We’ve got a great show coming up with Julia Greenberg singing Dory Previn songs on Saturday, August 8.  While all our Alt Cabarets are cool, this one is special for a couple of reasons which Julia detailed in a recent email:

I started doing short sets of Dory’s music last year in NYC. Her step-son found me on facebook because he saw an advertisement for one of the shows, and said that I should send Dory a recording of the shows. I did, and she called me immediately upon receiving it to say how much she liked the interpretations. Since then, I’ve had the chance to talk on the phone with  her  about her fascinating history —from writing music for Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra in the early sixties  to selling out Carnegie Hall as a confessional singer-songwriter in the 70s.

The reason I was so keen to play at MASS MoCA is that Dory and her husband Joby Baker (an actor and painter of some renown) live in Western Mass. When they heard about the show, they invited me to spend the day with them at their home and gave me some obscure recordings to consider performing during my set. I just heard from them today and they confirmed that they will definitely be coming to the show.

Its so fantastic Dory is making the effort to come!

We hope you’ll make the effort to come too!

Its not every day that kids get to learn from a renowned artist, but Tuesday, August 4 and Thursday August 6, will be two days when kids can learn from a pro.  On these days from 9:30-11:00   young artists will combine inspiration from Matt Bua’s collection of found objects in CRIBS and George Cochrane’s unique medium of graphic novels in Long Time Gone to create their own comic strips. Emerging cartoonists will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to work with artist George Cochrane and his daughter, Fiamma, to learn about the art of creating a graphic novel.  In this two part class, they’ll explore Matt Bua and George Cochrane’s exhibitions at MASS MoCA before moving downtown on August 6^th to complete their project and discover more of the artists’ work at their respective galleries in downtown North Adams.

This two-session drop off art class for 6-12 year olds is just $10 per child

Downstreet Art is in full swing in downtown North Adams.  While MASS MoCA has a gallery which features original art for the third chapter of George Cochrane’s Long Time Gone and there’s a spectacular space on Main Street designed by Kidspace artist Matt Bua and created by local students, there are many other galleries.  We’ll be spotlighting one here each week hoping to be able to cover them all by October.

This week, we stopped by 28 Holden Street (the gallery just next door to the Cochrane space) which has a show called Works and Days by Mark W. Mulherrin.  This survey of 39 years of Mark’s work is presented in three parts, you only have a few more days to see the first part, the second part opens on July 30.  (There are many things happening on the evening of July 30, openings, performances and the like, so its a good time to visit if you haven’t yet.)

The first part of Mark’s show was curated by our good friend David Lachman whose you might recognize from our ad campaign).  Chuck Webster curates the second part while Rich Remsberg does the third.

The exhibition consists of works on paper, paintings, installations and text.  Mark’s  work is eclectic — it explores the various consolations of myth, the uses of wit, the mirror of the archaic, what breaks us and what heals.

MASS MoCA Marketing spent the weekend at the Green River Festival, an annual event for the past 23 years at the Greenfield Community College just over the mountain from North Adams.

We were hawking tickets to our upcoming Music Fest with Josh Ritter, Ben Kweller, Kaki King, and Elvis Perkins.  Many, many fans of all those groups at this event.

Weather on Friday was pretty drizzly but Saturday couldn’t have been more beautiful. They announced from the stage around 4 PM on Saturday that the Festival had sold out for the first time ever in its history.  More than 7500 music fans enjoyed a huge line up which included The Winterpills, Chris Smither, and headliner Michael Franti, as well as MASS MoCA faves Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings on the Main Stage and CJ Chenier in the Dance tent.

We applied a lot of tattoos but learned that they don’t stick to kids (or adults) who have been doused with sunscreen which included most of the concert-goers until later in the day.

One of our favorite sights was this group lunching in the shade of the solar panels.

Right in front of us was Alotta Hoopla Hoop with a guy who hula hooped almost all night Friday and most of the day Saturday. One thing we learned — with the right equipment, anyone can hula hoop.

At 6 PM the parade came right by our booth led by a man on stilts who ended up dancing to Sharon Jones with Rebecca.

He was followed by an Octopus and more characters.

They had a great set up for kids near their dance tent where kids could make signs and masks for the parade.

Our friends from Iron Horse stopped by for some tattoos.

What a day, we’ll be back next year for sure.

Even though the summer months are incredibly busy for the MASS MoCA staff we try to break away from our offices every once in awhile to enjoy our beautiful location in the Berkshires and each others’ company. This week we got an invitation to form an Ultimate Frisbee team and play against our not so rival rivals Shakespeare and Company. To be honest the number of us who had actually played Ultimate Frisbee before was very small, but we didn’t let that stop us one bit. After getting together a fairly large number of staff members and interns, we donned our uniforms (if we can’t play well at least we’ll look good!) and headed to Joe Thompson field at the back of the MASS MoCA campus.

The Team!

Showing off our shirts.

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Our friend critic/blogger Tyler Green who’s based in our Nation’s Capital did a swing through Massachusetts and organized his thoughts in a series of “5 Things From…” Blogs.  Here’s his list about us.  You’ll also find his thoughts on the Clark and WCMA as well as other New England and upstate NY spots.

His blog prompts us to ask:  “What are your 5 Things from MASS MoCA (current or past?)”. Post a response and be automatically entered into a drawing to win a pair of tickets to our upcoming Iron Mule Short Comedy Film Festival on August 6.