New construction, Building 6 at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA. That approach shifts the galleries toward the center of the building footprint and allows natural light to flood the wide corridors around the perimeter. More noticeably, it departs from the railroad-style sequencing of enclosed galleries prevalent in the rest of the museum to one that “floats” them within the open gridscape. Besides exhibition space, it provides backstage facilities for concerts and art storage and completes a circuit that allows viewers to tour galleries without retracing their steps. The deft redesign of wedge-shaped Building 6, the museum’s long-vacant, westernmost extension, by Cambridge architects Bruner/Cott & Associates, acknowledges that trend and brings to a climax two decades of incremental expansion the firm has overseen. Its annual Solid Sound, Bang on a Can and Fresh Grass music festivals draw thousands of fans to North Adams, and its residencies and workshops nurture emerging and established talent. With no permanent collection, the museum acts as a laboratory for new work in music, theater and dance as well as visual art. The audience-building integration of the arts promoted by ArtCountry is already a given at many museums, but nowhere more than at MASS MoCA. The others are at MASS MoCA, which opened 16 shows on May 28 in one of New England’s top summer art events. The Bennington Museum has a modern take on Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses, 1860–1961), who lived in nearby Eagle Bridge, NY. Picasso and Frankenthaler are at the Clark. Marquee names on the art scene this summer include Pablo Picasso, James Turrell, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer, Laurie Anderson, Helen Frankenthaler, even Grandma Moses. Called “ArtCountry,” the consortium will capitalize on the region’s reputation for exceptional art in a rural locality where cultural assets of such magnitude are rare. The $65.4 million MASS MoCA renovation more than doubles the indoor space available for art, while its alliance with the Clark Art Institute, the Williams College Museum of Art, the Bennington (VT) Museum and the Williamstown Theatre Festival cements their informal resource sharing into a unified initiative. The art-rich swath of the Berkshires bracketed by Williamstown and North Adams is amplifying its profile this summer with a major expansion at MASS MoCA and an alliance of cultural institutions intent on bringing more visibility to the region. Mary Lum, Assembly (Lorem Ipsum), 2017, exterior house paint, mirror, site-specific dimensions.
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