ART SAVES US IN MUSEUM TOWN
MUSEUM TOWN
“Museum Town,” directed by Jennifer Trainer, tells the story of a unique museum, the small town it calls home, and the great risk, hope, and power of art to transform a desolate post-industrial city.
In 2017, MASS MoCA became the largest museum for contemporary art in the world—but just three decades before, its vast brick buildings were the abandoned relics of a MASSive shuttered factory. How did such a wildly improbable transformation come to be?
A testament to tenacity and imagination, “Museum Town” traces the remarkable story of how a rural MASSachusetts town went from economic collapse to art mecca.
Threaded with interviews of a diverse cast - a tattooed curator, a fabricator, former factory worker, and shopkeepers—the film also looks at the artistic process itself, tracking the work and ideas of celebrated artist Nick Cave as he creates his groundbreaking installation at MASS MoCA, UNTIL.
Still from “Museum Town.” Featured at Woodstock Film Festival.
With appearances by artists ranging from James Turrell to David Byrne, narration by Meryl Streep, and a soundtrack from John Stirratt of Wilco, “Museum Town” captures the meeting of small-town USA and the global art world as it tells a tale that is, like any great artwork, soulful, thought-provoking and unforgettable. The soundtrack itself is a work of art.
Still from “Museum Town.” Featured at Woodstock Film Festival.
Jennifer Trainer was one of a handful of people who developed and built MASS MoCA, working at the museum for 28 years as the first Director of Development. An award-winning journalist and the author of 20 books, including Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe, Nuclear Power: Both Sides, Trail of Flame, and, Jump Up and Kiss Me, she wrote the first story about MASS MoCA for, The New York Times.
Still from “Museum Town.” Featured at Woodstock Film Festival.
Nominated for three James Beard awards, Trainer has been featured in, Martha Stewart Living and Coastal Living magazines, and has written for Yankee Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Harvard Magazine, Omni Magazine, and other publications. She is currently director of Hancock Shaker Village, a living history museum and performance venue comprised of 20 historic buildings on 750 acres in Western Massachusetts. “Museum Town” is her first film.
Still from “Museum Town.” Featured at Woodstock Film Festival.
Still from “Museum Town.” Featured at Woodstock Film Festival.
Woodstock Film Festival Poster. 2019.
Founded in 2000 as a grassroots arts organization driven by the sheer love of film and community, the Woodstock Film Festival has grown into one of the premiere independent film festivals in the US, bringing together thousands of filmmakers and film lovers over the years. This year, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Woodstock Film Festival, the 50th anniversary of the legendary Woodstock Festival, as well as the 100th anniversary of Woodstock as America’s oldest colony of the arts.
Actor Paul Rudd calls the Festival "a great festival... what a film festival should be, which is really independent films and showcasing the work of filmmakers you might not know about.”
Woodstock Film Festival logo.
Read more Beautiful Stories in film featured at the Woodstock Film Festival in our weeklong series.
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