Written by Jennifer Trainer, Pola Rapaport and Noah Bashevkin
Directed by Jennifer Trainer
Featuring Meryl Streep, Nick Cave, David Byrne, Bill T. Jones and James Turrell
Running time: 1 hour and 16 minutes

by Emily Maesar

North Adams, Massachusetts is a small town in the north east corner of the state. The Hoosic River runs through it, forking around the vestige of Sprague Electric. It was once a factory town, like so many others in the country, but in 1985 the electric company made the devastating choice to close the factory down entirely. 

Left with their economy in ruin, unemployment skyrocketing and the town shrinking by the day due to all of the above, the mayor of North Adams had to make a choice. John Barrett III had only been in charge of the town for a year when Sprague Electric left but, lucky for him, Thomas Kerns was in the market for a ridiculously large space. He wanted to find a building that could house and show larger, contemporary art and normal museums just weren’t cutting it.

Jennifer Trainer’s documentary Museum Town is an exploration of how the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) came to be and why it’s important that it still exists. We follow two stories over the course of the film: the story of the museum itself and the story of the creation of Nick Cave’s astonishing 2016-2017 exhibition of Until.

Trainer’s feature directorial debut is a stunning example of the best kind of documentary film making. It weaves together amazing visuals, both of the town and Mass MoCA as a whole, but also of the art that’s been exhibited in its hallowed halls. She takes the story of Nick Cave’s Until, an exhibition that is still painfully relevant four years after it debuted, and uses it as the case study example for why Mass MoCA exists. It’s about how all the history, hardship and anecdotes in the origin of the museum are with it when something like Until is allowed to be made and shown to the public as a direct result.

It’s here that the note at the top of the film jumps to my mind. I have no doubt that Trainer would have found this story, or something similar to it, were she to make a film about Mass MoCA on her own, without any personal history. But Jennifer Trainer doesn’t live a life without personal connection to Mass MoCA. No, she was the first Director of Development and held the position for nearly three decades. She was one of the important figures who helped create the museum and allowed it to flourish with her choices and dedication to contemporary art.

As the museum became a tourist destination for people around the world, Mass MoCA helped save North Adams from becoming a former factory town with nothing else to its name. Except… North Adams still has massive unemployment and the economy hasn’t quite bounced back from the devastation of 1985. It’s a concern, but it’s one that the documentary doesn't shy away from amid its celebration of art and the achievements of the museum as a whole. 

For me, the final word on the subject is said by the current curator of the museum, Denise Markonish: “I don’t think you can expect art to save everything, but I think it can certainly be there to help it along its way.” 

Mass MoCA has brought so much to North Adams in only 21 years. While it hasn’t quite fulfilled its promise of revitalizing the whole town, it has certainly done a lion’s share of work keeping the proverbial lights on. At the end of the day, Mass MoCA is an art museum and, while it might be at least partially government funded, it shouldn’t be the only hope to save a town, especially given the American outlook on art as a whole.

All-in-all, Museum Town is a well executed documentary about people using art to try and save a dying town and to create something special and important in the world. Jennifer Trainer does an excellent job balancing all the different aspects that make Mass MoCA such a compelling piece of American history and how it will be vital in our future. 

Museum Town will be released by Kino Lober through Kino Marquee virtual cinemas December 18, 2020, here.