[It’s not the
Boston area, and it’s not quite the
Berkshires, so the rest of Western Massachusetts tends to get short shrift
in our images and narratives of the state. Well, no longer! In this week’s
series, I’ll highlight five Western Mass. histories and stories, examples of
how much this part of the state has to offer our collective memories. I’d love
to hear your thoughts on these and other connections!]
On two reasons
you should visit the great museum any time, and one reason to do so ASAP.
The small town
of North Adams isn’t just home to the histories about which I wrote in
yesterday’s post: it also hosts a unique institution of public higher education,
the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
(MCLA); and an even more unique museum, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary
Art (Mass MOCA). Housed in a sprawling complex of former industrial buildings
that date back more than two centuries and have received National Historic Register
status, and making excellent use of the specifics of that space (many of which
feel as if they could still house the factory floors and workers who once
occupied them), Mass MOCA rivals the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum in combining the universal appeal of an art museum
with the specific identity of a site and its histories. I know North Adams isn’t
exactly next door for most of us, but if you find yourself in either the New
York or Boston areas with room for a daytrip, Mass MOCA is well worth your
time.
That’s true not
only because of the museum’s unique location and identity, but also because of
how it presents its modern art exhibitions. I can’t put it any more clearly
than does the museum’s own mission
statement: “If conventional museums are
boxes, MASS MoCA strives instead to be an open platform—a welcoming environment
that encourages free exchange between the making of art and its display,
between the visual and performing arts, and between our extraordinary historic
factory campus and the patrons, workers and tenants who again inhabit it. That
is, we strive to make the whole cloth of art—making, presentation, and public
participation—a seamless continuum.” I agree with every word of
that, and would add this: in my admittedly limited experience, “modern art” has
tended to be equated, by (it felt to me) the institutions and artists
themselves, with “snobby and difficult to understand,” with an audience
experience that is at least as uncomfortable or uncertain as it is engaged or
(dare I say it) entertained. I was certainly challenged by much of what I
encountered at Mass MOCA, but I was also consistently engaged and entertained,
and I would say that complements the museum’s stated mission very nicely.
Those are
reasons to visit Mass MOCA any time, but I have to add one reason to go within
the next few weeks if you’re able: Brooklyn-based artist Teresita
Fernández’s amazing exhibition “As Above So
Below,” which runs through March. I’m a big believer in the power of words,
but I don’t think my words here can begin to do justice to the unique and
potent effect of Fernández’s works, especially when combined with Mass MOCA’s
spaces and settings (with which Fernández clearly worked to plan and create a number
of the works included in the exhibition). If you get a chance to see the
exhibition, I can’t recommend it enough; if you don’t, there’s a video intro at this
site, and apparently a 96-page hardcover accompanying catalogue you can try
to get your hands on as well. But like Mass MOCA overall, this exhibition is
particularly striking and special when you’re inside of it.
Next history
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Histories and stories from your home you’d highlight?
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