Mass MOCA

MASS MoCA announces Summer 2023 programming including the exhibitions Joseph Grigely: In What Way Wham? (White Noise and Other Works, 1996-2023), on view beginning May 28, Anne Samat: Love, on view beginning June 24, and Elle Pérez: Intimacies, on view beginning July 22

 Pixies’ concerts are well-known for being “one-of-a-kind,” as the band has no pre-determined set lists, the “next song” is the one that “feels right," so you’ll never see the same show twice. And the song choices go deep.

FreshGrass, MASS MoCA’s annual three-day festival of bluegrass and roots music, announces the initial 2023 lineup, featuring Dropkick Murphys Acoustic—playing songs from their two albums with the lyrics of Woody Guthrie - plus acoustic arrangements of all your DKM favorites—Lukas Nelson + POTR, Sierra Ferrell, Rhiannon Giddens...

Welcome spring with a double header exhibition by Stephanie Boyd and Jane Hudson at Spring Street Market and Cafe in Williamstown. It will be on view from April 1 through June 17.

After more than a year of bargaining, the Whitney Museum Union of Local 2110 UAW have reached a tentative agreement with the Museum on a first union contract. Union members are in the process of voting on the contract.

Stephen R. Lawson, 73, a longtime resident of Williamstown died on February 7, 2023, of natural causes. In varying capacities he was an associate of the Williamstown Theatre Festival for some five decades. For 13 years he curated the Williamstown Film Festival which was produced at Images Cinema and MASS MoCA.

MASS MoCA has promoted veteran curator Denise Markonish to become its new Chief Curator, the first in MASS MoCA’s nearly 25-year history. Markonish joined MASS MoCA in 2007.

Phil Kline's Unsilent Night has been presented in 150+ cities across five continents since its debut 30 years ago on the streets of Greenwich Village. Free as always.

Mixed programming for MASS MoCA.

Through January 29 the Institute of Contemporary Art is displayng a gallery with 11 totemic ceramic standing figures by Rose B. Simpson. A graduate of RISD she grew up in a culture noted for its distinctive pottery created by her mother, Roxanne Swentzell, her late grandmother, Rina Swentzell and her late great-grandmother, Rose Naranjo.

Groundbreaking choreographer Shamel Pitts doesn’t dance around big issues—instead, he dances into them.

Celia Smith and her sister-in-law Charity Smith had been sending letters to the Arnold Print Works requesting a meeting for their New Idea – Printed Cloth Dolls.  They never received a reply, so with a Sample Doll in hand, they made the trip to North Adams in 1890, but were turned away at the door. Initially the dolls were hand made with cloth scraps. They caught on and sold well. Arnold Print Works agreed to Buy the Partners’ Patented Designs. Royalties were10 Cents per Printed Fabric Yard.  In the 1892 Holiday Season, 200,000 Doll Sheets were Sold.

Unionized employees of MASS MoCA voted by a 96% vote to engage in a one-day work stoppage on August 19, 2022. Employees will be picketing the Museum all day and asking visitors to express support for a fair contract for staff.

This article extends a photo/word installation at the Berkshire Art Museum, North Adams, MA. The installation can be seen at BAM until October 2022 as part of the exhibition 'Artists of the Thursday Chinese Dinner Group,' where 27 are participating. The museum's primary reason is to show Eric Rudd's oeuvre of sculptures created during 50 years. Both, the permanent and temporary shows are well worth a visit!

Phil Kline is at MASS MoCA next weekend. He says: I'm a bit of an outsider, not part of the "classical" world, or even the more sanctioned wings of the avant-garde. A composer without portfolio. Go hear his work in North Adams, Massachusetts!

Three Phil Kline concerts at Bang on a Can's LOUD Weekend, from a duo with Jim Jarmusch to anti-war classic Zippo Songs (7/28-30, MASS MoCA)

Covid delayed the opening of Artists of the Thursday Chinese Dinner Group by two years. It was worth the wait with a tasty buffet dinner on opening night at Berkshire Art Museum in downtown North Adams. The former church houses the Barbara and Eric Rudd Art Foundation, Most of the church displays a permanent installation of his work. The three levels of the tower galleries has a lively display of works by diners and artists.

MASS MoCA is inviting concepts for the old Sprague Electric Company guardhouse at the main entrance of the MASS MoCA campus located on Marshall Street in North Adams, MA.  

Bang on a Can and MASS MoCA present LOUD Weekend, a fully loaded eclectic super-mix of minimal, experimental, and electronic music over three days throughout the museum’s expansive campus. Phil Kline will be featured.  With Jim Jarmsuch he will be improvising on loud guitar,

Participating cultural organizations include Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Berkshire International Film Festival, Berkshire Theatre Group, Community Access to the Arts, The Clark, Hancock Shaker Village, Jacob’s Pillow, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, MASS MoCA, The Mount, Norman Rockwell Museum, Shakespeare & Company, The Trustees and Williamstown Theatre Festival. 

The Board of Trustees of Hancock Shaker Village announced today that director Jennifer Trainer Thompson will step down in July. Thompson has been widely credited for her transformational leadership of the museum and is recognized as an innovator in the museum community. Since her appointment in September 2016, Hancock Shaker Village has grown in size and stature and has been infused, as The Boston Globe noted last summer, “with great gusts of contemporary vitality”.

The building of wall drawings at MASS MoCA has become a pilgrimage site for Sol LeWitt one of the foremost artists of his generation. They are on semi-permanent display with a contract for 25 years. For a more limited time, through June 11, there is the opportunity to experience the work on a more personal and intimate manner with Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints at the Williams College Museum of Art.

We are very excited to invite you to our first Open Studios in 2 years! As the weather gets warmer, and things are feeling safer, we are looking forward to opening our doors to you to get to know this month’s artist cohort.

ORBS by Jane Hudson, a series of 12 paintings on canvas hang on the rough brick walls of Tunnel City Coffee on the Mass MoCA campus. They bring a dynamic energy to the space. The paintings depict orbs of various hues surrounded by bursts of color as radiant beams.

The Williams College Museum of Art presents Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints, on view from February 18 through June 11, 2022. It is the most comprehensive presentation of the artist’s printmaking to date, including single prints and series, for a total of over 200 individual prints.