![]() Trainer knew that she didn’t want to make a documentary describing the particular history of MASS MoCA in a formulaic way, but she also knew the nature of making a documentary about an art museum would be insightful in and of itself. ![]() Museum Town concurrently focuses on two timelines – the history of the town and museum and the eighteen-month installation process of Nick Cave’s 2017 project Until. Having worked there for 28 years as director of development and public relations, director of development and external affairs and as an executive vice president, she knew how special the museum’s history and approach to displaying art was. Trainer, however, already had a gauge on the history of North Adams and has a personal and professional connections with MASS MoCA. ![]() They see North Adams as a place of possibility,” Trainer said, explaining the view that MASS MoCA architect Simeon Bruner held on the relationship between the town and the museum. “People who are moving in today, they don’t see the old narrative of North Adams, which is really a company town that hit the skids because the one company in town went out of business and moved elsewhere. Trainer, the current CEO and Director of Hancock Shaker Village, spoke with me about the process of filmmaking and the impetus behind Museum Town. this past March, does not explore the growth of MASS MoCA in a vacuum - without the town of North Adams, even the idea of the museum would be unfathomable. The 75-minute film, which made its world premiere in the Documentary Feature Competition at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Tex. That said, there is often a disconnect between those who walk MASS MoCA’s industrially atmospheric and brick-clad campus and the history of the physical space - that is, the contradiction between the “high art” inside the gallery spaces and its exterior, which recalls a once-thriving mill town.ĭirector Jennifer Trainer’s 2019 documentary Museum Town explores the building of MASS MoCA from its theoretical origins in the 1980s and its physical origins going back to the 19th century. In combining its many opportunities for the arts, its mini-city like campus and its position as America’s largest contemporary art museum, MASS MoCA is a one of a kind space raising questions about the potentiality of art’s scale, positionality with its viewers and relationship between the artist and the patron, the art and the gallery space. In addition to housing world-renowned contemporary visual art, MASS MoCA hosts multiple music festivals, concerts and performances throughout the year while also having two restaurants, a coffee shop and a brewery on site. MASS MoCA often serves as a respite from the isolating nature of the Berkshires. While the College community may be familiar with the film’s focus, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), many are not familiar with the institution’s history.Įvery weekend, as students depart campus, they often find themselves at MASS MoCA in North Adams. You can skip the Berkshire Art Museum without FOMO.Last Friday, Museum Town began showing at Images. But this spider is 20 ft long and the foam is dirty white. It bubbles up up irregularly and adheres well. Think of a large wire frame, like a six or seven-legged spider, covered in spray foam that is used to fill cracks. In the basement there were sharply geometric painted forms from Rudd’s earlier work that had some interest, but many just seemed large.įinally, the many “ontogens” or structures of alleged primitive life forms, just were repulsive. The large melted plexiglass sculptures in the main exhibit looked just like relatively formless melted plexiglass that had accumulated lots of dust. This did not evoke the Gates of Hell in any way. ![]() The annex was filled with primitive sort-of human forms in garish colors hanging or supported in various ways dimly lit. We were certainly prepared for unusual but engaging and skilled sculptures. We had just seen the Mass MOCA and Clark exhibits the day before. And the outdoor forms, so-called ontogens. We viewed all the exhibits in the main church and the annex of the Berkshire Art Museum.
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