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North Adams To Pursue Legal Path On Pillar Art Controversy

A man at a podium looks at a row of seated people at a series of tables. They sit before a wood panelled wall in a room lit with long flourescent lights.
Josh Landes
/
WAMC
North Adams Mayor Tom Bernard addresses the North Adams City Council at its first meeting of 2020.

Two and a half years after MASS MoCA abruptly painted over public art made by children in North Adams, Massachusetts, city leaders are calling for answers.

Tuesday night was the North Adams City Council’s first meeting of 2020 – and the first after November’s election. Among other issues like the stalled repairs to the water damaged public safety building roof and a $71,000 analysis of the city’s sewer system, the body heard a communication about a long simmering issue from councilors Marie Harpin and Jason LaForest.

“The North Adams children’s pillar art documenting the history of children labor in our many mills was art created by our public school children on city-owned property in 2012. This art represented a deep history of North Adams and the printing industry that built what is now the MASS MoCA complex," said Harpin. “One of its primary intentions was to create a pathway between the community and MASS MoCA, the past meeting the future – the joining together of people of different cultures and generations who share the same city. In May of 2017, with no documented communication, the children’s art was painted over with gray paint by MASS MoCA, because the museum believed the children’s art disrupted the sound art installed in 1998.”

The city does not have an official contract with any artist involved with the pillars. The art was sealed with an anti-graffiti coating.

“Due to the two and a half year failure to resolve this disappointing loss of public art created by our public school children, we request the city council take action to resolve the matter fairly, timely, and with transparency,” continued Harpin. She cited attempted resolution efforts from the artists behind the murals – communications with MASS MoCA, applications to the public arts commission, meetings with the mayor, and a petition signed by over 400 people, not all of them North Adams residents.

“There has been a disjointed approach by multiple parties – the city, MASS MoCA, and the artists – to resolve this issue," said LaForest. He says the museum contends there is an agreement in place concerning the Harmonic Bridge installation on the pillars beneath Route 2 in downtown North Adams.

“Councilor Harpin and I met with Joe Thompson – the director of MASS MoCA – yesyerday, and he indicated that there was a contract between MASS MoCA and the artists indicating that there would be a long term or permanent exhibition," said LaForest. "The pillars are owned by the city.”

The installation – comprised of two 16-foot-long resonating tubes, microphones, and speakers – was made by artists Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger. LaForest quoted their artists’ statement.

“’The sound focuses one’s attention on the majestic columns, the grand scale of the area, which – combined with the droning, somehow sacral tones – brings to mind a gothic nave,’” he read.

LaForest moved to amend the communication to not just send it to the general government subcommittee, but to the city solicitor as well. He framed the move as an effort to step carefully through a complex legal scenario, noting that the Harmonic Bridge piece was installed years before the murals were painted.

“And the argument is made, therefore, that the children in painting on those pillars, which had become the intellectual property of the original artist, were in fact defacing that art," said the council vice president. "The counterargument is that when MASS MoCA painted over those murals, that MASS MoCA was defacing and vandalizing the art that the children put in place.”

The amendment passed, with a return date of February 25th from the general government subcommittee.

MASS MoCA did not respond to request for comment in time for broadcast.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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