What is Massachusetts Museum Of Contemporary Art?

Information about Massachusetts Museum Of Contemporary Art

This article is about Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. For other Museums named Museum of Contemporary Art, see Museum of Contemporary Art.


MASS MoCA
Established1999
LocationNorth Adams, Massachusetts
Director Joseph C. Thompson
Websitewww.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

1. ^ Dobrzynski, Judith H. (May 30, 1999). Massachusetts Home for Contemporary Art. NYTimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
2. ^ Bruner/Cott Award. brunercott.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
3. ^ Press Release: Site History. massmoca.org. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
4. ^ Smith, Roberta (September 16, 2007). Is It Art Yet? And Who Decides?. NYTimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
5. ^ Johnson, Ken (July 1, 2007). No admittance: Mass MoCA has mishandled disputed art installation. Boston.com. Boston Globe. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
6. ^ Text of Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990. Cornell School of Law U.S. Code collection (September 16, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-20.

External links

There are several museums named the Museum of Contemporary Art. They include:
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
  • Museum of Contemporary Art Marseille, Marseille, France
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, USA

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North Adams, Massachusetts
Location in Berkshire County in Massachusetts
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Massachusetts
County Berkshire
Settled 1737
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museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education, enjoyment, the tangible and intangible
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North Adams, Massachusetts
Location in Berkshire County in Massachusetts
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Massachusetts
County Berkshire
Settled 1737
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Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Flag of Massachusetts Seal
''Nickname(s): Bay State State Bird = Black-capped Chickadee''
''Motto(s): Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem (Latin: By the sword she seeks peace under liberty)''


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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art
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The performing arts are those forms of art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some art object.
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Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art
..... Read more.
museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education, enjoyment, the tangible and intangible
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Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941) is an American folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style. She is a soprano with a three-octave vocal range[1] and a distinctively rapid vibrato.
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Cat Power is the stage name of American singer/songwriter Charlyn "Chan" Marshall (born Charlyn Marie Marshall on 21 January 1972). She is known for her minimalist style, sparse guitar and piano playing, and ethereal vocals.
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Steve Earle (born Stephen Fain Earle January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, well known for his rock and country music, as well as for his many political views. He is also a published writer, a political activist and has written and directed a play.
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Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted musical organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon.
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factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where workers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another.
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Superfund is the common name for the United States environmental law officially known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA
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The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Organized in 1857, the Institute conducts various activities and programs to support the profession and enhance its public image, including periodically awarding the AIA
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The National Trust for Historic Preservation is an American member-supported organization which was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods through a range of programs and activities.
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National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects worthy of preservation. The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) established the National Register and the process for adding properties
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Christoph Büchel (born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1966) is a Swiss installation artist.

Biography

Büchel studied at the University of Art and Design, Basel, from 1986-89, at Cooper Union art school, New York in 1989-90, and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1992-1997.
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Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), 17 U.S.C.   106A , is a United States law protecting artist rights.

VARA was the first federal Copyright legislation to grant protection to moral rights.
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