Williams Helps Form Museum of New Art

If the Massachusetts state legislature passes the appropriate bill before the end of the year, the world's largest museum of contemporary American art and architecture may soon be located in the Berkshire town of North Adams, thanks in large part to the efforts of nearby Williams College.

The proposed museum, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass-MoCA), would exhibit works of American art from the 1960s and 1970s donated by private collectors and artists, school and city officials said.

Mass-MoCA would operate independently of Williams, but members of the school's faculty are helping to select the museum's art and the college museum's director, Thomas Krens, is the chief planner and negotiator for the proposed museum's long-term art loans.

Professors at Williams say they are looking forward to the proposed museum. "To have students be able to look at these works in situ is a great ching," said Matthew Rohn, assistant professor of art.

Because works of contemporary art are sometimes too large to be put in an ordinarysized museum, the extra-large Mass-MoCA would provide students with an unique opportunity to see works of art that would other wise remain in an artist's studio, Rohn said.

Should the museum bill be passed, the donors of the works exhibited could include Charles Saatchi, Bob Morris, and Count Giuseppe Panza DiBiumo, and perhaps Williams College itself, said Sally Shafto, assistant to the director of the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA).

Besides the academic benefits to students, Director of the Northern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce Thomas King said he hopes Mass-MoCA will bring increased business, employment and tourism to the area.

Lots of Red Tape

The establishment of the Mass-MoCA depends on the state House of Representative's passing a complicated $150 million Convention Center bill, of which $35 million would go to the museum. The House Ways and Means Committee is examining the bill before presenting it to the full House.

Should the bill fail to reach the floor before December 31, it will die in committee, causing a breakdown in the planning of the museum. The donor of the land, Sprague Technologies, and the art collectors have committed themselves only until the end of 1987, after which the land and the art may go to other owners.

Members of the North Adams community fear that other, less popular projects for which the bill also provides funding could prevent it from passing or even from ever reaching the floor of the House.

"If we could separate the Mass-MoCA from the rest of the bill, it would pass with no problem," King said.

King said other projects--including the Hynes Auditorium with its $300 million deficit--have made the bill unattractive to the Ways and Means Committee, which may keep the bill in committee rather than present it to the full House.

But Ways and Means Press Secretary Ann Murphy said that although the bill will not be on the House agenda in the immediate future, the other projects are not preventing it from reaching the floor.

"The people [of North Adams] are being told that the bill is being held up because of a couple of projects, but this is not so. The committee still studying the bill," Murphy said.

On Monday, the North Berkshire Chamber of Commerce brought the House speaker's Boston office a petition with more than 10,000 signatures, calling for the passage of the bill.