MCLA Gallery 51 Virtual Video Art Exhibit

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. —MCLA Gallery 51's new virtual exhibit, "A Tourist in Your Own Home," will open Saturday, Feb. 13, with an opening event held virtually at 5 p.m. on Feb. 13. 

This event is free and open to the public via Zoom; those who would like to attend can register here. After the opening, the show will be viewable via the G51 website at mcla.edu/gallery51. 

This virtual video exhibition marks the launch of the "Hostile Terrain" exhibition opening later this spring at Gallery 51. With works by the Sanctuary City Project already displayed on campus, this is the next phase in this campus-wide project.  

Curated by artist Shasha Dothan, "A Tourist in Your Own Home" incorporates the work of six artists, all immigrants to the United States, invited by Dothan to create video works about their experiences in 2020. The exhibition looks at each artist's struggle with the notion of home: Is your home the new country you live in? Or the country in which you were born? T

Shasha Dothan (b. 1987 Tel-Aviv) is a Brooklyn-based artist working with video, installation, poetry and sound.

Cost, Access to NBCTC High Among Concerns North Berkshire Residents

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:15PM / Thursday, April 25, 2024

Adams Select Chair Christine Hoyt, NBCTC Executive Director David Fabiano and William Solomon, the attorney representing the four communities, talk after the session. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Public access channels should be supported and made more available to the public — and not be subject to a charge.

 

More than three dozen community members in-person and online attended the public hearing  Wednesday on public access and service from Spectrum/Charter Communications. The session at City Hall was held for residents in Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg and North Adams to express their concerns to Spectrum ahead of another 10-year contract that starts in October.

 

Listening via Zoom but not speaking was Jennifer Young, director state government affairs at Charter.

 

One speaker after another conveyed how critical local access television is to the community and emphasized the need for affordable and reliable services, particularly for vulnerable populations like the elderly. 

 

"I don't know if everybody else feels the same way but they have a monopoly," said Clarksburg resident David Emery. "They control everything we do because there's nobody else to go to. You're stuck with with them."

 

Public access television, like the 30-year-old Northern Berkshire Community Television, is funded by cable television companies through franchise fees, member fees, grants and contributions.

 

Spectrum is the only cable provider in the region and while residents can shift to satellite providers or streaming, Northern Berkshire Community Television is not available on those alternatives and they may not be easy for some to navigate. For instance, the Spectrum app is available on smart televisions but it doesn't include PEG, the public, educational and governmental channels provided by NBCTC.