NORTH ADAMS — After more than 10 months of planning, debate — and some controversy — work is underway on Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ multimillion-dollar arts center project.
A groundbreaking was held Wednesday afternoon at the site of what will be the Campagna Kleefeld Center for Creativity in the Arts.
“I’m thrilled to be here celebrating the start of this marvelous project,” said MCLA board Chair Buffy Lord. “[Kleefeld’s] work invites you to reflect on new perspectives and I envision that this center will do that for the students and community.”
MCLA leaders say the arts center idea is sound and defend their deal with donor
Carolyn Kleefeld, a California-based artist and self-help author, donated an undisclosed amount of money to build an arts center in her name with programming that will incorporate her art. Her donation, the amount of which has not been disclosed, covers the cost of construction and three years of operation.
The gift was made to the MCLA Foundation, the college’s private fundraising arm, and will replace two buildings owned by the foundation used as faculty offices with a dedicated gallery, faculty offices and academic laboratory spaces. It would support MCLA’s Benedetti Teaching Artists-in-Residence and student artists-in-residence.
The college estimated that demolition of the existing structures on the site would begin this winter, and construction would begin in spring or early summer. The center is expected to open in the fall of 2027.
The center is intended to support not just the college’s arts management program, said MCLA President James Birge. It will be a space where the arts management program can get hands-on curatorial experience and installation work, and he wants the center to serve as a place where non-arts majors can explore how creativity plays into their curriculum.
“This isn’t just about arts management,” Birge said. “It’s about the creativity of students in all disciplines.”
The project was announced to the public in January, but the college began talks with Kleefeld in 2021, said Shela Levante, MCLA’s executive director of institutional advancement.
“This space is flexible to allow anyone to come in and ask what’s needed for our local businesses and economy,” she said.
Levante said she envisioned the center as helping STEAM students learn about local career opportunities. If someone wanted to work at General Dynamics in Pittsfield, she said as an example, the center could be a place where they could learn how sketch and design blueprints.
Kleefeld was not present at Wednesday’s event — Georgia Freedman-Harvey attended on her behalf — but Birge said that she wants to be at the grand opening.
“[The college leaders’] creative vision mirrors my art and inspired me to want to manifest such a future at MCLA,” Kleefeld wrote in a statement read by Freedman Harvey. “My wish is to give MCLA the opportunity to expand the arts curriculum.”
This is not Kleefeld’s first large donation to an institution of higher education with her artwork tied to the project. In 2019, she gifted $10 million to California State University, Long Beach for a new wing for the university’s art center. It was renamed Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, and she also donated 120 of her own artworks, which are on display in a permanent collection.
MCLA’s new arts center will feature work by its largest donor, a California-based artist
The groundbreaking caps off months of debate between the college and its foundation about the project. Because the gift was donated to the MCLA Foundation, the college’s board of trustees did not have to vote to accept the gift, which some opposed. Concerned with public backlash about Kleefeld’s donation and displaying her art, the MCLA Foundation made a point that the center would not be a museum and there would be no permanent collection of Kleefeld’s art.
Birge said Kleefeld had no past connection to MCLA. She found MCLA several years ago because she knew an MCLA administrator that is no longer at the college.
One of the center’s “core features” is the “integration” of Kleefeld’s art and poetry, according to the college. Faculty members will be left to decide if they will incorporate Kleefeld’s art in their curriculum; her pieces will be available for loan, and several will be displayed in the lobby.
When asked if Kleefeld’s donation was similar to the amount she donated in California, Birge said he wanted to be respectful of the donor, who asked him not to share it. He called it a “transformative gift” coming in different phases, and he said the first check arrived this summer.
The college will leave its Gallery 51 space on downtown Main Street when the center opens, but Birge said the college plans to maintain some form of programming downtown.
“When so much feels divided, investing in the arts could not be more important,” said Casey Pease, a representative from the office of state Sen. Paul Mark, D-Becket.
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