How did you explore this community |
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before being selected ? I made sure I was around on Mondays when things were quiet , and Tuesdays . Not just on a Saturday when the farmers market is on and things are up . I asked people in cafes , salons , and the bookstores , questions like , “ Tell me about MASS MoCA .” |
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And what did you hear ? When I would sit in a bar or a restaurant or a café or in an antique shop , they told me the story of something that was impossible to have happen , that did happen . It ’ s a different kind of pride that has restored something in the community . Everyone wants to tell you what that story is , and they all have a shared approach to the history . This crazy , wild , whacked-out idea that everyone thought was impossible , did in fact happen . But what is important is they tell you the story of themselves through telling you what MASS MoCA is .
When did you first come to the Berkshires ? I was probably in my middle-30s . MASS MoCA was just getting to its opening point . Sam Miller ran the New England Foundation for the Arts and hosted a meeting of national arts leaders at Jacob ’ s Pillow . They looked at the future of the arts in America . That was in the late- ’ 90s . The townships and areas around Jacob ’ s Pillow were where I got my first impression of the region — the fierce
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independence of people who lived there . It ’ s not about the pursuit of scaling up to have success . It is a fiercely independent spirit of caring about quality . The scale of that quality is connected to my identity and the way I want to live my life . The brain power , the creative power , the land care — it is all remarkable .
Where were you born , and where did you grow up ? I was born in a very small town in Lake Chelan , Washington state , so most of my family heritage comes from that area . It ’ s next to the Colville Indian Reservation , where my mother was born , and Lake Chelan is a small lakeside glacial community . My father ’ s side worked the orchards . My mother worked as a legal secretary to put my father through college , and
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he went to a state university and majored in economics and business . Over time , he became employed in a trajectory that was different than his family history , and he lifted his family out of extreme poverty .
How has your upbringing impacted
who you are today , professionally ? My mother was a potter — a functional potter . My grandmother would make dried flower arrangements , all kinds of wild things , so they were artisans and were remarkable , but that was the vernacular that they lived in . My mother was always trying to make all the bowls the same so the set would match . I remember this one time she was making these honey pots . I made this little sculpture of a bear with the little honey jar on the top ,
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and she said , “ I ’ ll give you 10 cents for every one of those you make ,” and I was like , great , but I could only make one more then I was bored to tears . So that was probably one of those moments where she realized , as did I , that I wasn ’ t going to be interested in repeating myself . I liked trying something new versus the discipline and the rigor of making something uniform . We lived in Minneapolis for a chapter of my young life , my 5th- , 6th- , 7th-grade years . That was the first time I ’ d lived in a more major urban city . The Walker Art Museum was there , the Guthrie Theater was there , the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre was there . For me , it was that change from being exposed to art that was from the world of craft and artisanship used to
TRICIA MCCORMACK PHOTOGRAPHY
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Holiday 2021 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 9 |