DownStreet Art Looking for Artists for 2017 Season

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Berkshire Cultural Resource Center announces the DownStreet Art (DSA) 2017 call for art. To mark the 10th anniversary of the DownStreet Art program, BCRC will embark on an ambitious goal to commission 10 new projects, which will range from performances and murals to pop-up parks and community art projects.

The three opportunities include a call for mural art, parklet design, and pop-up art programming. Full requests for proposals and submission guidelines can be found at the DSA website. The proposal deadline is March 31, at 11:59 p.m.

DSA invites artists interested in community engagement and social practice to work with the North Adams community to collaboratively realize a new mural to join existing murals by artists including Spanish collective Muralismo Publico, Egyptian street artist Alaa Awad, Jarvis Rockwell, Corwin Levi, and others.

North Adams to Begin Study of Veterans Memorial Bridge Alternatives

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:21AM / Monday, April 15, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey says the requests for qualifications for the planning grant should be available this month. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Connecting the city's massive museum and its struggling downtown has been a challenge for 25 years. 

 

A major impediment, all agree, is the decades old Central Artery project that sent a four-lane highway through the heart of the city. 

 

Backed by a $750,000 federal grant for a planning study, North Adams and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art are looking to undo some of that damage.

 

"As you know, the overpass was built in 1959 during a time when highways were being built, and it was expanded to accommodate more cars, which had little regard to the impacts of the people and the neighborhoods that it surrounded," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey on Friday. "It was named again and again over the last 30 years by Mass MoCA in their master plan and in the city in their vision 2030 plan ... as a barrier to connectivity."

 

The Reconnecting Communities grant was awarded a year ago and Macksey said a request for qualifications for will be available April 24.

 

She was joined in celebrating the grant at the Berkshire Innovation Center's office at Mass MoCA by museum Director Kristy Edmunds, state Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver, District 1 Director Francesca Hemming and Joi Singh, Massachusetts administrator for the Federal Highway Administration.

 

The speakers also thanked the efforts of the state's U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, U.S. Rep. Richie Neal, Gov. Maura Healey and state Sen Paul Mark and state Rep. John Barrett III, both of whom were in attendance.