Westworld Saskatchewan

Summer 2012

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/144909

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The biggest Canadian art exhibit ever shown outside our country opens in small-town U.S.A. North Adams, Eh? BY KAREN BURSHTEIN Build it and they will come: So it goes with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, or MASS MoCA, housed in a former factory. (opposite) The bluecollar-town-turned-artmecca of North Adams. 28 W E S T W O R L D p28-33_Oh_Canada.indd 28 >> F OR DECADES , THE BERKSHIRES IN western Massachusetts have drawn vacationers to their apple-pie-andantiques towns. Hordes of leaf peepers arrive for fall foliage season. In summer, the culture vultures bop from town to town for such standout events as the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where Gwyneth Paltrow and other A-list actors have performed. SUMMER 2012 But there was always one community in the Berkshires that was out of the loop: North Adams. Until about a decade ago, you'd understand why if you drove through. While many of the aforementioned beauty spots have long been famous for attracting the monied elite (think Edith Wharton) from Boston and New York, North Adams is different. For most of its history, it was a blue-collar town notable for its factories and mills. The Sprague Electric factory (formerly a textile mill) produced capacitors round the clock during the Courtesy MASS MoCA 4/13/12 2:18:20 PM

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