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Throwback Thursday: The incredible musician, writer, and icon...

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:51:11 -0400

Throwback Thursday:

The incredible musician, writer, and icon Patti Smith plays an outdoor show at MASS MoCA in 2000.

Very cool visitor-made GIF in front of one of our Sol LeWitts!

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:56:56 -0400

Very cool visitor-made GIF in front of one of our Sol LeWitts!

all-favourites: Schweeeet! Dave Cole: The Knitting Machine,...

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:01:08 -0400

all-favourites:

Schweeeet! Dave Cole: The Knitting Machine, 2005

What a perfect Throwback! We loved this piece by Dave Cole.

Here’s a detail of one of Jason Middlebrook’s...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:01:20 -0400

Here’s a detail of one of Jason Middlebrook’s sculptural paintings that is currently being installed at MM. His show, My Landscape, opens on May 26. Along with these beautiful pieces, My Landscape will showcase a monumental hanging mobile that will function like a fountain within our galleries.

Take a peek at this video and meet a few of the adorable kids...

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:01:17 -0400

Take a peek at this video and meet a few of the adorable kids that help make Kidspace and MASS MoCA such a magical place.

Donate to the Annual Fund to support our education programs here!

detailsitfabric: 26/52 Halfway there! Yesterday I went to Mass...

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:01:17 -0400

detailsitfabric:

26/52

Halfway there! Yesterday I went to Mass MoCA for the first time, and I was totally blown away. I love contemporary art, but this was so much greater than I expected. I think the Sol LeWitt retrospective was my favorite, so it is only fitting that my photo this week is of his work. It was breathtaking to be entirely surrounded by work so large, and by walls covered in such meticulous detail. And the building itself was so cool. I wanted to capture both the building and the art, and I think I did that here.

Great picture! Happy to hear you enjoyed your visit!

mutt-r: http://solidsoundfestival.com wil you please take a...

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:01:40 -0400

mutt-r:

http://solidsoundfestival.com

wil you please take a look @ saturday’s lineup? i know it’s probably outdoors. so there will be no walls. for me to be a fly on. so instead i’d like to be a fly in those tents. or just buzzing around the campgrounds. or hell, i know….maybe i’ll just buy a ticket and go. yeah, that’s it. the play’s the thing!!

We’re glad to hear you’re as excited as we are!

Read about Michael Oatman’s piece at MASS MoCA all utopias...

Sun, 05 May 2013 18:01:34 -0400

Read about Michael Oatman’s piece at MASS MoCA all utopias fell from Big Red and Shiny here and then come to North Adams to give this unbelievable futuristic spaceship-trailer a visit!

Listen to MASS MoCA's Summer Season Opener Aaron Neville on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!

Fri, 03 May 2013 16:01:55 -0400

Listen to MASS MoCA's Summer Season Opener Aaron Neville on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!:

Listen to this excerpt from Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me to hear Aaron Neville give some insight into his face tat, his relationship with Keith Richards, and his new album.

We’re so excited to have this angel-voiced man here on May 25! He will be the perfect opener for our summer season.

North Adams is in full bloom!

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:55:00 -0400

North Adams is in full bloom!

Throwback Thursday: Orly Genger Pictured here: Big Boss,...

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:20:56 -0400

Throwback Thursday: Orly Genger

Pictured here: Big Boss, 2009-2010. Painted rope.

Orly Genger was commissioned by MASS MoCA’s curator Susan Cross to create this massive piece which swallowed up our Building 4 in the exhibition Material World: Sculpture to Environment. Go take a stroll through NYC’s Madison Square Park to see her newest installation, and read about it in this New York Times article.

Were you at the Dan Deacon show on Saturday? Watch the live...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:30:42 -0400

Were you at the Dan Deacon show on Saturday? Watch the live version of “True Thrush” that he performed here at MASS MoCA and see if you can spot yourself leading a dance-off, forming the human tunnel, or just breaking it down in the crowd. We dare you to not start dancing all over again.

More museum spaces. #nofilter

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:41:00 -0400

More museum spaces. #nofilter

Did you come to our Dan Deacon show this Saturday? Here are...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:02:12 -0400

Did you come to our Dan Deacon show this Saturday?

Here are some snaps to prove that it was among the most raucous nights our Hunter Center has ever seen.

Follow Dan’s blog here.

(Photo credit: Jane Burns)

Hear Caroline Shaw, the youngest-ever winner of the Pulitzer...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:52:00 -0400

Hear Caroline Shaw, the youngest-ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, speak on NPR’s Weekend Edition about her piece Partita for 8 Voices. She composed this award-winning piece while in residency here at MASS MoCA along with the vocal group Roomful of Teeth. What was the inspiration for the piece, you ask? Our Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings! Congratulations, Caroline!

Cute attack of the day: Local dog Roxy learns some “Tree Logic”...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:02:00 -0400

Cute attack of the day: Local dog Roxy learns some “Tree Logic” while sunbathing underneath our upside down trees. #museumdogs

Throwback Thursday: This beautifully saturated 80’s...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:01:18 -0400

Throwback Thursday:

This beautifully saturated 80’s picture of Sprague Electric in North Adams is the current site of MASS MoCA.

Throwback Thursday: Pictured here, Stairway to Heaven:...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:00:00 -0400

Throwback Thursday:

Pictured here, Stairway to Heaven: Democracy is a piece by artist and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. It was one of the first exhibitions shown in our galleries in a 1996 show called David Byrne: Desire before the museum was even officially opened in 1999.

“I love and fear what ads do to me,” says Byrne, speaking about Desire. “In order to pleasure myself, I have appropriated or adopted the look, the style, the color, the technique of ads, but not the content. I want to stimulate myself, to make myself drool, but not inspire consumption of consumer goods.”

The Byrne installation at MASS MoCA took place in raw, unfinished mill space in the 13-acre complex. The exhibition at MASS MoCA included two series of large-scale photographic transparencies, illuminated from behind using commercial fluorescent sign boxes most often associated with advertisements at urban bus stops. The first series of images, called Better Living Through Chemistry, overlaid stock photographs of inspirational landscapes with motivational phrases taken from corporate handbooks. Against this glossy backdrop, Byrne superimposed exacting photographic images of drug paraphernalia. The second group, called Stairway to Heaven, included images of street weapons combined in whimsical ways with colorful paper monies from around the world. The final visual element of the installation was a laser disc slide show fed to large video monitors stacked side-by-side. In one series of double-wide images, called Biorhythms, Byrne’s text — which defines and describes music — was graphically arrayed against designer Tony Arefin’s close-ups of mundane objects. In another series, well-known catch-phrases from corporate advertising campaigns were ever so slightly altered to leverage new meanings.

A final element of the exhibition was an audio presentation of spoken word, sampled sounds, and music from unexpected sources delivered via walkmans. The sounds dissolved into one another, fading back later as if happening in simultaneity. “Use of individual headphones assures intimacy and intensity,” says Byrne, “and also assures that everybody in the gallery is not in audio-synch, but rather on their own private audio time. The audio is a supplement to the visual, doubling meaning rather than providing a single source narrative, pre-determined exhibitory pathway, or critical commentary… an audio equivalent of the photopieces in some ways.”

Desire, an installation of images and sound featuring the work of David Byrne, was on view at MASS MoCA in North Adams from July 27 through October 20, 1996. The exhibition was David Byrne’s first solo museum show in the United States.

David Byrne, Stairway to Heaven: Democracy (1996)

Xu Bing's Advice for a Young Artist

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:01:00 -0400

Xu Bing's Advice for a Young Artist:

Here, Xu Bing thoughtfully responds to the quandaries of a young artist living in New York.

Like his advice? Head over to MASS MoCA on April 26 to hear him speak about his career and maybe you’ll walk away with some advice of your own.

Another beautiful day in Building 7. #SolLeWitt

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:43:58 -0400

Another beautiful day in Building 7. #SolLeWitt