Kidspace Gives New Perspective on being in 'Cribs'By Melanie Rancourt
Special to iBerkshires
09:47AM / Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Photos by Melanie Rancourt
Jackson, 5, and Kim Carlino drove from Amherst to attend the Kidspace open house on Saturday. Top, artist Matthew Bua explains his installation 'Cribs. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The creative juices of children young and old were flowing on Saturday as Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art opened the newly expanded Kidspace gallery on the second floor of Building 10.
"The new location gives Kidspace the opportunity to be more visible," said Laura Thompson, Kidspace director of exhibitions and education. "The new location added 1,000 square feet to the gallery, which will allow for larger shows, more art projects and a bigger collaboration with the public of North Adams and North County."
The daylong open house also featured the opening of the inaugural exhibition of "Cribs," a three-part, large-scale installation of art created by artist Matt Bua and his artistic partner Jesse Bercowitz.
As children created art projects and enjoyed refreshments throughout the day, Bua explained the three stages of his exhibition to inquisitive people.
The first part of the installation is located in the gallery. The overloaded crib to the right as you walk into the gallery signifies a child's crib made complete with bars to keep the child safe as well as a hanging mobile above created by Bercowitz.
The second part of the installation involves architectural cribbage. Much like the playing pieces on a cribbage board move as people play the game, visitors of the museum need to move outside to see the next part of the installation.
This piece of crib can be entered outside the museum to experience the collaborative "building game" Bua calls "Architectural Cribbage," a game in which he encourages others to start constructing their own small-scale visionary spaces.
 The final part of the exhibition, "Cribliousdome," is the only part of the exhibition that is not located at the museum. "Cribliousdome" will open its doors on May 2 at 107 Main St., most recently used by the North Adams Artists Cooperative for Downstreet Art last summer. This satellite space will feature works of art created by students from Clarksburg, Florida and Savoy schools with the help and guidance of Bua.
"Art is not what you draw, it is how you present it," said Bua. "I would like to encourage people to build scale structures and bring in their collections to display."
Hanging on the wall throughout the gallery are examples of collections from Bua and from people who showed interest in sharing their collections with the public. They included stamps, lost gloves, guitars, video games and family slides, to name a few.
"Many people who have collections don't even realize that they collect anything at all," Bua explained. "For instance, people who have iPods have a collection of favorite music, while people on Facebook have a collection of friends. It is all in how you look at it."
Building "junk-itecture," a new word learned by those at the open house, helped keep children and adults busy throughout the day. Junk-itecture is artwork made from recycled materials (buttons, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, pie plates, puzzle pieces, boxes, and plastic containers) or junk found around the house. Kidspace provided the materials for people to create sculptures that could be taken home and played with or donated to the exhibition for display at 107 Main.
Jackson Carlino, 5, and his mother, Kim, traveled all the way from Amherst to take part in the day's activities. Jackson created a playhouse for his dinosaurs and could not wait to get home to start plating with his creation.
"I have a friend who is an interning artist here at MoCA," Carlino said. "I like coming here to expose my son to art, especially art made from recycled materials. It allows children of all ages to explore a different aspect of art that they are not used to."
Kidspace Educational Coordinator Shannon Toye said she was very impressed with the turnout for the Kidspace opening and for Bua's installation.
"We used to have our openings on Thursday nights, however, having them on Saturdays makes it easier for families to come out and enjoy an afternoon of fun," said Toye. "I think the turnout today has been fantastic. It is wonderful seeing all the creative art the children have been making."
Many children built marshmallow buildings out of toothpicks, cameras out of cardboard boxes and drums out of pails and paper plates.
"Cribs" runs through Sept. 7. Kidspace is open from 11 to 4 through May 31, daily on April 13 to 17 and on Memorial Day, May 25. Extended hours begin in June.
For information: 413-664-4481, Ext. 8131, or www.massmoca.org/kidspace.
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