The summer of Mass MoCA
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 6, 1999) -- The summer season just ended can be summarized in two words: Mass MoCA.

In a summer full of sweeping change on the Berkshire pop scene, no change holds out greater hope for the future than the opening of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. Mass MoCA has simply revolutionized the cultural playing field in the Berkshires. It redefines what we mean when we talk about "culture," and challenges us to rethink our ideas about art and performance.

Conventional categories of theater, music, dance, film, sculpture and such were collapsed by programs like the Robert Wilson/Philip Glass production, "Monsters of Grace," and the Builders Association's "Jet Lag." These performances integrated the various artistic forms in new and exciting ways, blurring the lines between them and suggesting a new world of suggestive possibilities.

MoCA wasn't the only place where genres were being defied. The Tony Oursler exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art, and several performances at Jacob's Pillow, including Trisha Brown's collaboration with jazz composer Dave Douglas, also proved pigeonholes like "dance" and "sculpture" to be leaky and elusive. Astute fans of popular, jazz and experimental music are learning to seek out these artistic alternatives, which even if they do not use "music" as we recognize it, draw their inspiration from the same impulse.

This isn't to say that the conventional concert-going experience is obsolete (although one might certainly argue that point). MoCA presented a few straight-ahead concerts, kicking off its opening with a courtyard party featuring Los Lobos, and hosting an intimate evening with Joan Armatrading on its Hunter stage. A series of dance concerts were also reportedly well-attended and met with enthusiasm.

One looks to MoCA to bring to its concert programming the sort of innovation it shows in other areas. How about a series by boutique performers who appeal to the same sensibility as the Tony Ourslers and Robert Rauschenbergs of the world, people like Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Ray Davies, Yo La Tengo, John Zorn, Gary Lucas, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith and Joni Mitchell?

And if you're going to bring cutting-edge ensembles like the BQE Project and Phillip Johnston's Transparent Quartet to town to accompany silent films, how about snagging them for a separate concert while they're here - or at least an overture or two before the film?

As for the rest of the Berkshires, the shifting scene saw outdoor festivals replacing indoor concerts as the main venue for contemporary popular music. In Great Barrington, the Butternut Ski Area played host to an expanded menu of local and national performers, including the annual reggae festival and the second Berkshire Mountain Music Festival, featuring mostly neo-hippie "groove" bands and white rap acts.

The Noppet Hill Bluegrass Festival in Lanesboro continued to fill a niche in old-fashioned acoustic picking, while Winterhawk Bluegrass and Falcon Ridge Folk, both just over the border in Eastern New York, reportedly attracted record crowds for the cutting-edge performers they feature in their respective genres.

Even with Mass MoCA, music at Butternut and Jacob's Pillow, and the annual festivals, the demise of the "National Music Foundation" in Lenox leaves a void to be filled in terms of conventional concerts for audiences of between 500 and 1,000.

While a restored Colonial Theater might some day provide a venue in Pittsfield for programming along the lines of Northampton's newly-restored Calvin, no one is holding his breath until that or anything else in Pittsfield happens, including Arlo Guthrie's proposed downtown nightclub, in spite of banners to the contrary. We can always hope for the best, but years of experience suggest we prepare for the worst - or at least a long, long wait before anything really happens other than the suggestion that something is "happening."

As for Tanglewood, the august summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra has seemingly opted out of the popular music concert business, apparently content to rely on the in-house box-office bonanza provided annually in the person of James Taylor.

It's hard to argue with the numbers posted by Taylor, to say nothing of his guaranteed-to-please stage show, but Tanglewood probably doesn't need me to remind them that they won't always have James Taylor around to provide this service.

Now is the time to begin planning for the future without him - and the rest of the "Cultural Berkshires" would be well-advised to begin thinking along similar lines. Who will your audiences be in ten or 20 years, and what sort of programming do you think will attract them?

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Sept. 9, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]