You know summer is in full swing when The Chalet returns!

That`s right, your favorite summer hangout is back starting this Thursday, July 3. Swipe to see what we have lined up so far — see you there!

Looking to add more to your evening plans? Head over to the link in our bio to see what else we have in store for Summer Thursdays at MASS MoCA.

Happy Pride Month! 🌈

We’re celebrating by sharing a few joyful moments from last weekend’s Community Day, beginning with Family Storytime led by @dshberkshires and ending with a dynamic performance by @mx_oops alongside @martharedbone in our B5 gallery.

Thank you to the artists, community organizations, and visitors who help make MASS MoCA a vibrant and inclusive space for all.

In the 1981 science fiction novel "Hello America" British author J.G. Ballard writes about a mission to rediscover the United States after it has become a barren wasteland and, in 2017, it inspired Joe Wardwell`s "Hello America: 40 Hits from the 50 States" that is currently on view in Building 6: The Robert W. Wilson Building.

The moment from the book that inspired Wardwell, and seemed like an all-too-eerie nod to the political climate in 2017, comes when “President Manson” grabs the primary protagonist, who is filled with longing for a far-too-distant “American dream” and declares “together, Wayne, we will make America great again!”

Nearly a decade later, this same piece of literature motivated Vincent Valdez to create the 2024 drawing "Hello America" — currently on view in Building 4 — which references the historic painting of Washington crossing the Delaware, but in this version there are cartoons steering the boat instead of people — implementing a contemporary twist on history through a lens of capitalism and corporations.

Plan your visit at the link in our bio and add a stop at Building 4 and Building 6 to see these two compelling exhibitions.

What’s that? Assets for Artists is spinning off on its own after being part of MASS MoCA for seventeen years? Yes, that’s right — and what exciting news! The artists in New England will continue to be seen.

This transition, as of October 1, marks an exciting next chapter for the long-running MASS MoCA program, empowering Assets for Artists to broaden its impact across New England through expanded professional development workshops, artist leadership initiatives, and public advocacy.

The Studios at MASS MoCA — an artists and writers residency program that has served over 1,000 artists both nationally and internationally since 2015 — will continue uninterrupted during the A4A transition and will join MASS MoCA’s Visual Art department.

Both programs will be headquartered in the creative universe of North Adams, MA. Learn more at the link in our bio.

From sunlit courtyards to glowing galleries, @bangonacan LOUD Weekend will transform our campus into a genre-bending musical utopia starting on July 31!

Catch solo experiments, brass ensembles, and full-on sonic adventures — all part of the ultimate summer soundtrack.

Head over to the link in our bio to learn more.

Almost exactly 18 years ago, the Dré Wapenaar Pavilion was installed in Courtyard C, offering visitors a shady, sculptural respite on warm spring and summer days.

In June 2007, Rotterdam-based sculptor @drewapenaar worked with our Art Fabrication team to create the pavilion using a series of overlapping, colorful canopies designed to spark dynamic social encounters and inspire new perspectives on familiar rituals.

We’re looking forward to spending more sunny days under the “Dré Wapenaar Pavilion”, full of conversation and moments of connection ☀️

“El Chavez Ravine” sits at the heart of Vincent Valdez’s “Just a Dream…” In the work, painted onto a 1953 Good Humor ice cream truck, Valdez memorializes the predominantly Mexican-American families who were evicted from their homes by the city Los Angeles when it seized the Chavez Ravine neighborhood in order to construct Dodger Stadium in the 1950s. 

While the violence depicted in the work occurred a half-century ago, the subject matter is eerily resonant of contemporary events. The same could be said of dozens of works in “Just a Dream….”

In his own words, Valdez is “alarmed by the denial of history,” and has vowed to “continue to create counter-images to impede the social amnesia that includes our fateful desire to repeat it.” “I offer this work as a report — my visual testimony about a struggle for transformation, hope, love, and survival in twenty-first century America,” he says of the body of work that makes up “Just a Dream…”

"Hồn Xiêu Phách Lạc” is a Vietnamese idiom that describes a state of immense fear or experience of being stricken with terror.

"Phách Lạc (2017–2023)" (which translates to “Lost Spirits”) by Nguyễn Duy Mạnh – on view in Dirty & Disorderly: Contemporary Artists on Disgust – is part of a series of ceramics that literalizes this phrase.

The idiom draws on the Vietnamese traditional belief in the existence of two kinds of spirits that exit the body upon death: hồn (heavenly spirit) and phách (earthly spirit envelope). The title, alongside the wounding of traditional art forms in the work, reflects Nguyễn’s horror when confronted with the loss of tradition in favor of maximized efficiency under capitalism, and asks a viewer to question what has been left behind in the service of consumerism.

Learn more about the work and exhibition at the link in our bio!

Sometimes authors travel from across the country to talk at our R&D Store (@redevstoremassmoca), and sometimes they come from right in our backyard!

This Saturday, Genesis Báez and Christine Kelly, two artists from our local community, will be joining us for a book launch, signing, and reception during the upcoming @arrival.art Fair weekend.

Genesis Báez’s (@genesis__baez) monograph “Blue Sun” (@capriciouspublishing, 2025) spans a decade of photographic work made in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. “Blue Sun” offers a glimmering examination of matriarchal kinship through images of the elemental and generational.

In “Allow Me to Slip on Something a Little More Hypocycloid” (@prroblem.press, 2025), Christine Kelly (@spiral.repair) performs sleights of hand in which software instructions, punchlines, academic jargon, and everyday speech can try on one another’s costumes. Is this performance art or some sort of Ted Talk gone all wonky?

Head to the link in our bio for more info, and to sign up to join us Saturday at this celebration of local art (free for MASS MoCA members)!

A moonlit bar, a dizzying checkered floor, and a shattered glass door are just a few of the many elements incorporated into Vincent Valdez`s painting "Kill the Pachuco Bastard!" (2000) and used to set a cinematic scene depicting a fictionalized moment in the Zoot Suit Riots that occurred 82 years ago today, June 8, in Los Angeles, California.

As a student, Valdez researched the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 — a series of violent clashes during which mobs of U.S. servicemen, off-duty police officers, and civilians fought with young Mexican-Americans or "zoot suiters" and other minorities in Los Angeles. That research resulted in "Kill the Pachuco Bastard!" (2000), a work that is a vivid display of the dehumanization that occurred during that time and was further amplified by the media.

Plan your visit to view this powerful work in Vincent Valdez: “Just a Dream…”, co-organized by @camhouston and MASS MoCA.