Arts & Culture

"Museum Town" Documentary About MASS MoCA

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Sarah LaDuke

Published May 30, 2019 at 11:33 AM EDT

In 2017, MASS MoCA became the largest museum for contemporary art in the world, but just three decades before, its vast brick buildings were the abandoned remains of a shuttered factory.

Jennifer Trainer's new documentary film, “Museum Town” tells that story.

“Museum Town” shows how a small rural Massachusetts town went from economic collapse to art mecca. “Museum Town” will be the closing night film for this year’s Berkshire International Film Festival, screening at 7 p.m. on June 2 at The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

An early and longtime director of development and public relations for MASS MoCA, Jennifer Trainer is now the President & CEO and Hancock Shaker Village. “Museum Town” is her first movie.

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Sarah LaDuke

Sarah has been a public radio producer for over fifteen years. She grew up in Saranac Lake, New York where she worked part-time at Pendragon Theatre all through high school and college. She graduated from UAlbany in 2006 with a BA in English and started at WAMC a few weeks later as a part-time board-op in the control room. Through a series of offered and seized opportunities she is now the Senior Contributing Producer of The Roundtable and Producer of The Book Show. During the main thrust of the Covid-19 pandemic shut-down, Sarah hosted a live Instagram interview program "A Face for Radio Video Series." On it, Sarah spoke with actors, musicians, comedians, and artists about the creative activities they were accomplishing and/or missing.

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