![]() The large grandeur of the football field-sized Building 5 at MASS MoCA also challenges artists and allows them the space, quite literally, to explore scale and impact. When he returned to MASS MoCA with his imaginative ideas and artistic plan, Markonish said the chief priority of the museum staff was to determine “how we get this out of Nick’s brain and make it a reality.” MASS MoCA sets a brilliant example of respecting the artist’s vision, as should always be at the forefront of museum curation and creation. ![]() He toyed with the idea of high art by using objects perceived as kitschy, and the cloudscape itself implored viewers to ask themselves what a fantastical future or heaven might look like. Cave wanted to use thousands of nostalgic ceramic figurines, crystals and flowers to create an immersive visual cloudscape in the galleries. A chief example of this artistic collaboration and freedom is American sculptor Nick Cave, who was approached by the museum to create an exhibition in 2016. “Museum Town” highlights how a refreshing museum mentality allows artists to shine. Jennifer Trainer, the director of “Museum Town,” begins the film by explaining that the building of MASS MoCA from the ground up intrigued her for 28 years and was a process “too big, too beautiful, too improbable to leave untold.” MASS MoCA opened in 1999 after 13 years in development, in the same 26 industrial buildings that once housed Sprague Electric. The museum itself is thus, most importantly, both a local and global institution. ![]() The local economy is approximately $51 million larger each year and there are 586 more jobs in the county due to the museum. She volunteered at the museum and saw firsthand how the creation of MASS MoCA transformed the area and positively impacted the residents, bringing life back to North Adams. Since that initial impression, Yarter saw North Adams bounce back and acknowledged MASS MoCA’s key role in making that happen. ![]() Ruth Yarter, a MASS MoCA volunteer and former employee of Sprague Electric in North Adams, explains in the documentary that when she first saw contemporary artworks she thought, like many, “Oh my god, what is that stuff? I wouldn’t give that house room.” Still, many of North Adams’ citizens were initially weary at the thought of a contemporary art museum replacing the large industrial facilities of the past. Sprague closed in 1985, leading to the decline of the town and a spike in the unemployment rate to over 14%. North Adams used to be a busy industrial town due to the presence of Sprague Electric factory operations, which employed over 4,000 people. It is a story about revitalization, reflection and the true meaning of “artistic process.” The documentary “Museum Town” traces the creation of MASS MoCA in 1999, and the great metamorphosis of quiet, dwindling North Adams, Massachusetts, into a center of diverse contemporary art. The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is far from that, however. Also on the horizon are the new Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum and the Global Contemporary Art Museum, both spearheaded by former Guggenheim director Thomas Krens and designed by Gluckman Tang.When one pictures the largest contemporary art museum in the world, they may think of a major metropolitan area, busy art galleries and erudite urban architects. Beginning in June, visitors can stay at Tourists, a nature-focused boutique motel master-planned by Lake | Flato Architects and landscape designer Reed Hilderbrand, with 48 rooms decorated by Hank Scollard, plus its own suspension bridge leading to 30 acres of trails. “We took advantage of what we have in spades here-space, time, and beautiful, rough-hewn American architecture,” says director Joseph C. ![]() Newly overhauled by architecture firm Bruner/Cott, the 130,000-square-foot wing will host expansive long-term exhibitions of works by the likes of James Turrell, Jenny Holzer, and Louise Bourgeois. MASS MoCA, the contemporary-art museum that opened inside Sprague’s 16-acre industrial complex of redbrick buildings in 1999, will nearly double its exhibition space at the end of May with the unveiling of Building 6. A current installation by Nick Cave at Mass Moca. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |