Fast forward to today and North Adams is best known as home of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) - one of the largest contemporary art museums in the world.Ī new documentary called Museum Town chronicles MASS MoCA’s tumultuous early years and examines its founders’ vision of art as a tool for economic development. Since then, the town has been mired in financial troubles. During the postwar boomer years, the town was a bustling manufacturing center, but in 1984, the local electric company shut down its factory operations, putting thousands of residents out of work. Promotional materials and publicity have altogether failed to acknowledge this pertinent detail.”ĪUSTIN - The picturesque mill town of North Adams, Massachusetts sits nestled between state parks and mountain reserves a few miles south of the Vermont border. The film itself makes no reference to this conflict of interest, and publicity for the film treats this fact disingenuously by referring to Thompson as simply ‘writer and journalist’ Jennifer Trainer in both her South by Southwest director bio and in her official festival interview. “Museum Town was directed by Jennifer Trainer Thompson, a former MASS MoCA director of development and the former spouse of current MASS MoCA director, Joe Thompson. We contacted the writer for clarification on the matter and received the following response: Aerial view of Building 6 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) (image courtesy MASS MoCA)Įditor’s Note: After the publication of this review, it has been brought to our attention that the director of the MASS MoCA documentary is also a former employee of the museum, a fact that was not made clear in the publicity materials or during its screening at the SXSW film festival.

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