Fab Marketing Intern Jess imagines what it might be like if MASS MoCA and one of her favorite guilty pleasure television shows combined.

Last time, on MUSEUM’S NEXT TOP MODEL, we explored how to pose with a controversial piece so that you don’t ruin your career later.  Some of you were exceptional, posing with just the right amount of professionalism to call on the experience in future interviews, but with an appropriate distance so that the artwork could be cropped out if it tanks.  However, one of you did not come through with enough art in her eyes, and is no longer in the running to be MUSEUM’S NEXT TOP MODEL.

This week, we will be posing with LEGENDARY artist Iñigo Manglano Ovalle and his piece Gravity is a Force to be Reckoned With at the LANDMARK contemporary art museum, MASS MoCA.  Each of you will be called upon to pose with Iñigo’s upside-down house to provide scale for his own portfolio documentation.  This is an amazing opportunity to be seen by artists all over the world, but comes with a challenging twist.

For this shoot, you will need to appear as NORMAL PEOPLE.  This is harder than any pose I have called on you to do this far and it will make or break your career on MUSEUM’S NEXT TOP MODEL.

Now, as I told Intern Jess on her way to being MUSEUM’S NEXT TOP MODEL, you are not trying to BE normal, you are only trying to LOOK normal.  That means you must remember all that I have taught you, and find ways to STAY FIERCE IN THE FACE OF ANY AND ALL ADVERSITY.

1.  SMIZE (smile with your eyes).  It is SO important, girls, to ALWAYS be smiling with your eyes, even when you are sad or tired or hungry or pregnant.  The smize this shoot calls for is an intellectual smize: one that says, “I understand this art, and I like it.�

2.  DO NOT LOSE YOUR NECK.  So many models forget that they have one, and it is just a TRAGEDY.  Do not be introspective and tuck your neck down like a sleeping duck.  YOU ARE SWANS.  Raise your heads high!  Look at that upside down house!  Crane to see inside it!  Make yourself ugly-pretty!

3.  DO NOT POSE LIKE A HOOCHIE.  This is an art shoot.  It is SERIOUS BUSINESS.  There is no need for shenanigans.

4.  BE YOU.  A BIGGER, BETTER YOU.  Sometimes you will come to a shoot and the photographer wants someone else.  At this shoot, the artist wanted a man.  Do not waste your time trying to be someone you’re not—it gets very expensive.  BE THE NOUN AND NOT THE VERB.

5.  MODEL THROUGH IT.  I always tell my girls to have their favorite music playing during a shoot—it will kick your poses up 10 notches!  This shoot was silent, which was a CHALLENGE.  Solution: PLAY THE MUSIC IN YOUR HEAD AND MODEL ON.

Now, go!  Be art models!  I BELIEVE IN YOU BECAUSE BEAUTY COMES FROM INSIDE AND YOU CAN BRING YOUR INSIDES OUTSIDE BUT NOT IN A LITERAL WAY BECAUSE THAT IS GROSS.  You are all still in the running to be MUSEUM’S NEXT TOP MODEL.

Berkshire denizens were lucky to have the opportunity last week to see Black Grace perform at Williams College’s ‘62 Center. It was an amazing performance and Meredith, a former dance student who now spends her days working as part of our performing arts department, was struck by the connections between Black Grace’s performance and our upcoming show on April 9 and 10 by Stephen Petronio Dance Company. We asked her to write it down for us and here’s what she told us.

Both Neil Ieremia of Black Grace and Stephen Petronio use dance to explore the mixing of fashion and design with a dazzling sense of physicality that results in relentless complexities of form. Working with weather as  a  metaphor and source of inspiration,  each choreographer utilizes a sort of scientific aesthetic  — duets fold into groups, into clusters, into storms of movement that, though depersonalized by abstraction, leave the viewer feeling emotional and united with the dancers despite their epic virtuosity.

Neil Ieremia looked at weather as a metaphor for human migration and the emotional correlations one can imagine from the quote included in his program notes: “I have always believed in the spirit of the Long White Cloud that embraces everyone equally. But after reading these claims and reviewing passages of my personal journey, I realise the Long White Cloud has become dark in places and it feels like a storm is breaking.â€�

This combination of clustered spatial patterns and dynamic energetic and tempo shifts resulted in a humanist resolution of the conflict spurred by racist claims of an economist, Greg Clydesdale, who warns that Polynesians display “significant and enduring under achievement” – a problem he believes immigration is making worse

Petronio approaches weather as a force to be reckoned with. He sees the relentless capacities of weather as a reflection of the storms his company has weathered through its 25-year history, and looks forward to the rolling waves with  anticipation and accomplishment. Like a howling sea captain, Petronio shows his true colors and creating a new work rather than a retrospective; this fearless choreographer is certainly not ready to rest on his laurels ( though there are plenty).

Each show offers a tri-fold combination of formal beauty, impressive virtuosity and epic explorations of humanity through dance — what I believe to be the most human form. By exploring weather, a subject that constantly reminds us how much we are at its mercy yet that we influence through our every action, in a form that is so tied to what we can control, our own bodies, both choreographers offer you a restless sense of empathy and connection to the performance.

Just another reason why dance so  awesome.

Did you see Black Grace?  What did you think?

A long time ago in a gallery far, far away…

Our courageous heroes aboard the Millennium Falcon have found their way out of the turbulent core of the MASS MoCA Galaxy. The outer edges of the galaxy, however, are not so different from the interior planets and star systems and Han and Chewy must remain bright-eyed and bushy-tailed if they are ever going to make it out of this galaxy in one piece.

They find themselves slipping through a narrow gap after Chewy absentmindedly steered them directly towards an asteroid. And the two pilots had to perform some cunning and agile aeronautics to get themselves through that tangled mess of an moon-sized, run-down power station. Read the rest of this entry »

This past Saturday we invited our patrons visiting for FREE Day to flash their pearly whites for our Photo Booth. Throughout the day we had over 400 people stop by and share their smiles.

You can find all the photos on our flickr page and our Facebook page. Browse thorough them, find your own photo, or tag your friends!

Cheers,

Brittany

Video Vortex = a weekly installment of our favorite videos from MASS MoCA artists and trailers for upcoming events, plus a few random viral creations as well.

Afro-Cuban Hip-Hop Dance Party

After our Annual FREE DAY we encourage you to let down your hair and let your hips shake all night long at the Dance Party! Here is a video from Pedrito Martinez and a look at some Afro-Cuban Hip-Hop Dancing.  Not ready to shake it? Don’t worry we’ll have dance instruction beginning at 8 PM.

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

No one can rock sparkles quite like Grace!

69° South: The Shackleton Project

Want to know a little more about Sir Ernest Shackleton before the Phantom Limb company turns his voyage into a work-in-progress in March? Check out this video from NOVA for a quick primer.

Cheers,

Brittany

PS.  I promise that you will not need to know these moves for the Dance Party… but maybe they will come in handy at the skating rink?

Cheers,

Brittany

Thanks to everyone who entered into the Yes Men Caption Contest! Max won the pair of tickets and a Yes Men Fix the World Poster for his clever use of product placement.

“H-Suit, because sometimes a Snuggie(tm) is not enough.”

Keep your eyes on the blog for more Lie! Cheat! Steal! and Fake It! Caption Contests.

Yes Men Fix the World will screen in Club-B10 at 7:30 PM THIS Thursday, February 11.

Cheers,

Brittany