To celebrate our ten years in existence I asked my fellow staff members to write their own top ten lists for MASS MoCA. Contributors include our new interns, our director, and all sorts of staff members in between. Enjoy!

Top 10 favorite places (public and non public) at MASS MoCA

Joe (Director)

1. The Powerplant
2. 4^th floor mezzanine, LeWitt Building (it’s open to the public, but many have yet to find it.)
3. Inside the top of the clock tower (though the pigeon guano is intimidating)
4. Backstage at the Hunter Center
5. Building 5 Mezzanine Gallery, overlooking the big gallery
6. Courtyard C pavilion
7. Richard Criddle’s metal working shop
8. Sam Donato’s paint shop
9. The B&G workshop
10. The Chiller Room

My Top Ten MASS MoCA Memorable Moments/Things

Chiara (Box Office Intern)

1. The Elephant
2. The Upside Down Trees, specifically laying underneath them in the sunshine.
3. Miss Rockaway Armada
4. Tree Turbine
5. Getting Dizzy in Lewitt
6. People watching in the café
7. Eating yummy ice cream at Lickety and fabulous calamari at Latino
8. Late night walks to sit in Cribs and peering into the instillation and de-instillation of exhibits.
9. Listening to the music under the bridge and at Natural Bridge.
10. Being a part of a friendly, warm and welcoming MoCa family. :0)

Hard to chose but these are the Top Ten Performing Arts shows in my honest opinion

Katherine (Manager of Marketing and PR)

1. Dean & Britta
2. Of All the People in All the World
3. Anouk Van Dyck STAU
4. Rewind: A Cantata by Philip Miller
5. Bill Frissell
6. Martha Redbone
7. Mission of Burma
8. People Are Wrong
9. Toshi Reagon
10. Mosquitos

Top Ten Experiences I’ve had while putting up posters for MASS MoCA

Cortney (Current Marketing Intern and soon-to-be Education Coordinator)

1. Getting free fudge at the candy shop in Shelburne Falls.
2. Taking an (accidental) 8 mile detour looking for Southern Vermont College.
3. Finding really cheap gas in Wilmington, VT. And it was full service!
4. Chatting with Jim, the Yankee Candle Store owner in Adams.
5. Getting caught in a torrential downpour in Lenox. With no umbrella. Twice.
6. Scoring a like-new copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for $5 at the World Eye Bookstore in Greenfield.
7. Smelling fertilizer all the way from Charlemont to Greenfield during the spring days.
8. Learning the locations of the cleanest public restrooms in a 60 mile radius of MASS MoCA.
9. Seeing a flatbed truck carrying 25 life-sized white moose statues roll down Main Street in Bennington, VT.
10. Putting over 4500 miles on my car in the last 5 months.

Top ten things that have happened since I’ve started work at MASS MoCA

Alec (Box Office Intern)

10. Being confused if the trees are upside-down or if I’m about to lose consciousness.
9. knowing I won’t have to make myself a fort at home because there is one right outside the MoCA building.
8. Being told the box office is restricted because there is money back there and knowing it’s really to protect the candy stash.
7. Finding out the Experimental Black Box is bigger than most normal theaters I’ve been in.
6. Finding out that the other interns are just as weird as you were afraid they would be.
5. Knowing that their weirdness is only comparable to your own.
4. Finally meeting people who care about art and aren’t just worried if they don’t like something means they aren’t cultured.
3. Meeting happy people who have found out how therapeutic art really is.
2. Worrying that I might not know anything about art.
1. The relief in realizing that don’t know anything about art.

Ten things I’m looking forward to this summer in no specific order through the eyes of an intern…

Rachel (Performing Arts Intern)

1. Bang on a Can and all of it’s glory
2. Buying new point shoes and dancing on the Marley of the hunter center
3. Aimee Mann whom my father will greatly enjoy
4. Giving tours of the galleries
5. Meeting and working/playing with the other interns
6. Music Fest!!!
7. Babe and the Blue Ox
8. Project Bandaloop
9. Meeting artists….. (let’s jam.)
10. BEING A PERFORMING ARTS INTERN AT MASS MoCA!!!

Over the past 9.5 years that I’ve worked over the years…
They are in no specific order… (* go in two categories)
Meg (Company Manager)
Top 10 Concerts/ Alt Cabaret

1. Bela Fleck & Edgar Myer
2. They Might Be Giants
3. The Mosquitos
4. Tiger Lillies
5. Suzanne Vega
6. Zapp Quartet
7. Ozomatli
8. Medeski, Martin, & Wood
9. Martha Redbone
10. John Scofield

Top 10 Residency

1. Bang on a Can
2. Laurie Anderson – The End of the Moon
3. Stan’s Café – Rice Project
4. Crewdson – Twlight
5. Headlong Dance Company – Hotel Pool
6. Ibrahim Quraishi – Five Streams
7. Anouk van dijk – STAU
8. Mark Mulcahy – Slugbearers of Karol Island
9. Terry Allen – Ghost Ship Rodez
10. Cynthia Hopkins – Accidental Nostalgia

Top 10 Dance

1. MOMIX
2. Pilobolus
3. Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane
4. Nanine Lining
5. David Neumann (*)
6. Emio Greco (*)
7. MCLA Dance Company
8. Ron K. Brown – Evidence
9. Martha Bowers – Dream Life of Bricks (*)
10. DELFOS

Digg | Del.icio.us | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit