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New Museums Seen As Transformative For Northern Berkshires

Two former Massachusetts governors were in North Adams Saturday to announce new efforts to continue the city's transformation from an industrial-based economy to a tourist destination.Former governors Michael Dukakis and William Weld joined North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright and MASS MoCA visionary Thomas Krens at Western Gateway Heritage State Park for a press conference attended by about 75 people. The site is one in a series of heritage parks established across Massachusetts under Dukakis in the 1980s. The former railroad yard is home to businesses, a restaurant and the city’s history museum, but truly transformative development has languished, according to Alcombright.

“The potential within the boundaries of this historic location, its connection to our industrial past, its connection to our railroad and its relevance to the city have never been fully realized,” said Alcombright.

Krens outlined plans for a 32,000-square foot extreme model railroading and architecture museum at the site, calling the concept a theme park for people four to 104.

“Trains used to be toys,” Krens said. “These are no longer toys. This is a Union Pacific Challenger and there’s a company in Michigan that does extreme research to be able to make an exact model replica. It’s an operating O-scale [with] operating computers. They can be programmed to do virtually anything. They can be programmed for scale-speed, they have all kinds of sounds, you can program the tracks and you can avoid collisions. They are amazing devices.”

Krens expects the railroading museum to showcase detailed replicas of cities and iconic buildings like Grand Central Station with 50 to 100 trains running at one time. The museum would require about 60 employees in addition to 60 construction jobs. Dukakis says he’s been very frustrated with the heritage park program, especially the one in North Adams, which was created to celebrate railroading.

“Back in the 80s when we just beginning to talk about MASS MoCA, it was so hopeless here,” Dukakis said. “People were just despairing of whether or not North Adams and North County could come back. Believe me, we had tried almost everything and nothing seemed to be working until Tom Krens comes along and says ‘We can do a museum in the Sprague mills.’ It sounded like a crazy idea, but it turned out to be a not so crazy idea.”

Krens’ other project is a 160,000-square foot global contemporary art museum at the city’s airport. Ideas for the building include using all natural and no artificial light featuring wide open spaces — built at less than $200 per square foot.

“What we’re talking about is building a large, efficient and inexpensive exhibition space that would showcase a whole new echelon of contemporary art,” Krens said. “It would fit perfectly between what MASS MoCA is doing with artists in-depth and what The Clark is doing. Our idea is that this would be entirely privately financed because there are people who are interested in building collections and seeing those collections on display.”

With the two downtown projects and the art museum on Route 2, Weld says the new attractions will solidify a six-mile cultural corridor between North Adams and Williamstown.

“It’s another step in the road to realizing that the arts and cultural offerings of western Massachusetts are arguably superior to those east of Route 495,” said Weld.

Krens also announced a renewed push to revitalize the 1,200-seat Mohawk Theater, which opened in 1938, as a site for film festivals. He says the theater, MASS MoCA and the model railroading museum will create a triangle of attractions within downtown North Adams. With further study coming, Krens says the projects are at least two years off.

Jim is WAMC’s Assistant News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
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