North Adams, MA

Welcome to the Berkshires! Transportation will be provided to each person's assigned hotel via airport or train shuttles. Shuttles will also be available to transport attendees from hotels to the MASS MoCA campus.

2:00–8:00 pm 

MASS MoCA Campus

Drop in at your convenience to check in, pick up your name badge, and start connecting with other attendees! Shuttles will be available from the front of each hotel and will bring you to Mass MoCA, where event staff will greet you and direct you to check-in in the Hunter Mezzanine Hallway.

6:00–10:00 pm 

Spencer Finch’s Cosmic Latte

Gather with artist attendees and an ample dinner and passed hors d' oeuvres beneath Spencer Finch’s starry Cosmic Latte installation. 

7:30–9:30 am        

Make your way to MASS MoCA for the day’s activities! Looping shuttles will be available to transport attendees from hotels to the museum campus. Guests may also choose to walk from Porches Inn and Downstreet Hotel, which are less than half a mile from the museum (a 10-15 minute walk).

All activities at MASS MoCA unless otherwise noted.

8:00–9:30 am        

South Hall Building 6

9:30–10:15 am

Hunter Center

10:30–11:15 am 

Swing Space

Jenny Toomey (Quietnova LLC, Ford Foundation alumna, musician) and Liz Pelly (journalist, author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist) examine the structural collapse of music ecosystems. Drawing on Liz's recent reporting on AI-generated music and Jenny's work building catalytic funding models for systemic change, this session frames crisis as potential transformation. They will discuss market concentration, private equity rollups of independent infrastructure, bot economics in streaming, and why most arts funding functions as palliative care rather than structural repair. Together they'll ask what artists and advocates can build when tactical responses no longer match the scale of breakdown.

11:30 am–12:30 pm 

Choose one of three breakout sessions to attend: 

• 11:30 am–12:30 pm 

  Swing Space

  (Pamela Capalad and MC Dyalekt)

  Start healing your relationship with money so you can be the artist the world needs you to be. Learn why it's so hard to save, why you spend more money when you’re stressed, how to align your spending with your values, and how your money personality protects you from systemic oppression.

• 11:30 am–12:30 pm 

  Spencer Finch's Cosmic Latte

  (Anna Stothart)

  Legacy planning should begin early and remain ongoing, integrating documentation, inventory, and strategic positioning. Accurate records and archives provide context, value, and support scholarship. Strong relationships with institutions and stakeholders shape long-term visibility. Clear legal and operational structures ensure posthumous management, protecting artistic intent, assets, and legacy continuity over time.

• 11:30 am–12:30 pm 

  Building 6 Event Space & Mezzanine

  (Althea Erickson, Helena Huang, Lolan Sevilla)

  National Arts Policy Alliance (NAPA) is a coalition incubated within United States Artists in partnership with organizations across the country, dedicated to building collective power among creative and cultural workers to establish cross-sectoral economic rights for all. The NAPA Co-Directors will share their learnings on field-wide efforts to enshrine the economic rights of creative workers.

12:30–1:30 pm 

South Hall Building 6

1:30–2:30 pm 

Attend one of three breakout sessions:

• Journalism, Criticism, and Yes, Content: Navigating Art Publishing in a Post-Literate Society (Jane Yong Kim, Jillian Steinhauer, and Terence Trouillot moderated by Kim Córdova, Boston Art Review) 

  Spencer Finch's Cosmic Latte

  What does publishing about art contribute to the overall arts ecosystem, and what responsibility does it have to artists and to readers? This panel brings together Jane Yong Kim, Deputy Editor at the Atlantic; Jillian Steinhauer, freelance contributor to the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Nation; and Terence Troulliot, North America Editor at Frieze. These writers and editors will share their perspectives from different kinds of media outlets to discuss how they think about the pieces they write and commission and how their work is changing in relationship to broader shifts in both the art and media industries.

• AI in Music: How We Got Here and What's Next (Liz Pelly)

  Swing Space

  Journalist and Mood Machine author Liz Pelly overviews how generative AI products and narratives are impacting music, and the various ways that musicians and organizers are responding to both protect the value of their work and the integrity of their creative practices.

• Ask a Curator: Open Q&A with MASS MoCA Curators (Susan Cross, Director of Curatorial Affairs; Evan Garza, Curator; Bozkurt "Bozzy" Karasu, Associate Director of Programs & Production; Addison MacDonald, Managing Director of Performing Arts and Film)

  Building 6 Event Space & Mezzanine

  Join curators of the MASS MoCA team for an interactive panel discussion in an open Q&A format. Learn more about their individual work and have the opportunity to ask questions around the curatorial process and its nuances.

2:45 pm–4:15 pm 

Drop-in Activities 

• A Tuning (Marjani Forté-Saunders)

  Building 6 

  Take part in a somatic session weaving meditation, breath, and gentle Vinyasa to align body, logic, and the enduring magic of spirit. Moving between stillness, rigor, and heat, we’ll explore the body as a bridge between mind and spirit, enlivening new possibilities. This session is meant to inspire, invigorate, and tune. Participants are encouraged to wear clothing that is easy to move and sweat in. Shoes are discouraged. Bare feet are welcome. There will be verbal coaching by Marjani Forté-Saunders throughout the session. 

• Jam Session

  Club B10

  Drop in for 5–10 minute slots to present an idea or work onstage. Ideal for music, dance, and performance artists.

• Writer’s Lounge  

  R&D Bookstore 

  Explore and discuss artists’ publications and ephemera at the R&D, MASS MoCA’s bookstore. There will be books by Assembly speakers and attendees available for perusal and purchase. 

4:15–6:00 pm  

Enjoy some unstructured time. Head back to the hotel or take part in an optional guided tour of the museum’s highlights.

4:00 PM–4:45 PM 

Looping shuttles will be available to transport attendees from hotels to MASS MoCA campus. 

6:15–6:30 pm

Dining locations will be shared ahead of time in a customized “Know Before You Go” email. Depending on your assignment, you may pick up a shuttle from your hotel or walk. An ADA vehicle will also be available upon request.  

6:30–9:30 pm

Dinner will be a casual dine-around at one of three local restaurants in North Adams. Restaurants will be pre-assigned and shared with you in your “Know Before You Go” email. If you have questions about this, please see an event staff person at the registration desk ahead of time. 

7:30 am–9:30 am

Shuttles will be available to take attendees to MASS MoCA. Allow extra time to collect your belongings and check out of the hotel prior to departing for campus. 

8:00–9:30 am 

South Hall Building 6

9:30–10:15 am 

Hunter Center

Let's pay attention to what we're doing. This means an active and attentive veering away from the very idea of a "keynote." Let's not even veer away but rather detonate the keynote so a formless study group can form. Let's doo wop, like we're on a corner, but off key enough to make some differences — not discord but un/raveling accord, not Ravel but the Parliaments, not parliamentary but syndicalist, not in the name of art but in the nameless naming of aesthetic sociality.

10:30 AM

We hate to see you go, but we’re so glad you came! Head back to your hotel to pick up shuttles to Albany airport (ALB) and rail station (Albany Rensselaer), and start the journey home.