Mass MOCA

It seems like a win win. Bright Ideas Brewing offers uniqely crafted beer, ale and root beer in a high concept industrial space on the Mass MoCA campus. On every level from eccnetric hours, to noise levels and a flub on food it's time to rethink the business plan.

The enormously sucessful first Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival in Adams, Mass. was a midwinter brain storm of a group of local artists and activists. With this event they aspired to put Adams on the map as a community for artists and unbridled imagination. Now their ambition has been given a serendipitous boost. The Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has announced that her latest venture “Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” takes place on Mt. Greylock. The Adams festival was staged in the shadow of the tallest peak in Massachusetts where wizards and faeries abound.

Finger pointing. The blame game. Vacant since 2008 St. Francis of Assisi fell into disrepair. Once condemned as a hazard razed to the concern and shame of a city once so proud of faith that it was known as Steeple Town. Now minus one.

There have been several incarnations of restaurants at 26 Marshall Street opposite the North Adams campus of MASS MoCA. On a Saturday night four foodies visited the recently launched Grazie Italian Ristorante. There were mistakes but overall we plan to return to an affordable Northern Berkshire dining option.

In the contemporary art world bigger is better. Presiding over the complex ever more decadent global art world is mega dealer Larry Gagosian. As king of the heap he makes no apology for catering to the whims and vulgarian taste of one-percenters. The benefit to the general public is that they can enjoy his museum-level gallery exhibitions free of charge. Critics may debate the quality of the work on display but their opinions have long since been marginalized by those who write the checks. De gustibus non est disputandum.

African American artist, Nick Cave, creates ritual, fetish costumes Sound Suits which transform and vitalize issues of gender, identity and race. With curator Denise Markonish he discussed an installation that will open at Mass MoCA on October 15 in the vast Building Five.

Bob Dylan—with special guest Mavis Staples—will perform at Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Music Shed on Saturday, July 2. This is Dylan’s third appearance at the Western Massachusetts music festival, having performed there in the 1991 season and again in 1997.

On Saturday night The Log was packed with Williams College students who seemed oblivious to the sixth annual Billstock Festival. Under the direction of organizer Michael Williams the event was masterful in its understated lack of promotion. We hunkered down for a fun evening including a compelling Bowie tribute by the trio, Rebel Rebel, a set of plaintive love songs by Lucy Davis, and a kick-ass rock set by the legendary Jane and Jeff.

The exhibit at Ferrin Contemporary features work by contemporary artists whose pieces imitate, replicate, or honor inventive repairs of the past. Reanimate, Repair, Mend and Meld examines the current interest in materially related forms and graphic material by leading artists who exploit and explore surrounding issues. The show was originally presented as a special exhibition at the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair 2016.

This summer we're going to make the Berkshires great again. It's going to be just terrific. The tourists and money are going to be pouring in. It's going to be incredible.

Highlights of Jacob's Pillow Festival 2016 include a world premiere engagement created by tap dance powerhouses Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Derick K. Grant, and Jason Samuels Smith; former New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan and choreographer Brian Brooks in an evening of new duets and solos, accompanied by eminent string quartet Brooklyn Rider; rare U.S. appearances by France-based Compagnie Hervé KOUBI and Korea-based contemporary ensemble Bereishit Dance Company; the explosive Che Malambo of Argentina; and the return of the beloved Seattle-based company Pacific Northwest Ballet.

MASS MoCA has many highlights in its schedule for exhibitions and performances. Start to mark our calendars particularly for the June 11 exclusive performance of The National which is sure to sell out in a flash.

The National will be in North Adams on Saturday, June 11, at 8pm, in its only Northeast headline show in all of 2016. The concert benefits MASS MoCA and Hawthorne Valley Association, in Ghent, New York. The Ohio-raised, Brooklyn-based band, which consists of vocalist Matt Berninger, plus two pairs of brothers: Aaron Dessner (guitar, bass, piano) and Bryce Dessner (guitar), and Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums), have landed on every “best of” list in print.

Tom Krens joined the Guggenheim Foundation in 1988 when museums were attempting to transform to business models. Now, for North Adams he is developing Global Contemporary Art Museum. In a new paradigm it is being privately funded as a for profit institution. With reverse momentum he is establishing a business on the model of a fine arts museum.

For seven years former Guggenheim Foundation director, Tom Krens, made grueling monthly trips to China. He declines to discuss how he was "beaten down" in negotiations with the Chinese. He has opted to develop two museum level projects closer to home. Krens, a Williams alumnus and former director of its museum, initiated what is now Mass MoCA. He left decades ago but has maintained a residence in Williamstown.

Using a satellite image Tom Krens commented on a six mile line connecting North Adams and Williamstown. It was a part of an engaging power point presentation to develop a cultural corridor connecting world class resources including a new for profit museum and one in North Adams featuring model railroads and maquettes by renowned architects. Former governors Dukakis and Weld attended the presentation.

Hung out to dry, nailed to the cross of rock 'n' roll, Lou Reed dies to save us from ourselves.

Non-stop bluegrass related music will take over North Adams Massachusetts this upcoming weekend. The Fresh Grass 2015 version invades the Berkshires for what should be a wonderful music oriented weekend.

While director of the Williams College Museum of Art Tom Krens initiated plans for Mass MoCA. When he left for a 20 year career at the Guggenheim Museum in New York that project moved forward under Joe Thompson. Now Krens, a Williams graduate and Williamstown home owner, is proposing to create a for profit museum on leased land fronting the high traffic corridor between MoCA, Williams College and the newly expanded and renovated Clark Art Institute.

After one season the Rudd Museum of Art in North Adams has been renamed with a new mandate as Berkshire Artist Museum. It recently reopened with a Rudd installation Iceberg in the nave and That '70s show as phase one of Then and Now which will be complete later in the season.

Wilco and thirty other bands invade Mass MoCA this weekend

During the Pluralism of the 1980s the Italian born artist Francesco Clemente was a part of the neo expressionist movement. Having recently reinvented himself the artist who lives in New York and India had a series of glitzy decoratve tents fabricated by artisans. The artist has painted the interiors with provocative, fluid, naive narratives. This imajor installtion in Mass MoCA's vast Building Five has been paired with the cartoon inspired, theatrical scaled paintings of the populist artist./ musician conceptualist Jim Shaw. The work is obviously fun and accessible but skates on thin ice.

Jeff and Jane operate Hudson' Antiques in Mass MoCA. A few years ago they moved into a loft down the hall from us. They flipped it and move to Billtown, Jane and I go way back. Covered a lot of turf together over the years.

Because of the activity of the 19th century collector William Sturgis Bigelow the Museum of Fine Arts has some 30,000 Japanese prints. He donated 80% of these treasures. Through August 8 the MFA is showing 230 works by the Japanese master Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). The centerpiece is his iconic color woodblock print “Under the Wave off Kanagawa,” “a.k.a. “The Great Wave.” It is from "Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji" which the artist produced while in his 70s. He later added ten more because of the success of the series.

Now in his final weeks as director of the Clark Art Institute Michael Conforti hosted a media event promoting a blockbuster season for Northern Berkshire County. There were presentations by Joe Thompson for Mass MoCA, Tina Olsen for the Williams College Museum of Art, and Mandy Greenfield for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Notably absent from the media event were North Adams based arts presenters Downstreet, The Eclipse Mill Gallery, The Rudd Museum of Art and the fall annual Williamstown Film Festival.