A three-and-a-half-hour drive from Manhattan, New York. I wander through vast old buildings and explore installation works. Then, a group of works by James Turrell suddenly appears.
A contemporary art museum located in North Adams, Massachusetts, USA. It is about an hour’s drive east from Albany, the capital of New York State. The museum’s full name is The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
The museum uses a site that was once a factory. On its vast grounds stand huge buildings that still show their industrial past. The first factory was built in the 1870s, and over time, the complex expanded and was renovated. It later passed through several different companies.
MASS MoCA itself was developed into a museum after the last company vacated the factory. It officially opened in 1999.
I park my car in the vast parking lot and enter the grounds. Follow the signs to the building with the reception. Inside the brick building, I can see a clock tower. The place has a historic atmosphere.
At the reception, I hear English with a distinct Eastern accent as I buy my ticket and enter the museum.
First, climb the stairs to the second floor. The museum displays artworks on the darkened floor, in a space roughly 30 by 150 meters. It feels enormous. As I move further inside to view more works, I start to lose track of the best way to proceed.
I go down to the first floor and wander, but soon get lost. A staff member guides me to where I was unsure of the direction, pointing out a space behind a curtain on the far right of the vast grounds. The space measures about 150 by 60 meters, with a ceiling around 30 meters high. Installations hang from above, and I learn that the next area leads out from the opposite end.
I continue walking through the vast spaces, viewing the scattered artworks. Most of the works feel challenging or highly conceptual, reflecting the strong vision of their artists. There are almost no paintings; installations make up the majority of the exhibits.
Personally, the artworks didn’t impress me much, but there was one surprising area at the end. It featured several works by James Turrell.
On the second floor, there are two rooms with his early works. On the first floor, there are five rooms, and outdoors stands the Sky Space building. I counted eight works, though the information sheet seemed to list nine.
One of the works is Into the Light. It allows visitors to enter a space of light and experience it fully, but entry requires a reservation. I arrived just before closing, yet the staff kindly let me in. This work is the same as the one at Japan’s Chichu Art Museum, though it felt slightly larger here.
Since we were the only visitors, I spoke briefly with the male staff member who accompanied us in the room.
He mentioned that James Turrell sometimes makes appearances and shared some updates about the Roden Crater Project in Arizona.
Also, on the grounds, there is a separate building dedicated solely to works by Anselm Kiefer. However, it is only open from late May to late September, so it was closed when I visited.
The main building on the grounds seems to stretch about 300 meters from end to end, judging from both the outside view and walking inside. The restrooms were impressively old-fashioned, and the sinks had a nostalgic design that left a strong impression.
I think the grounds are even larger than those of the so-called “big three” modern art museums: the Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, and MoMA in New York. It was a type of exhibition space I hadn’t seen before. Anyone interested in contemporary art should definitely visit.
Visited in 2025
Basic Information
■ Name : MASS MOCA (The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art)
■ Address : 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, MA, USA
■ Homepage : https://massmoca.org/
■ Others
1) I drove from Manhattan, New York, renting a car there. It took a while to get through the city traffic, but once I cleared it, the drive to the museum was smooth. The trip took about three and a half hours. I could also take a train to Albany, but I still need a car to reach the museum. That’s why I chose to rent a car in Manhattan.
2) At the museum, I spoke with a total of seven staff members: two at the reception, two stationed inside the museum, and three near James Turrell’s works. Their English was quite hard to understand for me.
