Mass MOCA

With the court date in Springfield of Mass MoCA vs the artist Christoph Buchel reported as just a couple of weeks away we took a tour of the installation which remains under wraps, sortah.

In the past two years MCLA Gallery 51 on Main Street in North Adams has presented 19 shows including 150 plus artists. The current show Hometown Hits focuses on local artists.

Now in its second season the Kolok Gallery in North Adams is becoming establshed for its solid programming. The current exhibition explores aspects of representation, fantasy and language.

The bad boy British artist is selling a diamond encursted skull for $100 million in the London gallery White Cube. But compared to great artists like Piero Manzoni and Paris Hilton perhaps Hirst is just a wannabe.

Over the busy Memorial Day weekend the arts were officially launched with overlapping openings all over the Berkshires. We opted to covering the events in North Adams.

There is considerable risk taking as Museum of Fine Arts curator, Cheryl Brutvan, takes on the hot topic of artist responses to war and its atrocities. The exhibit combines classic works in the MFA collection by Goya, Manet and Picasso with a selection of contemporary masters.

With as many as four panels held simultaneously and numerous related events it is possible only to provide glimpses of and speculations about the impact of the seminal weekend long conference. The depth and range of information and resources is overwhelming.

Although it is at times silly fun, The Believers promotes irrational and irrelevant beliefs. Positioning such beliefs as art does not improve the belief's failures to interact with today's complex world.

Mass MoCA announces plans for a 25-year-long installation of wall drawings by the recently deceased, minimalist artist, Sol Lewitt. This project will comprise $8.6 million in a $37 million capital campaign.

While the stalled Christoph Buchel "Training Ground" installation remains in negotiation/ litigation, with no date for resolution in site, Mass MoCA has ironically opened the faith based multi-artist exhibition "The Believers."

Local artist and MCLA professor, Gregory Scheckler, offers a conceptual preview of the Christoph Buchel installation at Mass MoCA which is stalled through controversy and may never be seen by the general public.

There was a lively opening of the new season at the recently refurnished Gallery of the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. Among the guests was Michael Conforti director of the nearby Clark Art Institute.

The MIT List Visual Arts Center has devoted its season to presenting Sensorium in two parts. It may prove to be the most original and provocative exhibition anywhere in the world right now.

James Levine will conduct eleven concerts in an ambitious season, which includes a wealth of opera performances, several distinguished musicians from the Netherlands, and Hesperion XXI.

After months of delays the Movieplex finally opens in the North Adams downtown mall. While convenient and accessible to the region it is hardly the state of the art movie palace promised by Major John Barrett. Still we enjoyed the stunning Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls.

Overcome by ennui at the prospect of coming up with that annual best and worst list.

A documentary shown recently at Mass MoCA fails miserably to bring Lynn Nicholas' book to the screen.

With David Zinn the video installation artist, Denise Marika, designed the set for the American Reportory Theatre production of "Orpheus" last summer. Over a beer and burger she discussed the use of her body as a constant in the work.

After a September delay the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston has opened a new 65,000 square foot home on the edge of the harbor.

A look at the works of Residents at the Contemporary Artists Center from the past year at Gallery 51. An overview of the work.

Throngs turned out to make the rounds of the first ever North Adams Open Studios last weekend. On every level it was an enormous success.

As an encore of the now closed official season of Jacob's Pillow there is an annual collaboration with Mass MoCA. This year Ballet Hispanico was featured presenting a program of short works as well as the suite "Palladium." Caliente.

In addition to leaf peeping visitors to North Adams are invited to attend Open Studios on October 14 through 15 from 11 am through 6 pm. The exhibition "4x4 Artists Invite Artists" will be featured in the Eclipse Mill Gallery.

In this first annual city wide event, many venues will be open with works by local artists.

The current exhibition at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in posh, Lincoln, Mass. is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.