Mass moca museum north adams1/9/2024 ![]() An enthusiastic supporter of MoCA, Thomas frequently volunteers during performances and other special events. Rose Thomas, who worked at Sprague for several decades, believes that many residents’ have unreasonable expectations for the museum. But there’s not enough that happens at MASS MoCA for it to spill out and benefit the rest of the community. She was on Holden Street which is not far from MASS MoCA and she was hoping to get some of the overflow traffic from MASS MoCA and when there were events at MASS MoCA she was, you know, pretty successful. I think people are always willing to start their own shops in North Adams. My wife had a consignment-clothing store. Melito has seen first-hand the limited impact that MASS MoCA has on the local business community. It’s great that tourists come in, but MASS MoCA has not been a job creator for the people of North Adams and it tends to be an island unto itself so that when people come to visit North Adams, they stay on the MASS MoCA campus and they don’t leave for whatever reason so the tax breaks go to MASS MoCA, the dollars go to MASS MoCA, but there’s not a lot of jobs for local people. So why do I say that? You know, it’s great that there’s a world-class museum in that building. North Adams is better that it exists, but North Adams is not nearly as well off as the hype would like us to believe. MASS MoCA? I give a big sigh because it’s better. Is MASS MoCA here for, tourists or residents? And can both groups benefit? Like Martin, former North Adams resident, Steve Melito, questions who benefits from MASS MoCA. However, all the little fingers that come off of it. I don’t think MoCA itself gives back that much to the community. When Sprague went out and MoCA came in, many people resented the whole thing. We didn’t have to worry about anything that was going on anywhere else unless it was a major war. I think it did change the face of North Adams in that it made us more aware of the rest of the world. Robin Martin, a lifelong resident of North Adams, credits Mass MoCA with connecting the city to life outside the area. Even so, MASS MoCA cannot fill the place of a single large employer the way Sprague did, which still is anchored to the North Adams identity. The museum both has failed and succeeded in meeting residents’ expectations. It seemed important to revisit the relationship between North Adams and MASS MoCA and examine its role in North Adams’ changing identity from a post-industrial factory town to a tourism-focused, culture hub, placing North Adams in the international sphere. In 2016, MASS MoCA is on the precipice of another huge expansion project, largely funded by the state. But residents also worried over the lack of jobs in the city and whether an art museum could bring an economic revival. At that time, many believed that as long as Sprague’s former buildings were unoccupied, North Adams would remain stuck in the shadow of the factory’s closing. After Sprague closed in 1985, much of the community saw MASS MoCA as a beacon of hope for the struggling economy. The museum draws thousands of tourists to North Adams every year, but local residents’ views of the museum remain mixed. MASS MoCA opened in 1999 and, since then it has become the largest contemporary art museum in the country, garnering praise and visibility.
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