Check out the Boston Globe’s Geoff Edgers round-up of the Top Ten Art Stories of the Decade, including the evolution of MASS MoCA, which marked it’s own 10 year anniversary in 2009.
Edgers writes of Boston, “Just 10 years ago, we were culturally a city of have-nots, with crusty institutions desperately trying to stay a step ahead of the next round of budget cuts. Consider these snapshots: A Museum of Fine Arts embroiled in controversy over curatorial firings; an Institute of Contemporary Art barely able to draw 20,000 people a year to its cramped Back Bay space; no Opera House, Calderwood Pavilion or — brace yourself — Guitar Hero. Certainly, not everything has been rosy in the last decade. We’ve watched crushing deficits and general inactivity damage the Citi Performing Arts Center (formerly the Wang Center for the Performing Arts). Museums, theater companies, and even the mighty Boston Symphony Orchestra have had to make cuts. But the real story of the ’00s has been a cultural building boom that’s brought nothing short of an arts revolution to Boston. Here are the 10 biggest developments”
“Go to one of several banks there, hand a teller $95 and get back $100 worth ofBerkShares, a nice little discount designed to reel in users. BerkShares are printed on special paper (by a local business, naturally–a subsidiary of Crane Paper Co., which has been printing U.S. greenbacks since 1879). And since the program’s inception in 2006, more than $2.5 million in BerkShares have circulated through bakeries, vets’ offices and some 400 other businesses that choose to accept the colorful bills, which feature famous former Berkshire residents, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Norman Rockwell.”
The Berkshires were well represented by a nationally known glass specialists Holsten Galleries of Stockbridge. Holsten Gallery co-director, Mary Childs reports “We had a successful show, selling several substantial pieces and meeting new collectors and potential clients from Texas, California, and the Northwest. (Interestingly, many of the Texans had come to Berkshire summer camps as children!) This show provided us an opportunity for us to reach out make connections to this region’s collectors, broaden our client base, and introduce new clients to our gallery and the Berkshires.”
U.S. News sites creative economy components in the projected increase of Pittsfield home values.
