On this #ThrowbackThursday and in celebration of the artist`s work at the renovated Frick, opening on April 17, we`re looking back at Darren Waterston`s 2014–15 installation "Filthy Lucre."

The centerpiece to Waterson`s exhibition "Uncertain Beauty," "Filthy Lucre" portrayed a version of James McNeill Whistler’s 1876 decorative masterpiece "Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room," commissioned by the shipping magnate Frederick Leyland, as though the greed that enabled its creation had infected the walls of the room itself, causing it to begin a slow but beautiful process of decay.

Inside the sumptuous ruin, viewers found Waterston’s re-interpretations of Whistler’s paintings, with glaze appearing to ooze down the wall and the shimmering central peacock mural partially melted into the floor in a puddle of gold. The room also held stalactite-like ceiling fixtures, moldy lamps, and crumbling shelving replete with 250 hand-painted ceramic vessels.

Learn more about "Filthy Lucre" at the link in our bio!

Did you know that the average viewer spends only 21 seconds in front of a work of art? Let’s change that, together!

Come celebrate International Slow Art Day at MASS MoCA on April 5! Take a slow-looking tour at noon or 2pm, or just take your time as you wander through our galleries and see what you can get out of slowing down.

Work pictured: “Perfectly Clear,” James Turrell
Photo credit: Florian Holzherr

On this Trans Day of Visibility, we`re celebrating the numerous Indigenous, two-spirit creatives including DJs, drag performers, academics, and activists whose work makes up the five-channel video work "Your Spirit Whispers in My Ear" that greets visitors to Jeffrey Gibson`s exhibition "POWER FULL BECAUSE WE`RE DIFFERENT."

The video, which interlaces documentary footage with shots of preening drag queens, is a celebration of sovereignty, power, and agency, as the Two-Spirit community unapologetically declares its presence, echoing writer Qwo-Li Driskill’s powerful proclamation: “we were stolen from our bodies, but now we are taking ourselves back. First Nations Two-Spirits are blooming like dandelions in the landscape of a racist, homophobic, and transphobic culture’s ordered garden."

"Your Spirit Whispers in My Ear" features work by:
Sean Stevens and Adrian Snyder, Ty Fierce Metteba, Navi Ho, Carla Rossi, Joseph Pierce, Miko Thomas, Morgan Wallace, Arielle Twist, Lou Cornum, Kairyn Potts, Lady Shug, Beejee (Qahir-beejee Llaneza) Peco, Cocoa Chandelier, Jontay Kahm, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Razelle Benally, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Yoli, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Charlie Amáyá Scott, Kira Xonorika, Evan James Atwood, and Theo Jean Cuthand.

As spring warms up, take a stroll outside of MASS MoCA’s gates to the 40-foot-tall “Big Bling” by Martin Puryear!

The colossal work is the largest temporary installation that Puryear has created, and is built of wood, his signature material, as well as chain-link fence. While the statue was initially created to live in New York City’s Madison Square Park, with its title reflecting the character and inhabitants of the urban environment, its current home at MASS MoCA amplifies the sheer size and impact of the work by placing it somewhere in which its height is rivaled only by our clock tower, the city church steeples, and the surrounding Berkshire mountains.

On this World Poetry Day, we`re looking back at poet Anaïs Duplan`s reading of James Baldwin`s "the fire next time" in Steve Locke`s exhibition of the same name at our January Free Day.

Locke`s exhibition takes its title from the 1963 book by American author and civil rights activist James Baldwin, which galvanized the American public with its brutal honesty about racial inequality. Like Baldwin, Locke invites a viewer to grapple with the legacies of racial violence in an exhibition that, borrowing the writer`s phrase, "tells the truth" unflinchingly.

Take a stroll through the seasons and celebrate the first day of spring in Carly Glovinski`s "Almanac," on view in MASS MoCA`s Hunter Hallway 🌼

"Almanac" spans a hundred feet and chronicles the blooms of New England`s flowers from April through September. Weeks pass in the blink of an eye as you meander from cold hearty daffodils, violas, and bleeding hearts to irises, Queen Anne`s lace, morning glories, and cosmos.

As you walk among the intricately-constructed buds, see if any look like the ones starting to sprout in your garden!

The first wave of the FreshGrass | North Adams lineup is here!

Get ready for three days of festival magic September 19-21 with the best in roots and bluegrass music including Greensky Bluegrass, Cimafunk, Lee Fields, Kitchen Dwellers, Jaime Wyatt, and so many more including FreshGrass commissions and FreshScores ⚡️

Snag your passes now at the cheapest price available and stay tuned for more lineup news later this spring! See you in September 🪕

Link in our bio for weekend passes!

We couldn`t be more excited to welcome cultural critic Fran Lebowitz, interviewed by MASS MoCA Director Kristy Edmunds, to the Hunter Center this Saturday March 15!

After the conversation, Fran will be signing copies of "The Fran Lebowitz Reader" – in which you can read her acerbic views on current events and the media as well as pet peeves including tourists, baggage-claim areas, aftershave lotion, adults who rollerskate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan – in the MASS MoCA lobby at 9:30. Or, you can skip the line and reserve a pre-signed copy at the link in our bio!

Get ready to turn the volume up, @bangonacan ‘s LOUD Weekend returns July 31 – August 2!

A fully loaded, three–day eclectic super–mix of creative, experimental and unusual music, LOUD Weekend is the culminating event of the 23rd annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA.

Visit the link in our bio to learn more.

📸: Greg Nesbit