Williamstown has been called the “quintessential Berkshires village” but today’s news, broken by The Berkshire Eagle, could put it on the international art map. Thomas Krens, the former Guggenheim director and the man who took the New York foundation's brand to a new global level, has proposed a mega “fly-in” private art museum at the local airport in western Massachusetts. If all goes to plan—sufficient backing secured, the runway lengthened, artists and collectors enthused—Krens will oversee the creation of a Gluckman Mayner-designed complex measuring 160,000 sq. There will be room for works by more than 60 international artists in the simple but sophisticated spaces, the newspaper reports, plus room for collectors to store their art. Baku and Beijing may not have bitten, but perhaps Williamstown, Massachusetts, will back Krens’s big idea. He brings to the project global experience—44 museum projects on the CV—and local knowledge. Krens started out as director of the Williams College of Museum of Art, down the road on Route 2 and spotted the potential of factory buildings in nearby North Adams ripe for conversion into Mass MoCA back in the day.
