Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts alum Adriana Alexatos shows off the inside of Gallery 51 to state Sen. Michael Moore, D-Worcester, on Monday morning.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts staff, students and Mayor Richard Alcombright showed off the school's galleries downtown to state Sen. Michael Moore, D-Worcester, on Monday morning.

 

Director of MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center Jonathan Secor told Moore, the Senate chairman of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, about the upcoming DownStreet Art kickoff — scheduled for Thursday — and how it "came about from a real economic need in downtown North Adams."

 

"Since the start of DownStreet Art, and Gallery 51 and Press Gallery, we're now at 85 percent occupancy for downtown," Secor said. "That's literally the highest its been since 1981 or something like that."

 

Secor said the summerlong event hopes to draw more people from outside the area. Some 25,000 art maps will be distributed in the county as well as to outside cities such as Albany, N.Y., and Boston. The kickoff event expects to keep a couple thousand people on Main Street for art and music.

 

"All the restaurants stay open late, all the businesses stay open late," Secor said. "They'll do DownStreet Art specials."

 

Alcombright expects this year's opening to be the largest, especially with incoming visitors from this weekend's Solid Sound Festival, and views the partnership between the downtown, the college and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art as a "three-legged stool" that benefits the city.

 

Moore visited Gallery 51, the relocated Press Gallery, now at the former Norman Rockwell display at 49 Main St., and Gallery 53, which is currently being prepped for Thursday.

 

"It's a great spot, it's really nice," said Moore about Gallery 53, which was being shown off by MCLA alum and artist Adriana Alexatos.

 

Thomas Bernard, executive assistant to the president at MCLA, explained the galleries help students see the applicability of their academics through their management and work, and to "connect art to community."

 

Bernard also said the gallery spaces are important in the upcoming years because renovations on Bowman Hall on the campus will limit classroom space.

 

The mayor added that students also contribute their time through the Community Day of Service and through projects like Eagle Street Rising, in which students imagined and created a one-afternoon vision of a renewed Eagle Street with more art, painted crosswalks and outdoor restaurant seating.