Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
Thanks for digging deeper.
I write seeking your financial support.
By now, 76 days have passed since MASS MoCA’s last performing arts event, and 68 days since the last visitor graced our galleries. Much has transpired:
In short, we’ve done the work necessary to sustain MASS MoCA during the COVID-19 closure, and to allow it to safely re-open with grace, style, and, we hope, fun.
But we are not done.
When the museum re-opens, there is no doubt that our circumstances will be radically changed, and constrained. I don’t know whether it will be MASS MoCA 2004, or MASS MoCA 2013, but I know for certain that it will not be MASS MoCA 2019. For one thing, our vibrant performing arts program will be greatly reduced, for at least a while. Our diverse audience, which had grown from 70,000 a year in our early days, to over a quarter of a million visitors annually over the last several years, will likely be reduced. Some commercial tenants who occupy this campus with us (and who support MASS MoCA’s programs with their rent) will likely struggle as the economy, and society as we knew it, slowly re-engage. Our financial reserves will be significantly diminished, both by the market and by our need to draw upon them to survive.
So, the challenges will continue for many months, if not years, and, in short, we need your help.
As it stands today – and assuming our galleries can re-open in some form this summer, but also assuming that our performing arts program will be significantly curtailed well into the fall or winter – I believe we need to at least double the bridge funding raised to date, over the next 6 months. Those assumptions could prove optimistic, in which case our funding needs will grow.
If you are willing to donate funds to our COVID-19 Relief Fund, please do it now, and do it knowing that a long-time supporter of MASS MoCA has pledged a matching challenge gift of $250,000, if we can triple it by the end of May. With about $250,000 to go, we are getting close. To meet the challenge will require a few hefty contributions, for sure, but also lots and lots of smaller gifts. Every single dollar matters.
Donate here by credit card, or better yet, save us the 3% credit card processing fee by simply sending a check, c/o Paulette Wein, MASS MoCA, 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.
Sincerely yours,
Joseph Thompson
Director
P.S. I recently wrote a short thought-piece to explain why museums can be among the best places for us all to begin to re-gather, safely, with the right procedures in place. If you’re interested, here it is.