It indicates that MoCA is succeeding in creating a core audience for its programming. This is significant, as the audiences for these events are primarily drawn from local residents and tourists who happen to be in town that weekend. ![]() Attendance this summer for performances, including several popular outdoor movies, was solid and there were a number of sold-out events. While MoCA is still a relatively young museum, it has built a solid annual attendance of some 100,000 for exhibitions and another 20,000 for performances and special events. But attendance picked up significantly after reviews of current shows were published in late July and August. His assessment may prove to be true over the long term, but was there a measurable impact on attendance this season, which was reported as booming at Dia and, until mid to late summer "sluggish," at Mass MoCA, as described by Katherine Myers, its spokeswoman? Overall, May/June/ mid July attendance at MoCA was reported as off by 5 to 6 percent from the previous year. Taken together, Mass MoCA and Dia Beacon make for a vivid representation of recent art, all within a two-hour scenic drive." though we share an obvious passion for industrial settings. Mass MoCA's commitment to changing exhibitions and the art of today contrasts markedly with Dia's profile. "Crystalline, grid-like, with a superb permanent collection, Dia is a monument to many of the most profound ideas in the visual arts of the 1960s and ’70s. "Dia is Apollo, to Mass MoCA's Dionysus," says Mass MoCA Director Joseph Thompson. Just how does all this good news for Beacon compare with similar efforts for Mass MoCA, and the ongoing recovery of economically depressed North Adams? Has Dia Beacon stolen the thunder from Mass MoCA? Or, do these enormous facilities complement each other by having overlapping missions? Does visiting one great museum complex whet the appetite to see the other? with a gala round of openings and parties. There are now some 17 galleries and arts organizations with a monthly Second Saturday program, in cooperation with restaurants and area businesses, that stay open until 9 p.m. Rundown Main Street became a haven for low rent antique stores. Its closing represented a serious loss of jobs. The enormous factory complex once housed the printing plant for the Nabisco Corp. The Metroliner station stops in Beacon, a short walk away from the museum.ĭia Beacon has been an immediate shot in the arm for a depressed city. Its relative proximity to Manhattan by car and by train is a major factor. By mid August, the museum had already exceeded its projection of some 60,000 annual visitors. Overnight, with its collection of works by the stars of Minimal Art from the 1960s and 1970s, it has become a world-class art destination. A short, half hour drive from Dia is the renowned Storm King Art Center, which displays outdoor sculpture from its permanent collection and long term loans, on 500 acres of spectacular landscape with mountain views.Ī media barrage accompanied the opening of Dia Beacon last May. ![]() The museum complex, which is 60 miles and some 80 minutes of driving time from Manhattan, is sited on 31 acres. ![]() Dia Beacon is a 300,000-square-foot building complex, with 240,000 square feet of gallery space devoted to an installation of selections from the Dia Art Foundation, which was established in 1974. The ambitious art museum recently relinquished some of its bragging rights and must come up with creative strategies to get back into the spotlight.Īpproximately a two-hour drive from Pittsfield, in Beacon, N.Y., is the newest, largest and arguably most spectacular facility for contemporary art in North America. In the beginning, many in the art world traveled to North Adams just to revel in the space of a sprawling complex of old mill buildings spaciously sited on 13 acres of downtown real estate. The novelty of being billed as the largest contemporary art museum in North America may have lost some glitter for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, now completing its fourth season. ![]() Sprawling Mass MoCA is now coping with an even bigger neighbor By Charles Giuliano 12:00AM / Wednesday, SeptemPrint Story | Email Story
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