It feels like a very Berkshire moment, to walk into the Mass MoCA courtyard on a spring afternoon and run across Nicholas Rigger, assistant director of MCLA Arts (and co-founder of Hexagon Bagels), and Molly Rideout, assistant director of Assets 4 Artists … and get an early glimpse of a group art show coming in June.
They are coming together, A4A and MCLA’s Galley 51, to show the work of the first five Iris Residency artists at Mass MoCA. Last year, the Studios at Mass MoCA and The Berkshire Immigrant Center opened a program for artists in Western or Central Mass. who were born in another country, or identify as first or second generation American.
So, on a summer night, we will have the chance to see artwork from Cima Khademi, Clemente Sajquiy, Marina Dominguez, Hanna Sobolieva, and Shailja Patel and dance to live music in the galleries.
I was thinking about all the threads that weave together in our quiet downtowns to make a gathering like this. … And I walked around the corner, into the Bear and Bee, and found the book that gives the show its name — Migritude, by poet, activist and artist Shailja Patel, based on her internationally touring one-woman show.
We have plans stirring. Trees are flowering through downtown. Mass MoCA is fixing the roof over Building 5. Summer is on the horizon, and the afternoon is mild enough to talk outside. I can feel the warmth of it as I wander behind the scenes and find the words of a writer new to me and read a poem recalling moonrise in the Rift Valley.
A sign announces books outside the Bear and Bee Bookshop in North Adams on a sunny day.
Crabapple trees bloom at the Milne Library in Williamstown, and Gulnur Mukazhanova, a Berlin-based artist, shows fiber art inspired by her native Kazakhstan, in Eluding Capture at Mass MoCA.
Williamstown's Milne Library glows with ligted windows at dusk and trees in bloom.
More events coming up …
You can find more in the BTW arts and events calendar …
