Happy 2010! Last year my colleagues had such a fun time compiling their Best of 2008 lists that they requested that we do a Best of 09′ Blog! Below are our picks.

Noticing something we missed? Add your own Best of 09′ lists to the comments!

Best news story of 09’ (National)

* President Obama inaugurated.  (Staff favorite!)

* Balloon Boy.  (Rebecca R, Membership)

* Michael Jackson death/funeral. Following his death, MJ’s Facebook page earned the title of most popular celebrity Facebook page, beating out President Obama who previously held the record.  (Kacey, Kidspace)

* Senate passes health care reform bill.  (Daryn, Development)

Best art piece featured in the MASS MoCA Galleries

* Pawel Wojtasik’s Below Sea Level.  (Staff favorite!)


* Guy Ben-Ner’s Moby Dick.  (Amelia, Finance)

* Simon Starling’s  Nanjing Particles.  (Jodi, MM Store)

* Sam Taylor Wood’s Prelude in Air and Escape Artist. (Primary Colors) (Rebecca R.)

* Robert Taplin’s Everything Real Is Imagined (After Dante). (Meg, Performing Arts)

Best performance at MASS MoCA

* Dean and Britta 13 Most Beautiful Songs . (Katherine, Marketing)

* Bang on a Can performs Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians.  (Daryn)

* Steve Reich on LeWitt; Emio Greco; MASS MoCA Music Fest.  (Sue, Performing Arts)

* Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings at the 10th Anniversary Ball.  (Rebecca R.)

* MASS MoCA music Fest and Anouk van Dijk DC: Shotz.  (Meg)

Best Non-MASS MoCA related event or art piece

* Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir at Sanctuary for Independent Media.  (Katherine)

* Misty Blues at The Alley. Gina Coleman and Justin Webster together must posses half of the entire lung capacity in all the Berkshires!  (Jodi)

* Through the Seasons: Japanese Art in Nature at the Clark Art Institute’s Stone Hill Center.  (Daryn)

* TBA Festival in Portland OR . (Sue)

* ICP’s Dress Code exhibition.  (Rebecca R.)

* Street Car Name Desire at Barrington Stage Company.  (Brittany, Marketing)

Best North Adams Event

* Beach Day. (Brittany)

* Fall Foliage Parade. Loved seeing all of the floats from the surrounding Areas. And MASS MoCA winning 3rd place float wasn’t too bad either…  (Cortney, Education)

* Downtown Celebration.  (Meg)

* DownStreet Art.  (Katherine & Sue)

* Mayoral election. Great to see people really come out and take a stand for the future of the city.  (Jodi)

Best statement overheard at MASS MoCA

* Said between two artists creating the Big Bang in You Art What You Eat: “Oh my God, we might run out of blue shark Gummies!”  (Laura, Kidspace)

* Overhead at HARDWARE: “I really love this store. It’s just as cool as the ICA store, except you can really buy stuff, because everything here is affordable.”  (Jodi)

* “You have to go check out the bathrooms. They’re the best part of the museum.”  (Rebecca R.)

* “This place keeps going and going and going like the Energizer bunny.”  (Meg)

* My 9 year old quoting Sol LeWitt to explain conceptual art to someone.  (Katherine)

Miscellaneous

* Best news about MASS MoCA in 2010:  Gramercy Bistro moving into the old Cafe Latino space.  (Rebecca R.)

* Best culinary discovery in North Adams: Jalapeno cheese tater tots at Jacks Hot Dogs. They aren’t listed on the regular menu, but are by far the BEST thing there!  (Cortney)

* Best Hardware retail item: Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine (please bring it back!)  (Daryn)

* Best new word added to the dictonary: Unfriend, the term used to remove someone from your Facebook profile, was named Oxford’s Word of the Year and added to the distionary in November, 2009.  (Kacey)

* Best themed days of the year: Talk like a pirate day and national post card writing day.  (Brittany)

Cheers,

Brittany

MASS MoCA Fest artists Josh Ritter and Ben Kweller joined the marketing department (MacKenzie and Brittany) for a tour of MM. This is a photo log of their adventures.

Taking a break from the galleries we headed down to the lobby and made a B-line for cafe Lickety Split. Josh couldn’t decide what kind of Herrell’s ice cream he wanted, so he got two bowls.

After our snack we headed back toward the galleries. Before we got inside we ran into one of our Performing Arts interns Simon who suggested that Josh and Ben meet with Sue the Managing Director or Performing Arts.

We found Sue outside taking a look at one of our outdoor venue spaces. Sue and the boys hit it off quickly, so we spent the next hour chatting in the courtyard.

Sue invited Josh and Ben to take a look at the backstage area of our main theater, the Hunter Center. We took a quick break in the green room and Josh enjoyed a beverage while we where there.

Wonder what Josh and Ben did next during their visit to MASS MoCA? Stay tuned for a run in with a disco ball and and Josh Ritter look-a-like!

In the mean time help us spread the word about MASS MoCA Fest happening on August 15.  Post our e-flier (below with HTML code) on your favorite social networking sites by August 13 and we’ll enter you into a drawing for FREE tickets! Just send me a link  to every site you post the flier on at bbishop@massmoca.org (subject line: MASS MoCA Fest E-Flier). You can also e-mail the flier to your friends, just make sure to CC me on the e-mail.

500 x 710 E-flier

<a href="http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=480">
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2452/3765377289_22756b894e_o.jpg"
border="0" /></a>

Thanks for you help!

Cheers,

Brittany

MASS MoCA Fest artists Josh Ritter and Ben Kweller joined the marketing department (MacKenzie and Brittany) for a tour of MM. This is a photo log of their adventures.

After dragging Josh and Ben away from the To Cribbage sculpture outside, we entered the lobby and made a B-line for the Box Office. Famous musicians or not everyone needs a ticket at MASS MoCA. As Ben pointed out they make great souvenirs. Our Box Office intern Alec had the honor of handling the transaction.

We suggested the guys stop at the Ask Me desk to check out the gallery guides and decide which exhibitions they really wanted to visit. They were quite excited to see that we offer tours everyday. We made plans to join a tour later in the day.

Ben was so excited about the tour that he forgot to throw his beverage away before entering the galleries. Our security guard Ryan stopped him before he got inside and laid down the law!

Wonder which exhibition the guys went to first? Stay tuned for Josh and Ben riding a bicycle… in the galleries!

In the mean time help us spread the word about MASS MoCA Fest happening on August 15.  Post our e-flier (below with HTML code) on your favorite social networking sites by August 13 and we’ll enter you into a drawing for FREE tickets! Just send me a link  to every site you post the flier on at bbishop@massmoca.org (subject line: MASS MoCA Fest E-Flier). You can also e-mail the flier to your friends, just make sure to CC me on the e-mail.

500 x 710 E-flier

<a href="http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=480">
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2452/3765377289_22756b894e_o.jpg"
border="0" /></a>

Thanks for you help!

Cheers,

Brittany

Yesterday we were delighted to find out that MASS MoCA Fest artists Josh Ritter and Ben Kweller were visiting the museum. My intern MacKenzie and I met them in the parking lot and offered to show them around the spaces. The singers were incredibly nice and quickly agreed to let us photo log their adventures through MASS MoCA.

We started with a photo op at the big yellow arrow pointing from the parking lot.

Then Josh and Ben took a few moments to bask in the shade of the upside down trees.

Deep in conversation about their musical processes we invited them to lounge in the rubber tubing chairs in the To Cribbage building built by current Kidspace artist Matt Bua.

Worried that they wouldn’t have enough time to see everything in the galleries if we let them stay, we encouraged Josh and Ben to actually go inside the museum but first we had another photo op with our yellow signage.

Wondering what happened next? Stay tuned for Josh and Ben getting their tickets and an unfortunate brush with security…

In the mean time help us spread the word about MASS MoCA Fest happening on August 15.  Post our e-flier (below with HTML code) on your favorite social networking sites by August 13 and we’ll enter you into a drawing for FREE tickets! Just send me a link  to every site you post the flier on at bbishop@massmoca.org (subject line: MASS MoCA Fest E-Flier). You can also e-mail the flier to your friends, just make sure to CC me on the e-mail.

500 x 710 E-flier

Copy and paste this HTML Code:

<a href="http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=480">
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2452/3765377289_22756b894e_o.jpg"
border="0" /></a>

Thanks for you help!

Cheers,

Brittany

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

A blog from Membership Manager Rebecca Rice:

I’ve been working at MASS MoCA for a year, and I’m still fascinated by the museum and the long industrial history of our campus.  For example, did you know that Arnold Print Works, which operated on our campus from the 1860s until 1942, produced cloth for Union Army soldiers’ uniforms during the Civil War?

Or that we’re constantly defying physics and gravity with our art?  In 2004-2005 we suspended nine cars from the roof Read the rest of this entry »