Displaying items by tag: deval patrick

This evening, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, opened a time capsule removed last month from below the Massachusetts State House. Governor Deval Patrick, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, and Malcolm Rogers, the MFA’s Ann and Graham Gund Director, watched as the contents of the time capsule, originally placed under the State House cornerstone by Governor Samuel Adams, patriot Paul Revere and Colonel William Scollay in 1795, were revealed. The Commonwealth was aware of historic accounts referring to the time capsule’s existence, which was confirmed by engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) during a water infiltration project in summer 2014 under the management of the State’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM). The time capsule had been previously unearthed in 1855, when its contents were documented and cleaned, and additional objects believed to be added.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has approved a $1.4 billion capital facilities bond bill that includes a $25.4 million grant for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). The financial boost will allow the institution to embark on the final phase of its multi-decade effort to renovate its 26-building, 60,000-square-foot factory campus. The Phase III development will include the addition of approximately 130,000 square feet of exhibition space, ultimately doubling the space currently available for shows, plus considerable work on the museum’s performing arts courtyard and other exterior venues.

Mass MoCA opened in North Adams -- a city nestled in the picturesque Berkshire Mountains -- in 1999.

With the stroke of Gov. Deval Patrick’s pen a few weeks ago, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art got the go-ahead to realize the nearly 30-year-old dream of transforming a 19^th century, 26-building, 16-acre factory complex into a destination arts center that would also help revive the economy of North Adams, Mass.

As the art world knows, the road has been a bit bumpy and, along the way, the vision has changed. But Mass MoCA has hit something of a groove of late, giving state officials the confidence to allocate $25.4 million from state coffers for the expansion. Now, under director Joe Thompson — who’s been there for 29 years, from the beginning — it will reclaim almost all of the 600,000 square feet campus. Massachusetts taxpayers’ money will pay for the necessary infrastructure improvements, for fitting out the parts of the factory complex that are not currently in use, to make them ready for more art.

In honor of the statewide celebration – Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture – the state’s governor, Deval Patrick, has named September 17, 2013 Massachusetts Furniture Day. A special event will be held in Nurses Hall in the State House in Boston.

Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture is the first-ever collaboration between 10 museums and cultural institutions throughout the state that will highlight the area’s furniture making legacy. A series of exhibitions and public programs will explore furniture making from the 1600s to the present day. Participating institutions include the Colonial Society of Massachusetts; Concord Museum; Fuller Craft Museum; Historic Deerfield; Historic New England; Massachusetts Historical Society; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; North Bennet Street School; Old Sturbridge Village; and Peabody Essex Museum; and Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.

Dennis Fiori, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society and one of the project’s founders, said, “We are honored that Governor Patrick has recognized the Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture project with such a wonderful designation. By declaring September 17 as Massachusetts Furniture Day, Governor Patrick is recognizing the truly remarkable legacy in American furniture history that Massachusetts holds, not only as a traditional industry but also as an art form.”

Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture will run through December 2014. For more information visit www.fourcenturies.org.