The Transcript

Silent films of the 1920s began when the theatre lights dimmed and a conductor marched down the aisle He raised his baton, the curtains opened. On flashed the film accompanied by the orchestra. At the Miller Theatre, five singers entered the stage and as the film started, they sang.

When Thomas Messer served as director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston there was a plan to merge it as a department of the Museum of Fine Arts. This was confirmed when I asked him about it during an unrelated press conference. Belinda Rathbone also found related documents in the MFA archives when researching her book The Boston Raphael. Related to his time at the ICA these are excerpts from an extensive interview with Messer in the public domain at the Archives of American Art.

For the past 18 months, while resident in the artist loft Eclipse Mill in North Adams, Darren Waterston has been working on an exacting installation based on Whistler's iconic Peacock Room. We viewed the work in progress with the artist during the intensive final phase of the exhausting project. The work is now completed and on view.

Given negative trends in media it comes as no surprise that The North Adams Transcript will merge with the Berkshire Eagle as of January 20. The weekly Adovcate, which has been in freefall for the past few years, will cease publication. As a part of the transition the Eagle will exand its weekly arts tabloid insert from summer to year round. Given the importance of the economy based on cultural tourism, and coverage of issues and politics in the still depressed Northern Berkshire County, despite attempts at positive spin this is really bad news.

For the past twenty years photojournalist Gillian Jones has covered the Berkshires as a staff member of the North Adams Transcript. Her images have also appeared in the Berkshire Eagle and other publications. A survey of her work opens at Gallery 51 in North Adams on May 27 and remains on view through June 24.

Few Berkshire based critics see more theatre than Williamstown based Gail Burns. She is know for feisty, passionate over the top reviews. Her on line site GailSez includes not only her own reviews but compiles lists and links to all of the other critics in the region. She also posts press releases and casting calls. It is a massive archive reaching back to 1997. This is the first segment of an extensive dialogue.

Since December of 2010 we have been asking Joe Thompson about a long term installation of works by the major German contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer. He squirmed and refused to answer the question. As we have previously reported the museum is now in the process of creating another long term installation similar to the enormously successful building devoted to the late Sol LeWitt. It greatly strengthens North Adams as a global art world destination.

The Miller Theatre of Columbia Univeristy presented the Flanders Recorder Quartet, a superb group that presents music on the recorder. It was some enchanted evening.

When Dick Alcombright defeated John Barrett as Mayor of North Adams, after a tenure of 26 years, nobody anticipated that it was going to be easy. While the city had come back from the dark days when Sprague Electric, the primary employer, shut down that progress appeared to have stalled. In this address Alcombright discusses progress and issues that remain ahead.

Recently Ben Brantley of the New York Times posted a rave review of John Douglas Thompson as Richard III in a production at Shakespeare & Company. There are now only a few performances left of this summer long event. We engaged with Thompson is an extended dialogue about his radical interpretation of Richard III.

The total attendance for the weekend long Wilco Solid Sound Festival was about 10,000. But with weekend passes it is not clear just how many tickets were sold. Probably about half that figure. On an artistic level it was a great success. There was a nice mellow energy. With more advance planning and involvement from North Adams administration, merchants, vendors, artists and citizens it will surely be back bigger and better next year.

For the first time in 26 years this week North Adams will have a new mayor in Dick Alcombright. After a busy weekend of ceremonies and celebrations he will be rolling up his sleeves and getting to work. In stating that this is "Our City" he pledges that his door will always be open. In a tough economy with many challenges nobody predicts that it will be easy.

While home for the holidays in the Berkshires, Martha Coakley, the front runner for the vacant U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, took time to greet her home town supporters in North Adams. She endorsed incoming Mayor Dick Alcombright, and he was up bright and early to return the favor.

Both the Berkhire Eagle and the North Adams Transcript are playing catchup for their blown coverage of the era ending upset when challenger, Dick Alcombright, ousted the Dean of Mass. Mayors, John Barrett. Their spin is mostly too little and way too late. While the on line media, such as feisty Tammy Daniels for iBerkshires, had it covered, big time, from the getgo.

The old line print media, The Berkshire Eagle, the North Adams Transcript, and the Boston Globe were dead wrong in their unflinching support of Mayor John Barrett. At 26 years he was the longest running mayor in the history of the Commonwealth. Yesterday some 60% of the 52% of registered voters in North Adams supported Mayor Elect Dick Alcombright.

For all the rhetoric about jobs and growth, neither Mayor John Barrett nor his opponent Dick Alcombright had very much to say about new directions for the troubled city of North Adams. The second Mayoral debate was mostly about how each counts beans and sees the problems the city faces, not about solutions. Their mutual lack of specific solutions is troubling.

There was a lively turnout of some 272 supporters for a sit down dinner at Bounty Fare for Candidate Dick Alcombright. For many, the cupcakes with their Alcombright banners on top, baked by Keith Bona, were symbolic of the rising tide. While some feel the race is now a piece of cupcake Alcombright says it would be a mistake to be overly confident in the final month of a tough campaign.

The Eclipse Mill in North Adams includes the Eclipse Mill Gallery which has just opened its second show of the season "Off the Wall: Art of the Eclipse in the Third Dimension." There is also the Ralph Brill Gallery which is about to open "Nude & Naked" and River Hill Pottery which is participating in "Off the Wall." Visitors to the gallery also enjoy browsing through books offered by bookseller Grover Askins. There's a lot to take in with one stop on the way to and from Mass MoCA.

Gillian Jones is the chief photographer for the daily North Adams Transcript. Her photographs are presently on display at Papyri Books on Eagle Street in North Adams through the end of February.

Negotiations for the Contemporary Artists Center to develop a permanent home in the former Notre Dame church property in North Adams ended in acrimony and finger pointing. It is a serious loss and set back for an emerging but struggling arts community.