NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Mass MoCA Commission on Monday welcomed a new artist and a new administrator at the museum. 

 

Christopher Pollock was approved an art-making gallery space of almost 500 square feet on the first floor of Building 13 at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art beginning Sept. 1. He creates sculptures in natural materials and metal and mobiles that he described as "picture a Calder with paddles that look like a reptile." His work can be seen here.

 

Pollock said he and his wife, Chrissie, moved to Hancock five years ago and he has been looking for a makerspace for some time. 

 

"I just want a place to make make art," he said. "I've been making it in a small, small, little space and it's nice to expand."

 

His said his hours would probably be Thursdays to Monday or Tuesdays, but could change depending on his travel. The makerspace will also allow him to sell his work directly to the public. 

 

"I've always had other people sell for me and I've never had a public, exposed makerspace. It has always been my garage or my shed or barn," he said. "So I'm excited. I'm excited to be working where there'll be other artists, too. It's always been kind of solitary. So this will be a new experience for me." 

 

Deputy Director Tracy Moore said the museum has looked at Building 13 as space for creative practice and cultural partners, noting Assets for Artists is in the building, Gary Lichtenstein Editions. "So we're thrilled to have Christopher and his wonderful work join the fray there," she siad.

 

Moore also introduced Morgan Everett, the new head of public initiatives and real estate for the museum. 

 

Everett was most recently director of government relations and real estate development at the Sundance Institute in Park City, Utah, which operates the Sundance Film Festival. At Mass MoCA, he will oversee tenant leasing operations and public initiatives in real estate in ensuring a "healthy creative campus as aligned with Mass MoCA strategic plan," he said. 

 

He said he moved his family to the Berkshires, seeing a "unique and beautiful place."

 

"With so much history and incredible sense of place, joining an organization and a region that's alive with possibilities and that's what brought us here," he said, adding that he saw a lot of similarities with Park City, a defunct mining town that's turned into "a world class resort destination" because of the influx of arts and recreation and entrepreneurs over the past 40 years. 

 

Moore told the commission on that the museum will kick off its 25th anniversary on Memorial Day weekend next year. 

 

"We'll celebrate for an entire year through the following May so look forward to having all of you join, celebrating Mass MoCA's  incredible beautiful history and looking forward to all the possibility as Morgan mentioned, in our bright future ahead," she said. 

 

The 13-acre campus that had been occupied by the Arnold Print Works and later Sprague Electric Co. opened to the public on May 30, 1999. Then the largest contemporary art museum in the world, it had been more than a decade in the making and its impact on the city was still an unknown.

 

Since then, the museum's nearly doubled in size and has an estimated $52 million annual economic impact on the region. 

 

Of course, that was before the pandemic, when it was seeing 160,000 visitors are year. Moore said the numbers are coming up. 

 

"We've been having a great busy summer as I think all of you know it's been robust and exciting and energized on campus," she said. "Getting close to our prepandemic numbers of high season attendance, not quite there, but getting there."

 

More than 6,000 people had attended the Modest Mouse/Pixies concert on Saturday night and the three-day Fresh Grass Festival returns at the end of the September. 

 

In addition, the museum has opened the Research and Development Store on the first floor in Building 4. This is the second retail space in addition to the gift shop in the lobby. 

 

"It's a combined gallery and retail space that also has public programming," Moore said. "We've launched a series and an author talk series this summer corresponding with our Chalet dates, and other event dates on campus."