On Monday and Tuesday, September 13 and 14, at 7:30 P.M., Laurie Anderson will perform a new solo work-in-progress, The End of the Moon, at MASS MoCA. This new piece will also feature a blend of stories, songs, and instrumental music; and will be a provocative look at contemporary American culture. The End of the Moon is designed as a companion to her recent solo work Happiness, and was inspired in part by her experiences as first ever Artist-in-Residence for NASA.
“After using a lot of technology for years, I’m trying to work with as little equipment as possible,†Anderson explained. “Also I’ve been experimenting with putting myself in unfamiliar and awkward situations so this piece will include a kind of report of these experiences.â€
In the past, Anderson has used MASS MoCA to perfect some of her experimental work -- in two sold-out performances in December 2002, Anderson largely abandoned the electronica for which she had become famous, and incorporated storytelling and acoustic music.
Laurie Anderson's O Superman launched her recording career, rising to number two on the British pop charts and subsequently appearing on Big Science, the first of seven albums for Warner Bros., including Mister Heartbreak, United States live, Strange Angels, Bright Red, and the soundtrack to the feature film Home of the Brave. Anderson has toured the world numerous times with shows ranging from simple spoken word performances to elaborate multimedia events.
Anderson's work as a visual artist has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Prada Gallery in Milan and throughout Europe and the United States.
Anderson has created numerous videos and films, and she has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme and dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Melissa Fenley and others. She has created pieces for National Public Radio, BBC, and Expo 92 in Seville. Recognized worldwide as a leader in the pathbreaking use of technology in the arts, Anderson continues to devise new creative tools.
Laurie Anderson’s showing is part of MASS MoCA’s MASS Manufacturing series. In its role as a laboratory for contemporary art, MASS MoCA established MASS Manufacturing artist residencies to provide performing artists, theatrical innovators, dancers, visual artists, and musicians the opportunity to develop and explore new works. Each MASS Manufacturing residency culminates in a public work-in-progress showing.
The artists use the showings to try out new ideas and gauge audience reaction to the work and have often welcomed questions and feedback after the performance.
Artists who have participated in MASS Manufacturing residencies include Shirin Neshat, David Dorfman, Lee Breuer and Basil Twist with Mabou Mines, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women, among others. MASS MoCA serves as a testing ground for works that explore new territory, and employ new media and materials.
The institution shares the behind-the-scenes process of creation with visitors and artists alike, often challenging the conventional distinctions between artistic disciplines and forms.
The Laurie Anderson work-in-progress performance is sponsored by Berkshire Gas and funded in part by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer, Inc., with additional support from ASCAP, the Virgil Thomson Fund, and with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets for Laurie Anderson’s Work-In-Progress showing of The End of the Moon are $15 for adults or $10 for students. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. daily through September 7; starting September 8 from 11 A.M. until 5 P.M., closed Tuesdays. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.
MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located on Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.
Kidspace at MASS MoCA Receives Grant From Renewable Energy Trust to Increase Programming and Promotion
Kidspace at MASS MoCA, a contemporary art gallery and workshop space for children, families, and the general public, recently received a $23,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust (RET) to increase the impact and extend the reach of its current exhibition, Wind Farm (on view through September 6, 2004). Funding is being used primarily to make Kidspace more accessible to the public during the summer by increasing the hours the gallery is open.
New this year, the gallery is open for free to the public every day in July and August from 12 to 4pm. During these hours, visitors can view the Wind Farm exhibition and create their own art projects (mobiles or wind socks). The exhibition also features a resource area where visitors can read fiction and non-fiction books and view a video about wind energy.
The grant supported recent summer art classes for pre-schoolers and their parents, 5 to 8 year olds, and 9 to 12 year olds, as well as art materials for Kidspace. In addition to students who paid a nominal fee, scholarships for art classes were offered to six students from the North Adams and North Berkshire School Districts. These students participated in Wind Farm programming during the school year and demonstrated an interest in the arts.
In the art classes, students created mobiles, watercolor paintings, and origami pinwheels. The grant also provided for administrative expenses, including the promotion of events and activities, and staff and interns to oversee art classes and public hours.
In the fall, the RET grant will be used to make Kidspace’s extensive interdisciplinary teacher curriculum available to classroom teachers throughout the nation on Kidspace’s web site (www.massmoca.org/Kidspace) and will be linked to RET’s web site (www.masstech.org). The curriculum activities suggest ways in which teachers can connect the study of wind to their science, language arts, and visual arts curriculum areas.
Activities include: how to build an anemometer; poetry-writing about wind; collaging the wind; examining wind as a metaphor in music and stories; and, researching the impact of wind turbines on a community.
Also in the fall, the grant will support the creation of a 2005 calendar with wind-inspired artwork made by students in classrooms statewide and from local students who regularly work with Kidspace. It will also feature images from the Wind Farm exhibition. Kidspace staff will organize the artwork and write descriptions of lively, educational wind activities for the classroom. The calendar will be available in December and will be distributed free throughout the state by RET.
Wind Farm—part two of the Earth, Wind, and Desire exhibition series—has transformed the Kidspace gallery into a sea of metallic, wood, and feathered kinetic sculptures set against a backdrop of large photos of wind turbines.
The group exhibition features photographs by Carrie Baker and kinetic sculptures by Tim Prentice, Pedro S. De Movellan, and William R. Bergman. Baker of Montpelier, Vermont, takes evocative photos of wind turbines throughout the country. Her large-scale images give the viewer a vivid sense of just how impressive these giant machines are in real life.
Prentice, of West Cornwall, Connecticut, built a series of sixteen identical lightweight metal turbines with brightly colored yellow feathers for blades. His piece hangs from the ceiling and is turned by air from a heating vent. De Movellan of Chatham, New York, created a 50-foot long red sculpture of painted steel which incorporates fans on timers to rotate the sculptural pieces propeller-style.
Bergman of Albany, New York, designed sculptures that take a different approach to kinetic art. His work allows visitors to create wind using innovative mechanical devices and hand cranks to bring his work to life.
Kidspace at MASS MoCA is a joint program of the Williams College Museum of Art, the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, and MASS MoCA. Additional funding has been provided in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (a state agency), the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant to Williams College, the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, the Ruth E. Proud Charitable Trust, the Hearst Foundation, and the Brownrigg Charitable Trust in memory of Lynn Laitman.
MASS MoCA, housed on a 13-acre campus of restored 19th-century factory buildings, is the largest center for contemporary art in the country. During the winter, MASS MoCA’s galleries are open every day except Tuesdays, from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. Admission is $9 for adults, $3 for children 6-16, free for children under 6 and free for members at all times. For additional information, call (413) 662-2111 or visit www.massmoca.org.
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State Fire Marshal Offers Cold Snap Heating Safety Tips
STOW, Mass. —With temperatures expected to dip into the teens overnight this week, Massachusetts State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine is reminding residents to stay warm safely and protect their loved ones from some of the most common home heating fires.
"We're expecting very cold weather in the nights ahead, and home heating appliances will be working overtime," said State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine. "Heating equipment is the leading cause of carbon monoxide at home and the second leading cause of residential fires. Whether you're using gas, oil, solid fuel, or space heaters to keep warm, be sure you keep safe, too."
State Fire Marshal Davine said there were nearly 6,000 heating fires in Massachusetts from 2019 to 2023. These fires claimed eight lives, caused 139 injuries to firefighters and residents, and contributed to over $42 million in damage. And in 2023 alone, Massachusetts fire departments reported finding carbon monoxide at nearly 5,000 non-fire incidents.
Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms
Every household needs working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on every level of their home. Check the manufacturing date on the back of your alarms so you know when to replace them: smoke alarms should be replaced after 10 years, and carbon monoxide alarms should be replaced after 5 to 10 years depending on the model. If your alarms take alkaline batteries, put in fresh batteries twice a year when you change your clocks. If it's time to replace your alarms, choose new ones from a well-known, national brand. Select smoke alarms with a sealed, long-life battery and a hush feature.
Natural Gas and Oil Heat
If you have a furnace, water heater, or oil burner, have it professionally checked and serviced each year. This will help it run more efficiently, which will save you money and could save your life. Always keep a three-foot "circle of safety" around the appliance clear of anything that could catch fire. Never store painting supplies, aerosol cans, or other flammable items near these appliances. If you smell gas, don't use any electrical switches or devices: get out, stay out, and call 9-1-1 right away.
Residents struggling to pay for heating bills or maintenance may be eligible for assistance through the Massachusetts home energy assistance program (HEAP). No matter what type of heating equipment you use, HEAP may be able to help you pay your winter heating bills or maintain your heating system. All Massachusetts residents are encouraged to explore eligibility for this free program and apply for assistance.
Solid Fuel Heating
If you use a fireplace or a stove that burns wood, pellets, or coal, always keep the area around it clear for three feet in all directions. This circle of safety should be free of furniture, drapery, rugs, books and papers, fuel, and any other flammable items. To prevent sparks and embers from escaping, use a fireplace screen or keep the stove door closed while burning. Use only dry, seasoned hardwood and don't use flammable liquids to start the fire. To dispose of ashes, wait until they are cool and shovel them into a metal bucket with a lid and place it outside at least 10 feet away from the building.
Have your chimney and flue professionally inspected and cleaned each year. Most chimney fires are caused by burning creosote, a tarry substance that builds up as the fireplace, wood stove, or pellet stove is used. If burning creosote, sparks, embers, or hot gases escape through cracks in the flue or chimney, they can cause a fire that spreads to the rest of the structure. Annual cleaning and inspection can minimize this risk. Contact the Massachusetts Chimney Sweep Guild or Chimney Safety Institute of America to identify reputable local companies.
Space Heaters
Keep space heaters at least three feet from curtains, bedding, and anything else that can burn. Plug them directly into a wall socket, not an extension cord or a power strip, and remember that they're for temporary use. Always turn a space heater off when you leave the room or go to sleep.
When purchasing a space heater, select one that's been tested and labeled by a nationally recognized testing company, such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL) or Intertek (ETL). Newer space heaters should have an automatic shut-off switch that turns the device off if it tips over. Unvented kerosene space heaters and portable propane space heaters are not permitted for residential use in Massachusetts, State Fire Marshal Davine said: the risk of fire and carbon monoxide poisoning that they pose is too great.
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