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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Museum Town

Streaming on Museum Town

In 2017, MASS MoCA became the world’s largest contemporary art museum. Before that it was an abandoned building—a shuttered factory in a rural Massachusetts town. What minds were behind North Adams’s transformation into an art mecca? Through countless interviews, director Jennifer Trainer tells a story about the power of art. Shopkeepers, factory workers, curators, and artists such as James Turrell and David Byrne piece together the creation of this museum town. Narration is by Meryl Streep. —E.C.

A film still from “Museum Town,” 2020.