Mass MoCA's Kidspace Set to Move

By Lyndsay DeBord
Special to iBerkshires
07:26PM / Saturday, October 04, 2008

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NORTH ADAMS — Kidspace will be moving to a new location that's a third larger than its current space inside the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts complex in anticipation of more visitors and exhibits.

Mass MoCA Director Joseph C. Thompson announced the move at the opening reception for Kidspace's latest exhibit, "Illuminations: Adam Chapman," on Thursday.

"This space is not long for this world," said Thompson.

The exhibit is the last to be held on the third floor, as Kidspace will be relocating to a larger space on the second floor in the spring. The gallery will upgrade from 2,300 to 3,100 square feet.

The director called Kidspace "a hidden gem." Compared to 15,000 people a year visiting the current space, Thompson said he expects the new location will see 100,000. Stairs from the ground level lead directly to the second floor in what Thompson described as "a major circulation path."

Photos by Lyndsay DeBord  Adam Chapman's digital visual works are on display at Kidspace until February. The gallery will move into larger quarters and reopen a couple weeks later.

Kidspace, a joint collaboration between Mass MoCA, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and Williams College Museum of Art, opened in February 2000. The space is not only a contemporary art gallery, but also an educational space where students and teachers can work.

Thompson remarked on the drastic change from the previous exhibit, "Thread," to Chapman's digital art, which he described as "from another world."

Gallery guests viewed Chapman's AdamChapmanArt.com artwork that utilizes contemporary tools: projectors, computers and videos. Originally from Hawaii, Chapman said "[being on] an island in the middle of nowhere influenced most of my work." Of his pieces that feature nature and birds, one uses video of starlings that was shot in Rome. Chapman treated the videos to make them look more like drawings.

Chapman described his art as "something that you can get lost in." His series, titled "Diagram of the Dynamics of the Physical Embodiment of Desire," is modeled on the behavior of water. Colorful rain drops fall and, about once per minute, create the form of a bird, a different image appearing in each of the separate pieces. Another work projects images of flying birds onto a space located in the ceiling. The birds come together periodically to form a letter, with the letters eventually spelling out poems from the 8th-century Japanese work Manyoshu.

"Rope: Unraveled, Rewoven" is a video piece that deconstructs Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" to run in five minutes. Chapman also edited the dialogue to become his own artistic creation. His five exhibitions will be on display through Feb. 28, 2009.

The exhibition "Cribs to Cribbage" is set to open the new Kidspace gallery March 19, 2009. According to Katherine Myers, director of marketing, the move will not be particularly expensive as gallery space already exists on the second floor. The new location will be adjacent to the Hunter Theater Mezzanine Gallery and the Sol LeWitt Museum, which will open Nov. 16.

Mayor John Barrett III, whom Thompson referred to as "the intellectual godfather of this space," spoke at the event. Barrett said that when the gallery was being formed, he wanted it to be an educational base for children.

Barrett, a former teacher, said Kidspace allows children to become "ambassadors" and added that after visiting the space with a class, the children will then bring their families to see the galleries.

"That's how we really introduced Mass MoCA to our community," said Barrett.

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