr. Thursday was ultra busy. We started with Mayor Dick Alcombright's spaghetti supper at the V.F.W. We moved on to several openings on Main Street. Ending with Martha Flood's new studio and shop on Eagle Street.

There will be just tons of live music blasting from Mass MoCA this summer from a rock festival with Wilco, to the perennial Woodstocker, Richie Havens, to Carolina Chocolate Drops and a reggae dance party. Oh yes, there will also be some exhibitions. A show by Petah Coyne will open on May 29 and remain on view forever. But not quite for 25 years like Sol Lewitt.

This Carolina Chocolate Drops, comprising Robinson plus banjo-player Rhiannon Giddens and multi-tasker Dom Flemons, bring their toe-tapping versions of traditional tunes to North Adams for a memorable Memorial Day weekend concert on Saturday, May 29, at 8 PM with opener The Duke & The King. NPR's Weekend Edition calls the Carolina Chocolate Drops "the hottest thing to hit the old-time music community in decades."

Roll Over Beethoven. Yes, rock is coming back to Tanglewood this summer. Well, kindah, with Crosby, Stills and Nash on September 1. Mid season jazz pianist Herbia Hancock will appear on August 9.

In its annual collaboration with Jacobs Pillow the 25-year-old Stephen Petronio dance company presented a new work I Drink the Air Before Me at Mass MoCA. The dance set to music by Nico Muhly evoked a storm at sea. It was an evening of turbulence in every sense.

Rock fans in the Berkshires just got a shot in the arm. Wilco, the Chicago band that blew the roof off of Tanglewood two summers ago, will give two performances at Mass MoCA during the Solid Sound Festival from August 13-15. Far out. The weekend of music, art, and interactive events will feature Wilco's only East Coast performance this summer.

The Neue Galerie in New York organized the first American retrospective of the German artist Otto Dix (1891-1969). The exhibition traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. While the New York installation was widely viewed as a mess the exhibition had a profound impact. Many critics and publications list the Dix survey as among the best exhibitions of 2010.

The popular, upscale restaurant, Mezze, is relocating from one Williamstown address to another. The new location at 777 Cold Spring Road was originally Le Jardin and more recently Jae's. The popular restaurant will remain open in its current location until the transition in early June.

Recently performance, multi media artist, Laurie Anderson, premiered Delusion which was comissioned for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She had partly developed the piece during a residence at Mass MoCA. She returned to the Berkshires for two solo performances at the '62 Center of Williams College.

Back in the day the Berkshire Museum, the oldest in the region, collected everything from soup to nuts. The museum's director, Stuart Chase, is challenged to find projects drawn from a vast collection of 30,000 objects. The interactive exhibitions are fun for families and instructive for 13,000 annual visiting students.

Joe Finnegan, a former Wall Street floor trader, who evokes the heart-throb, Don, in TV's Mad Men, moved his family four years ago to Williamstown. He hooked up with boyhood friend Steve Lawson to become President of his Williamstown Film Festival. We talked with Finnegan about gearing up for his first season as General Manager of the prestigious but challenged Williamstown Theatre Festival.

In the dead of winter The Clark Art Institute collaborated with its neighbor The Williamstown Theatre Festival with a reading of the hilarious Yasmina Reza play ART. This summer, when the Clark mounts Picasso Looks at Degas, they will again join forces with a reading of Steve Martin's comedy Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

The 2010 DeCordova Biennial, under new director, Dennis Kois, has parted from its prior annual format. It has also progressed to a mix of master artists like Otto Piene and Paul Laffoley, established artists, William Pope.L and Liz Nofzinger, and the usual blend of emerging artists. In all the museum is displaying 17 artists from all six New England states.

On September 21, 2007, in Federal District Court in Springfield, Judge Michael A. Posner ruled that Mass MoCA had not violated the artist Christoph Buchel according to the 1990 Visual Arts Rights Act. Now a Federal Appelate Court has found that the claim of copyright infringement against the museum has merit and should be heard by a federal jury. Tension mounts as the artist will indeed have his day in court.

Mass MoCA has organized a provocative documentary film series Lie!Cheat! Steal! Fake It! We recently attended the first in the series "American Casino" that explored the sub prime mess that decimated banks and brought down Wall Street. The films are screened on Thursdays once a month through April 29.

Performance artist, musician and composer, Laurie Anderson, has been in residence at Mass MoCA working on Delusion a new work commissioned for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. She will return to the Berkshires performing February 27 at the 62 Center of Williams College.

The best things in life are free. Sortah. On Saturday, February 13 from 11 AM to 8 PM there is no charge to hang out at Mass MoCA. There will be tours of the galleries as well as fun and games. With complimentary cake and ice cream. Whoopie. Afro Cuban Hip Hop drummer and band leader Pedrito Martinez, will keep the dance floor packed starting at 8 PM. It will cost you $15 in advance and $19 the day of the show. Not free but cheap to shake your bootie on a frosty night.

For the first time in 26 years this week North Adams will have a new mayor in Dick Alcombright. After a busy weekend of ceremonies and celebrations he will be rolling up his sleeves and getting to work. In stating that this is "Our City" he pledges that his door will always be open. In a tough economy with many challenges nobody predicts that it will be easy.

Laurie Anderson will be in residence at Mass MoCa to develop a new work "Delusion." On Saturday, January 16, at 4 PM she will discuss the project. Later in the year she will perform at Williams College.

In a pre Holiday meeting Joe Thompson, director of Mass MoCA, greeted staff, volunteers and the media followed by curators presenting a preview of the coming season. Musician and performance artist, Laurie Anderson, will be in residence with a dialogue on January 16. After a dinner break there will be Alt Cafe that night. Time to mark your calendars.

Bazaar Productions, in collaboration with MASS MoCA, will present a work-in-progress showing of The Waypoint, a play that began development during the EarlyStages Program at The Berkshire Fringe in 2008. After a two-week residency with the original ensemble The Waypoint will be performed on Saturday, February 6, at 8 PM in Club B-10 as part of MASS MoCA's Alt Cabaret series.

While on a tight deadline to complete the installation of "Gravity Is a Force to Be Reckoned With" in the vast Building Five at Mass MoCA Inigo Manglano-Ovalle took a break to discuss his work. He will simultaneously show "Juggernaut" at the Williams College Museum of Art. A Williams alumnus class of '83 in 2005 he received the college's Bicentennial Medal.

In article after article since John Barrett III lost a tough Mayor's race in North Adams the Berkshire Eagle has shed crocodile tears over his unanticipated defeat. To say the Eagle blew its coverage is an understatement. Now columnist Alan Chartock wades in on why he loves "Big John" who was "done in" by a "few disgruntled self styled arts types."

In one of the toughest campaigns in the history of North Adams Dick Alcobright succeeded in ousting John Barrett III at 26 years the longest running seated mayor in the Commonwealth. Today he updated transition plans.

While home for the holidays in the Berkshires, Martha Coakley, the front runner for the vacant U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, took time to greet her home town supporters in North Adams. She endorsed incoming Mayor Dick Alcombright, and he was up bright and early to return the favor.