The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art: How an arts organization became a small town's unlikely economic savior

This thesis details how MASS MoCA's innovative business model is predicated on a civic-minded relationship with the city of North Adams. It asks how an arts organization can positively affect the community in which it resides beyond just providing entertainment? Primary data comes from the examination of news articles reporting on the evolution of the MASS MoCA story, research on the history of New England mill towns, industrial architecture in the Berkshires, Western Massachusetts working-class culture, and interviews with management personnel at MASS MoCA. The notion of a local art museum as a driving civic force employing residents, offering commercial lease space to businesses, educating children and fostering local artists, suggests that a dynamic exchange of goods and services with the constituents of North Adams makes MASS MoCA's partner-building efforts an archetype for a new way of doing business in the museum industry.