Home to MASS MoCA and a number of studios and galleries, the city of North Adams is seeking a cultural district designation for its downtown.Working with the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams is seeking approval from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. BCRC director Jen Crowell says the designation is designed to increase economic and cultural opportunities and could lead to state funding.
“Obviously culture and art are things that every city and town is trying to continue to keep going, but funding is always really difficult to find for it, especially I think in Northern Berkshire,” Crowell said. “So apart from being included on that list of cultural districts, which the MCC highlights on its website, I think we’re also really hopeful that this could be spearheading some really interesting and special projects that the city could be using these funds for.”
Crowell says the decision to apply for the designation was made a few years ago, but leadership changes at BCRC and within the city’s tourism department tabled the application. The MCC’s Cultural District Initiative launched five years ago and 32 areas have received the designation so far. Sections of Pittsfield, Williamstown and Shelburne Falls were among those 32 districts that received a total of $143,000 in state funding in fiscal 2016.
“The real impetus for us is that we really do have so much going for us as a cultural hotspot in western Massachusetts and the Berkshires,” Crowell said. “It’s just a logical designation for us to have. The MCC, who does a lot of work with us, has been encouraging us to apply for this designation ever since the conversation was started three years ago.”
The outline of the North Adams district is yet to be finalized, but the city’s director of community events Suzy Helme says it will be a walkable area encompassing MASS MoCA, Western Gateway Heritage State Park and downtown studios stretching near the MCLA campus.
Inside and out North Adams is home to a number of artistic events such as the Unsilent Night audio walking tour which debuted in the city in December 2014.
Helme says the city is still crafting its application.
“We also make an inventory of our cultural assets which at present is about 20 pages long,” Helme said. “You really realize how many amazing assets we have going for us here and how much we really deserve this designation. We also make a presentation of goals and efforts that we plan to base our cultural district on and implement with that cultural district designation.”
The city is holding public meetings on the application May 10th at 11 a.m. and May 12th at 6 p.m., both at Gallery 51 on Main Street. After the public input, a resolution seeking the cultural district designation will be presented to the North Adams City Council. Helme is hopeful MCC members will tour North Adams this summer ahead of the expected approval
