Gallery 51 Exhibit Looks at Effects of Mass MoCA

09:22AM / Friday, September 18, 2009

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Kay Canavino's 'Encroachment' will be one of the works on display in Gallery 51's 'Here' exhibit.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A group exhibition focused on how North Adams has changed in the last decade, "Here," opens Thursday, Sept. 24, at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Gallery 51.

A free reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. as part of DownStreet Art Thursday, an evening of gallery openings and activities at numerous venues around the downtown area.

"As a result of MASS MoCA being in North Adams for 10 years, there is a corresponding growth of a contemporary arts community in the surrounding region," said Leslie Ferrin, Here curator. "The effect of Mass MoCA and its programming can be measured by both the increasing numbers of artists choosing to live and work here and the audience that supports their work through attendance and purchases. But is there also an intellectual contribution from the exposure to exhibits, installations, and site-specific commissions in the work that is currently being produced in the region?"

Here features the work of local and national artists whose work in some way examines present-day North Adams and the museum's impact on the community.

The artists are Scott Barrow, Kay Canavino, Gordon Chandler, Laura Christensen, Joan Diamante, Wendy James, Jay Fox, Joe Fuser, Wendy Goldberg, Amanda Hartline, J.C. Joggers, Phelan LaVelle, Melanie Mowinski, John Mitchell, David Ricci, Gregory Scheckler, Nicholas Whitman, Thor Wickstrom, and Michael Zelehoski.

"During the jurying process we reviewed a variety of media, paintings, photography, collage and video," said Ferrin. "Clearly the presence of Mass MoCA has had an effect on artists' lives, their choice of subject matter, and in some cases the institution was the means by which the art was produced, as in the case of the videos and photograph series.

Bringing the works together offers a range of perspectives that offer viewers a  a variety of ways to consider the decade's impact of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, she said.

Ferrin will moderate a conversation with several artists from the exhibition at Gallery 51 on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 6 p.m. "Here" is on exhibit through Oct. 25.

The gallery at 51 Main St. is open daily from 10 to 6. For more information, call 413-664-8718 or go to www.mcla.edu/Gallery51.

DownStreet Art is a program of MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center. For more information, visit www.downstreetart.org.