Every museum has a well-kept secret.  Whether it’s a stolen sketch, a haunted hallway, or a hidden painting tucked beneath another print, such covert wonders are proudly guarded as they help form each cultural hub’s individuality.  Today we reveal one of our favorite secrets—Phyllis Criddle.  You may not have heard of her (yet) because we have been keeping her all to ourselves.

Though only 23, she’s worked at MASS MoCA for 7 years, more than half the life of the museum! Starting as a member of the Art Fab crew, she went from working with hardware to working at Hardware, the MASS MoCA Store, where she is now the assistant manager.  Phyllis does more than run the store.  She has created a custom line of MASS MoCA clothing and accessories, embodying the museum’s mission of catalyzing new, bold art, which includes her famed Wilco dress (seen above, modeled on Phyllis).

Her first MASS MoCA creation was a dress crafted from the museum’s logo-splashed t-shirts.  Completely hand-sewn and definitely one-of-a-kind, the dress was rumored to be purchased by one of the creators of the video game phenomenon Rock Band.  His wife even appeared at MASS MoCA this past summer, wearing the dress to the Bang on a Can Festival.  Phyllis also was commissioned to create Katharina Grosse inspired tablecloths, which were draped over every table at the museum’s 2011 Benefit in New York.

The buzz around Phyllis has recently grown ever since she debuted her Wilco fashion line, created out of hundreds of wristbands from the Solid Sound Festival held at MASS MoCA.

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On her last day our wonderful marketing intern Kathryn offers these reflections on her summer at MASS MoCA.

Family dinner

 

The summer is coming to a close, and I cannot believe how fast my time at MASS MoCA came and went. I still feel like I just sat down at my desk for the first time, with a lovely note from the previous intern Marissa. Yet, in reality I’ve experienced a ton of new things, seen some amazing art and performances, and best of all, I’ve met some truly incredible people (especially my fellow Summer Interns of 2011: Porkshire Edition) Read the rest of this entry »

Our delightful education coordinator Cortney Tunis had her last day at MASS MoCA on Friday. (She moonlighted as our t-shirt model too as you can see.)   She shared this blog about her memorable MASS MoCA moments from the last few years here.

The past two and a half years have been filled with many triumphs during my time here at MASS MoCA. I haven’t written a blog since I was an intern here, but I figured my last duty as MASS MoCA Education Coordinator could be to share what I consider to be my “Personal Best Ofâ€� list: the highlights of my time here at the museum. So, here goes (in no particular order): Read the rest of this entry »

Curator Susan Cross on the  Wassaic Project:

Our neighbors from down the street in Wassaic were here at MASS MoCA for the  Solid Sound Festival.  If you aren’t already familiar with The Wassaic Project (run by three Williams College grads: Eve Biddle, Bowie Zunino, and Jeff Barnett-Winsby), we hope you had the chance to learn more about this exciting arts organization.

Located in a sprawling agricultural complex in the hamlet of Wassaic, New York (located off Route 22 right near the Metro North train line), this artist-run space hosts an international residency program (with studios in the gorgeous Luther Barn – see above photo) and features art exhibitions and works by their artists-in-residence in the towering grain elevators of the former Maxon Mills (photo below).  Their annual music and arts festival drew over 2000 fans in its second year in 2009, and this year the festival (August 5^th-7^th) will include 100 artists, 25 bands, poetry readings, dance performances, film screenings, and more.

The Wassaic Project offers artists and audiences a unique setting for making and engaging with art while working to save the historic buildings of Wassaic and engage with the local community. And admission to their exhibitions and the festival is FREE! (Donations welcome).

Their vision and energy are inspiring, and we love to think of them as a sister institution.

For Solid Sound, The Wassaic Project partnered with the Bureau for Open Culture to bring artists Breanne Trammell and her kite-making workshop as well as Jen-N-Outlaws Fish Fry Truck and Crawfish Boil to MASS MoCA.

The Wassaic Project is having a fundraiser on July 9^th from 5:00 to 8:00pm. I’ll be making remarks to celebrate the great work the Wassaic Project is doing at 6 PM.

Here’s the low down on Glenn Kotche’s installation for  Solid Sound from our director Joe Thompson:

I caught MASS MoCA staffer Cody Johnson mounting the first of six speakers to be installed down the 100’ long elevated walkway leading from our lobby to the LeWitt building.  The speakers will be used to create a sound sculpture by Wilco’s magical percussionist Glenn Kotche, for the upcoming Solid Sound ’11 festival.

One of the greatest things about Wilco is the way the band’s aesthetic interests cast such a wide wake, parts of which wash up on MASS MoCA’s shores in felicitous ways.

Guitarist Nels Cline (who just released a fantastic new album with alto saxophonist Tim Berne, and drummer Jim Black) for instance, will be joined by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore in what promises to be a mind-bending set.  Fans who attend the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival here will fondly recall Thurston’s electrifying performance at our 2006 Marathon…which loops me back to Glenn Kotche, who also performs from time to time with Bang on a Can, perhaps not surprisingly, given Glenn’s experimental turn of mind, and his use of intricate, often visually stunning instrumentation. Those of you who attended Solid Sound ‘10 will remember Glenn’s elegant, playable, handiwork placed throughout the LeWitt Wall Drawing Retrospective, which Jeff Tweedy named inGLENNtions.

This year, using the LeWitt walkway as a sort of sonic preamble for the band’s newest (and still unreleased) work, Glenn will orchestrate audio snapshots sampled from the recording process from the band’s upcoming album.  The result of his “fly-on-the-wall� recordings was a rich collection of overdubs, full band tracking, fragments of meal conversations between band members, pinball games and playbacks.   For the LeWitt walkway installation, Glenn selected six of his favorite recording fragments for each of the six speaker locations.

And then, in Glenn’s own words, “I  used the drumbeat that opens the record as a guide for their arrangement – assigning one recording to each voice of the beat.  The rhythms of each voice determine when tracks are audible or muted.  The result is a collage of behind-the-scene mini-clips of our recording work over the past 11 months. Each speaker has a dedicated collage that loops, going in and out of phase with the other 5 speakers over the course of the festival.�

This is one of a half dozen or so Wilco-specific exhibitions that will be installed June 24-26. Look for it when you come to Solid Sound. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that tickets are still available.

In honor of the upcoming 2011 Solid Sound Festival, (just two weeks away) which will be featuring 20 live bands including the one and only Wilco, we have found some of the best Flickr pictures from last year’s festivities. Along with the sweet music; art, comedy and falconry… yes… falconry, will all be in the mix this year. These photos are just a little reminder on what an amazing experience the weekend was in 2010, and definitely an insight into what you can expect this time around.

For those of you who have waited until the last minute to get your tickets, visit Solid Sound now!

Also, for a new addition to this year, MASS MoCA and the City of North Adams have teamed up and created the Solid Ground Tent Site for overnight stay. Camp out within walking distance of the museum, downtown merchants, restaurants, and of course bars at a totally affordable price. Watch and see:

So, if you have no place to stay for this awesome weekend, give our Box Office a call for details and reservations, 413. 662 .2111