For Immediate Release
10 January 2017
Contact: Jodi Joseph
Director of Communications
413.664.4481 x8113
jjoseph@massmoca.org
MASS MoCA is free for all on February 4
Community art projects, live music, dance, and gallery tours
NORTH ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS — The 2017 edition of MASS MoCA’s for all visitors lands on Saturday, February 4, from 11am to 7pm. Enjoy elevator music (played live), art-making, gallery tours, and pop-up performances when our galleries teem with visitors and activities for all. If you haven’t seen artist Nick Cave’s celebrated exhibition Until, now’s your chance. Jazz artist Steven Bernstein’s Universal Melody Brass Band caps off the night with a ticketed performance of funky classic hits in the Hunter Center at 8pm.
A pop-up photo booth, human sculpture contest, take-home projects, and other art activities happen all day long. In Cave’s massive exhibition, which inhabits MASS MoCA’s largest gallery, Free Day visitors are invited to create a community Post-it mural in collaboration with North Berkshires for Racial Justice, or participate in a symmetry project in Sarah Crowner’s Beetle in the Leaves. Multimedia video artist Hope Ginsburg will give two drop-in gallery talks and guides visitors within the Explode Every Day: An Inquiry into the Phenomena of Wonder exhibit.
During Free Day, Kidspace artists-in-residence Huck Elling and David Lane unveil art projects that they created with 4th and 5th grade students from the North Adams Public Schools and the North Berkshire School Union. The projects will be exhibited in the Kidspace gallery with a ribbon-cutting event to honor their public debut.
Every half hour, from 11:30am through 6:30pm, gallery tours will be offered by museum staff, including specialized art, history, and family tours. Visitors will find live music in an oversized freight elevator throughout the day. Berkshire Dance Theatre, dysFUNKcrew, and the Williams College step team will perform in the afternoon. Pop-up concerts will happen in the galleries all day long. Check massmoca.org for a full schedule of activities and events.
Lickety Split, MASS MoCA’s museum café, offers a Free Day menu, including their famed macaroni and cheese and a hot dog bar. The café also will serve dinner beginning at 6:30pm before The Universal Melody Brass Band takes the stage at 8pm for a horn-driven funk dance concert.
Known for his bandleader efforts in Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band, The Lounge Lizards, and Sex Mob, Bernstein returns to the MASS MoCA stage with an eight-piece horn section. Drummer Billy Martin of Medeski Martin & Wood drives the beat home.
During the show, a full bar serves Berkshire Brewing Company beers and Berkshire Mountain Distillery spirits. Tickets are $16 in advance, $10 for students, and $22 day of. Tickets for all events are available through the MASS MoCA box office located on Marshall Street in North Adams, open 11am to 5pm every day except Tuesdays. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during box office hours or purchased online at massmoca.org. All events are held rain or shine.
Sponsorship
Free Day is sponsored by Berkshire Gas, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and The Berkshire Eagle.
Images
High-resolution images of MASS MoCA’s spring 2017 events are available through this link: bit.ly/MMWinterSpring2017
About MASS MoCA
MASS MoCA is one of the world’s liveliest (and largest) centers for making, displaying, and enjoying today’s most important art, music, dance, theater, film, and video. MASS MoCA will nearly double its gallery space in spring 2017, with artist partnerships that include Laurie Anderson, the Louise Bourgeois Trust, Jenny Holzer, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and James Turrell.
Gallery admission is $18 for adults, $16 for veterans and seniors, $12 for students, $8 for children 6 to 16, and free for children 5 and under, through May 24, 2017. Members are admitted free year-round. The Hall Art Foundation’s Anselm Kiefer exhibition is open seasonally, spring – fall. For additional information, call 413.662.2111 x1 or visit massmoca.org.
Hours
11am to 5pm, six days a week (closed Tuesdays)