Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
 | |
| Established | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Location | North Adams, Massachusetts |
| Director | Joseph C. Thompson |
| Website | www.massmoca.org |
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, commonly referred to as MASS MoCA, is a museum located in North Adams, Massachusetts, USA. It is the largest center for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the country.
MASS MoCA opened with 19 galleries and 100,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space. In addition to galleries and performing arts spaces. MASS MoCA also rents space to commercial tenants. [1]
Along with a large variety of contemporary art displays, the museum also hosts film screenings and has seen performances by a variety of musical acts, including Joan Baez, Cat Power and Steve Earle. MASS MoCA is the home of the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, where composers and performers from around the world come to create and perform new music. The festival, started in 2001, includes concerts in galleries — usually twice a day — for three weeks during the summer.
Museum location & history
The site is a large 19th century factory building formerly occupied by Sprague Electric Works. The site was formerly listed as a superfund contaminated site. When the factory shut down during the 1980s, the city's economy suffered. In 1999, MASS MoCA opened its doors, and helped revive the city's economy.
Designed by the Cambridge architecture firm of Bruner Cott & Assoc, it was awarded highest honors by the American Institute of Architects and The National Trust for Historic Preservation.[2] The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[3]
Dispute with Christoph Büchel
Since early 2007, the museum has been ensconsed in a legal dispute with Swiss installation artist Christoph Büchel. The museum had agreed to take on Büchel's massive project, "Training Ground for Democracy," The exhibit was to include a re-built movie theatre, nine shipping containers, a full size Cape Cod cottage, a mobile home, a bus, and a truck, before the museum balked at certain costs associated with some of the planned installations. .[4]
The museum, who had already invested significantly in the exhibit, filed a lawsuit to allow it to open it to the public without the consent of Büchel, who claims to do so would misrepresent his work[5] At the center of the lawsuit will be the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, which grants artists, amoung other rights, the "right to prevent use of one's name on any work that has been distorted, mutilated, or modified in a way that would be prejudicial to the author's honor or reputation." [6]
References
- ^ Dobrzynski, Judith H. (May 30, 1999). "Massachusetts Home for Contemporary Art". NYTimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Bruner/Cott Award". brunercott.com. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
{{cite web}}:|first=has numeric name (help);|first=missing|last=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Press Release: Site History". massmoca.org. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
{{cite web}}:|first=has numeric name (help);|first=missing|last=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Smith, Roberta (September 16, 2007). "Is It Art Yet? And Who Decides?". NYTimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Johnson, Ken (July 1, 2007). "No admittance: Mass MoCA has mishandled disputed art installation". Boston.com. Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Text of Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990". Cornell School of Law U.S. Code collection. September 16, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
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