There's 4,000 windows at Mass MoCA and I've probably met 4,000 local humans as well during that time period. Q: What have you done to advance Mass MoCA's mission since you came here?Ī: The first has been, obviously, listening deeply to the community, the city of North Adams, the Northern Berkshires. So it's always been compelling to me and alluring to me to imagine and in this case now following up the heritage of what Joe, the trustees, the state, the government, the city, the region and artists all around the country and the world have put into this, and now I carry it forward. They had hundreds of thousands of square feet of space of a long abandoned industrial factory building that they needed to figure out how to adapt, reuse and manifest for the purpose of contemporary art culture inside a small and rural community. ![]() Joe and everybody here had the exact opposite problem. We were going in and out of warehouses to do exhibitions, we were going to performing arts centers or local theatres to create the content and programming of our mission to the public. I was in Portland running the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art at that time. We're fascinated when something that seems impossible is actually going to take a run at it. Q When you were hired you were quoted in a news release as saying, "I was fascinated by Mass MoCA when I first learned about it decades ago." What fascinated you so much?Ī: I think Mass MoCA fascinated a lot of the art world. It's approaching both with the same amount of I would say integrity and acumen as you possibly can. You have to find a way to detect where the future is going and get there. So you have to really have a willingness to listen. In the not-for-profit cultural world our business models shift and evolve rapidly. It's not like you're just managing the status quo and dusting it off all the time. As a leader and manager of an organization, it's the same thing. As an artist you approach problem-solving constantly and you have to find different ways to do it. Q: Do you like creating art better or working in arts management?Ī: Actually, I don't think it's that different to be honest. I'm going to start a nonprofit that embraces the gap between the cultural ecology in that time period and I will have to learn, very steep learn, what executive leadership is." I have good instincts collaborating on the community. So that was really the moment when you go, "Huh I'm an artist. Not too long after that I founded a not-for-profit organization that was called the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. So that was one of the first major professional jobs that I had out of grad school. That was when I was first introduced to major not-for-profit infrastructures, how they work, what a board of trustees is, what is arts management, how do you do all those things, and upholding a mission. So I was working at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Ore. But when you're a working artist and you step out of graduate school it's not all of a sudden that the world embraces your ideas. Q: How did you get involved in arts management?Ī: I was a working artist first. Located in a large former industrial complex, Mass MoCA has both room and gallery space to accommodate all forms of art. ![]() Mission: The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is one of the world’s liveliest centers for making and enjoying today’s most evocative art, according to its website. Location: 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams. So it effectively put me in the pursuit of the arts as an artist. So while I grew up in not the urban centers of the art world that I would be introduced to later in my life, I was supported in creative ways to solve problems and a talent for making things. A lot of my family members were artisans or hobbyists that kind of stuff. Instead of having it shut down, it was encouraged by my mother. Q: How did you become involved in the arts, and why did you decide to make it a career?Ī: I think as many young people often do it's sort of like I noticed and my parents noticed that I had a creative mind. We spoke with Edmonds recently about why she pursued art as a career, why she went into management and her vision for Mass MoCA coming out of the pandemic. Edmonds uses elements of both as executive director of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, a position the native of Washington state has held for the past 18 months.
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