MASS MoCA

We had a wonderful time this week welcoming the Berkshire Leadership Program’s Class of 2026 to MASS MoCA. Across arts and culture, finance, community services, municipalities, restaurants and retail, high tech and engineering, our region and state’s economic resilience is enhanced by working together. Since its inception in 1997 with 1Berkshire, BLP has graduated over 660 community leaders, equipping them with executive leadership skills, professional development opportunities, and a strong regional network. MountainOne Berkshire Community College Pittsfield Cooperative Bank City of Pittsfield General Dynamics The Berkshire Eagle Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention Berkshire Mountain Bakery Inc Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Beacon Bank RFK Community Alliance Pittsfield Community Television Berkshire County Kids' Place & Violence Prevention Center Coaching and Convening Berkshire Athenaeum Dalton Community Rec Association Commonwealth of Massachusetts photo: from the stage of MASS MoCA’s Hunter Center for the Performing Arts

Join us Saturday, April 25 at 5pm for an intimate conversation with American artist Steve Locke as we celebrate the publication of his first career monograph “Steve Locke: I Said What I Said”, edited by MASS MoCA curator Evan Garza. A reception and book signing will follow. Event info here: https://lnkd.in/gQ2A8jSw Monographs available for purchase at the R&D Store: https://lnkd.in/gTzuaeVN Published by Delmonica Books with MASS MoCA.

We are excited to share that Selby Nimrod has been appointed Curator at MASS MoCA. Nimrod joins MASS MoCA after nearly eight years in curatorial roles at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she served as Assistant Curator at the List Visual Arts Center, and most recently, as Director of Exhibitions and Commons at the School of Architecture and Planning. At the List Center, she curated over a dozen exhibitions including the US museum solo debuts of Kite, Lex Brown, Alison Nguyen, Azza El Siddique, Carlos Reyes, Hana Miletić, Andrew Norman Wilson, and Cindy Ji Hye Kim; Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere (co-curated with Caroline A. Jones and Natalie Bell); and organized the east coast presentation of Nayland Blake’s major survey, No Wrong Holes: Thirty Years of Nayland Blake. https://lnkd.in/e_2W5UYu

NOW ON VIEW: Technologies of Relation, an interactive, multi-gallery 12-artist group exhibition curated by Susan Cross, Director of Curatorial Affairs. ——- Responding to the rapidly advancing technologies that are shaping our daily lives and social fabric, the artists in Technologies of Relation examine how we relate to each other, to our devices, and to our future. These creators see the complexity of our relationships to the digital, avoiding the binary views that frame technology as good or bad, as tool or monster. They embrace how technology can connect us, but also acknowledge how algorithms and A.I. have the tendency to oppress and erase marginalized communities. Artists have been key to identifying the colonialist logic, racism, and violence embedded in and produced by corporate-developed technologies and datasets. Just as crucial as understanding these problematics, this exhibition offers visions of a technological future that is inclusive and liberatory. Exhibiting artists: Morehshin Allahyari; Pelenakeke Brown; Taeyoon Choi; Neema Githere; Mashinka Firunts Hakopian with Dahlia Elsayed, Andrew Demirjian, and Danny Snelson; Kite; Lauren Lee McCarthy; Analia Saban; and Roopa Vasudevan. 📸 Kaelan Burkett

MASS MoCA is excited to announce that Nicole Berry has been appointed to the position of Senior Director of Philanthropy after a nationwide search! Berry brings over 20 years of distinguished, international art world experience to the leadership role, and will help position the museum for transformational growth in its philanthropic initiatives. https://lnkd.in/eiSss3pQ

Always a treat to see blue sky and snow kissed mountains in “Steeple City” North Adams. Happy New Year all! ❤️ #newyear #winter Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1Berkshire

Today the community of North Adams celebrated all the hard work that’s gone into the Route 2 Overpass Study which envisions a future for the City without a four lane highway running through its core. Pedestrian bridges, redesigned intersections, access to the river and new opportunities for greening, housing and local businesses are all possible. The visioning study, conducted by Stoss Landscape Urbanism was made possible by a Reconnecting Communities grant from the US Department of Transportation, and was secured by the City of North Adams in partnership with MASS MoCA. The program’s intent is to repair the damage done from roadway and infrastructure construction generations ago, which ripped apart communities like North Adams. Notably, national competition for these grants was fierce; North Adams was both one of the only rural communities and the smallest community (population-wise) to receive this grant–a testament both to the hard work put into the grant proposal but also to the compelling need for positive change in the City. Commonwealth of Massachusetts Download the full report here. https://lnkd.in/eWe-TBRS

Vincent Valdez was listed on Artforum International Magazine’s Top Ten Art of the Year! 🎉 "As is made clear here, his work serves as a living testament to the vibrancy, nuance, and complexity of Chicano culture in the United States and its ongoing reinvention." Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream... is the artist’s first major museum survey and spans over two decades of his work, from early career drawings to current allegorical portraits. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) is proud to have shown this exhibition earlier this year. Read the full Top Ten Art list by Pablo José Ramírez here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ezEjEXiX Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream... is now on view at MASS MoCA through April 5, 2026.

Every day at MASS MoCA, we see what happens when artists have the space to dream — and when communities from near and far gather to share in the dynamic artistry that makes this place so vital. Despite the cascade of challenges and cutbacks in federal funding, MASS MoCA continues to be a tangible beacon for why creative communities working together are more important than ever. Your support makes this possible: because of you, artists take bold creative risks, audiences encounter new ideas, and programs continue to thrive as a place for artists to experiment, reflect, and grow. Every supporter and every dollar matters greatly to our sustainability; make your year-end gift today: https://lnkd.in/eJJgX4vt.

Following a nationwide search, Susan Cross has been appointed to the new position of Director of Curatorial Affairs at MASS MoCA. In this role, she’ll guide MASS MoCA’s curatorial vision and strategy alongside Director Kristy Edmunds — supporting ambitious exhibitions, artist-centered practices, and MASS MoCA’s next chapter of growth. Cross has a longstanding history and commitment to the museum, serving as Senior Curator and recently as Interim Director of Visual Arts. Coming to MASS MoCA from The Guggenheim Museum (New York), Susan joined MASS MoCA six years after the museum opened its doors, and is the museum’s longest-serving and senior-most curator. In her time at MASS MoCA, Cross has curated over 40 exhibitions, including career-defining surveys of the work of Alex Da Corte, Spencer Finch, and Cauleen Smith; major large-scale commissions by Katharina Grosse and Liz Glynn; the first solo museum exhibitions of artists such as Sarah Crowner and Allison Janae Hamilton, and noteworthy group exhibitions ranging from Ceramics in the Expanded Field to The Workers which probed currents in the field and the greater sociopolitical landscape. She has developed over 70 new commissions and published over 20 catalogues and monographs. Cross is the curator of the upcoming group exhibition Technologies of Relation on view at MASS MoCA beginning February 21, 2026. 📸 Greg Nesbit