Berkshires, History, and Rice

Instead of going to the NYC artfairs, we're heading west to the mountains, the Berkshires that is. Why? We need a little time in the woods. The Clark Art Institute is hosting a symposium in conjunction with MassMoca's exhibition, Ahistoric Occasion: The Uses of History in Contemporary Art. (It's also a perfect topic given Bruce's interests and his new series, Markers: History.) I am very excited to hear and meet all of the artists and speakers, but especially Greta Pratt, whose Nineteen Lincolns is pictured below (hmm, I guess it IS President's week) and who will be showing this spring at Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston. We'll be staying at a wonderful inn in North Adams. I always feel so relaxed when we go there. Maybe it's the trees, the fireplace, and the 3 hour drive?

Also at MassMoca is a performance/installation piece that is closing this weekend, Of All the People in All the World, which I am excited to see. This piece uses tons of rice -- 875 million grains to be exact, the number of people in the world (oops, my faux, just those in North, South, and Central America)-- that are continually being rearranged to represent various statistics and a variety of issues. There was a great piece in the Boston Globe just this week on it. While we are there, we'll also hit 3 other photo exhibitions at the Clark and Williams College Museum of Art, which range from ruins in photography, to Crewdson and Hopper, to photography and poetry. Here's to a full weekend filled to the brim with art...

From www.gretapratt.com/index_all.html and www.boston.com/ae