“Art, be it music, film, or poetry, should challenge norms and provoke critical thought,” says groundbreaking rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor Saul Williams.

Williams will bring this spirit to MASS MoCA’s Hunter Center to celebrate the opening of Vincent Valdez’s over 20-year survey “Just a Dream…” on May 24.

Though they work in different media, Williams and Valdez are both committed to painting unflinching portraits of America at the margins, calling into question the structures that keep people divided and interrogating ideas of power.

Visit the link in our bio for tickets to this evening of energizing art!

A statement from MASS MoCA Director Kristy Edmunds:

On Friday night, the National Endowment for the Arts sent MASS MoCA an email notification of the termination of our awarded grant for the support of Jeffrey Gibson’s commission “POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT”.

The NEA grant for this exhibition was awarded last year under the prior federal administration in accordance with the rigorous standards of the funding criteria of the NEA. Specifically, it was awarded on November 9, 2023 (edit) with an expectation that receipt of funds would happen this Spring. The NEA’s notification by email reads, in part:

“The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President. Consequently, we are now terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.”

The President’s priorities and agenda are mentioned vaguely, and the notification emphasizes their right to terminate a federal award “by the greatest extent authorized by law.”

In reading our notification multiple times, I am struck by the words being used, how important they are to absorb, and is why I am sharing them here with you as supporters of MASS MoCA.

Read the full statement above, and on our website at the link in our bio.

We love seeing what our visitors are drawn to during their visit, and these photos from Randi Malkin Steinberger`s "The Archive of Lost Memories" offer a glimpse into this treasure trove of an exhibition — just as the the works inside offer glimpses into the lives and loves of others.

Steinberger’s interventions transform the photographs into objects of wonder and mystery. Embellishing these once-forgotten pictures with thread, nail polish, and Rorschach blots, the artist prompts viewers to imagine the stories they hold while acknowledging the stories we bring to them.

Both a residency and installation, Steinberger will be working in Building 8 creating an ever-evolving environment that functions as a studio space, archive, installation, and cabinet of curiosities. The artist invites the public in to witness the daily practice of making and to consider the questions, connections, and possibilities it creates.

📸 : @mishmashwbcr

Mark your calendars for May 24 to get a first look and celebrate the opening of Vincent Valdez: “Just a Dream...” at MASS MoCA’s Opening Preview Celebration.

Working across painting, video, drawing, sculpture, lithography, and multimedia installation — including previously unexhibited and new bodies of work — Vincent Valdez deftly addresses the failings and triumphs of contemporary American society in his first major museum survey “Just a Dream...”

Co-organized by MASS MoCA and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), this exhibition cements Valdez as one of the most important American painters working today — imaging his country, its people, politics, pride, and foibles.

Installation view of Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream..., at Contemporary Arts Museum
Houston, 2024.

Photos by Peter Molick.

This #ThrowbackThursday, we`re traveling back to 2019 when Trenton Doyle Hancock`s "Mind of the Mound: Critical Mass" was installed in our B5 gallery — fully integrating narrative, installation, and performance into a colossal installation.

To supplement his religious upbringing, Hancock turned to comic books and Greek mythology, and at age 10 he invented Torpedo Boy — an alter ego/superhero he still uses today.

At this young age, Hancock began to develop a singular mythology, telling the story of the Mounds (gentle hybrid plant-like creatures) protected by Torpedo Boy, and their enemies, the Vegans (mutants who consume tofu and spill Mound blood every chance they get) exploring narratives of good and evil, authority, race, moral relativism, and religion — all of which informed his truly unique body of work.

Happy #InternationalDanceDay! On this day, we`re looking forward to a weekend full of dance this Memorial Day Weekend.

We can`t wait to welcome Trisha Brown Dance Company up onto the roofs of our sprawling campus for a staging of their iconic "Roof Piece."

For those inspired and wanting to learn more between "Roof Piece" performances, you`re invited to listen in on a conversation between MASS MoCA Director Kristy Edmunds and author of "Trisha Brown: Choreography as Visual Art" Susan Rosenberg in the Research and Development Store. The two will trace the history of the Company and illuminate the ways that Roof Piece changed the field of dance itself.

And for the young dancers among us, join teaching artist Helen Styring Tocci in an exploration of the natural and built environments of MASS MoCA through dance in a Family Movement Workshop.

Start planning your Memorial Day weekend today and see the link in our bio for tickets and more info!

In James Turrell’s hands, light is more than a source of illumination: it is a discrete, physical object. His sculptures and architectural interventions elevate our experience and perception of light and space — creating an environment where architecture disintegrates and brilliant geometric shapes levitate in midair. 

Visit the @massmoca digital guide on @bloombergconnects to learn more about James Turrell’s beloved retrospective “Into the Light,” on view in Building 6: The Robert W. Wilson Building.

📷: James Turrell, “Perfectly Clear.” Photos: Florian Holzherr.

Happy Earth Day! In thinking about the ways that our Earth has been portrayed in art, we`re looking back at MASS MoCA`s 2008 exhibition "Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape."

The tradition of portraying the landscape has threaded together movements as varied as the mid-19th century Hudson River School and the Earth Art of the 1960s and ’70s. "Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape" opened the next chapter in the landscape tradition, addressing contemporary ideas of exploration, population of the wilderness, land usage, environmental politics, and aesthetic beauty. While deeply aware of the legacy of the landscape, each of these artists reinvented the genre to produce works that looked beyond vast beauty to address current environmental issues.

Pictured: Vaughn Bell, "Personal Biospheres," Jennifer Steinkamp, "Mike Kelley," and Alexis Rockman, "South".

"Under a petrographic lens, the ice gives up its stories: particles of dust from volcanoes erupting millennia ago; minute fragments of meteor showers that rained on the planet before civilization as we know it was born.

Closer to the surface are layers of ice that hold the residue of the first belching breaths of the industrial era in the 19th century, the seeds of its demise. Less than a century later, the glacier stopped accumulating ice and began shedding it — releasing history, decade by decade," writes The Boston Globe`s Murray Whyte on Ohan Breiding`s "Belly of a Glacier," on view in Building 4.

See the link in our bio to read the full article and learn more about the exhibition!