Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

MASS MoCA
Map
Established1999
LocationNorth Adams, Massachusetts
DirectorKristy Edmunds
Websitewww.massmoca.org
Arnold Print Works
Buildings of the Arnold Print Works, now MASS MoCA, along a tributary of the Hoosic River (2012)
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is located in Massachusetts
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is located in the United States
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
Location87 Marshall St., North Adams, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°42′5″N 73°6′59″W / 42.70139°N 73.11639°W / 42.70139; -73.11639
Area24 acres (9.7 ha)
Built1872
Architectural styleItalianate Industrial
MPSNorth Adams MRA
NRHP reference No.85003379[1]
Added to NRHPOctober 25, 1985

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the United States.

Built by the Arnold Print Works, which operated on the site from 1860 to 1942, the complex was used by the Sprague Electric company before its conversion. MASS MoCA originally opened with 19 galleries and 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) of exhibition space in 1999. It has expanded since, including the 2008 expansion of Building 7 and the May 2017 addition of roughly 130,000 square feet when Building 6 was opened.[2]

In addition to housing galleries and performing arts spaces, it also rents space to commercial tenants.[3] It is the home of the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, where composers and performers from around the world come to create new music. The festival, started in 2001, includes concerts in galleries for three weeks during the summer. Starting in 2010, MASS MoCA has become the home for the Solid Sound Music Festival.

MASS MoCA, along with the Clark Art Institute and the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), forms a trio of significant art museums in the northern Berkshires.

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ "Big Art, Big Money And Big Hopes Drive MASS MoCA's New Building 6". www.wbur.org.
  3. ^ Dobrzynski, Judith H. (May 30, 1999). "Massachusetts Home for Contemporary Art". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-20.