Studios at MASS MoCA

I wonder if there were factory workers’ spirits at the Studios at MASS MoCA. I was at the residency there for two weeks in April. The Studios at MASS MoCA is a residency program for working artists organized by the museum’s Assets for Artists Initiative. 

While I was at the Studios at MASS MoCA, I was working from morning till late night, as if cranking up many hours on my invisible timesheet. I worked quietly like a cat, listening to my neighbors making noise and any sounds from outside. My studio windows overlooked adjacent brick building. It wasn’t exactly a view – or maybe not a view at all, but it provided a nice consistent natural light coming from the windows. I liked seeing the weathered bricks on that building.

It was a privilege to be on the MASS MoCA campus. The 16 acres of the MASS MoCA ground was once a booming one factory-campus, going back to the colonial period in the late 1700s with wholesale shoe manufactures; a brick yard; a saw mill; cabinet-makers; hat manufacturers; machines shops; marble works; wagon and sleigh makers and so on.

From 1860 to 1942, Arnold Print Works operated fabric-printing business, and built 25 of the 26 buildings in the present-day MASS MoCA complex by the end of the 1890s. At one point, they employed some 3,200 people. I noticed the paintings of strange looking figures on the pillars under the Route 2 bypass, which I could see from my bedroom window in the apartment. They were the Arnold Print Works Dolls. They were printed on the cloth and sold as cut-and-sew kits from 1892 to 1920. Every morning, as I opened the blinds I looked down to see if those dolls were still there. They look like trolls hiding underneath the bypass.

From 1942 to 1985, Sprague Electric Company operated their business while making extensive modifications to the interiors to convert the former textile mill into the state-of-the art electronics plant but leaving the most of the building exteriors as they were. Sprague physicists, chemists, electrical engineers, and technicians were called upon by the U.S. government during the World War II to design and manufacture crucial components of some of its most advanced high-tech weapon system. To my dismay, this included the atomic bomb. Spague was a major research and development center at that time, employing 4,137 workers by 1966. But as many of the manufacturer companies in the U.S. were forced to close their business from declining sales due to overseas competition for lower-price, Sprague was not an exception. The company closed its operations in North Adams in 1985.

MASS MoCA sits on this 16 acres of grounds that is rich with history and operates in these historical 19^th century former mill buildings. The brick buildings reveal many different generations of their former occupants. It is also wonderfully complex with strange pathways to connect buildings. But one of the most wonderful things about MASS MoCA is the ginormous space for artwork. It is both spectacular and breath taking, at the same time, it is also challenging and scary for many artists, especially the football field length gallery space.

Having a studio in one of these buildings on the MASS MoCA campus made me work like those factory workers. Were there any ghost factory workers in our studio? I often wondered what those workers did for fun after work. Did they go out for drinks after work? My fun was stepping into MASS MoCA to see art whenever I wanted, even after hours.

*Historical information was taken from MASS MoCA's website: