NAS Homecoming 2025 is all about reconnecting, recharging, and reimagining together. Leadership can feel isolating, especially at the pace we all move at today and in our increasingly-digital world. Homecoming invites you to step back from the day-to-day, spark new ideas, and find both support and inspiration among friends. When we gather, we’re stronger.

This year’s theme, Space, will guide discussions on how it influences both the physical and conceptual realms we inhabit. MASS MoCA’s impressive scale allows artists to bring bold visions to life—visions we’ll experience firsthand through full access to its exhibits. Through art both at the museum and throughout the North Adams community, we’ll explore how space shapes our thinking, fuels creativity, and connects us. Expect immersive experiences where art drives discourse, activities led by NAS alumni, and insightful discussions led by a special facilitator, all woven together to help us see the world, ourselves, and our work in a new light.

Art will drive our conversations at Homecoming as we dive into the creative spirit of North Adams, meeting artists and local creators who share our passion for exploring the intersection of art and space. The incredible works at MASS MoCA and around North Adams will inspire unique, experiential discussions that reveal perspectives only art can provide.

Homecoming is crafted by your NAS peers to deepen connections with each other and the North Adams community. Together, we’ll focus on sharing knowledge, finding inspiration, and renewing ourselves while building meaningful relationships. You’ll head home with a fresh perspective and renewed energy for your mission—ready to bring a little of that NAS magic back to your own work.

 Exhibits at MASS MoCA we’ll focus on include:

Cultural Apothecary | Alison Pebworth

Power Full Because We’re Different | Jeffrey Gibson 

Like Magic | Simone Bailey, Raven Chacon, Grace Clark, Johanna Hedva, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Cate O’Connell-Richards, Rose Salane, Petra Szilagyi, Tourmaline, and Nate Young

NAS exists to build and support a diverse community of arts and culture leaders who drive inspiring change for the future. You are that community, and the reason we are here. Homecoming was created with the intention of being accessible as possible to everyone in our alumni community. To that end, Homecoming is a Pay What you Will event.

Our suggested price is $967 – the true per-person cost for the event – and we ask you meet a minimum for each of the two booking packages available, but to minimize financial barriers you’ll otherwise have the opportunity to book at the price that’s fair to you.

Homecoming offers two different booking packages:

Lodging Package: Minimum $350

• Meeting space
• Full access to MASS MoCA
• Food and beverage except one on-your-own dinner
• Three nights at Hotel Downstreet – a $300 savings. Note: Hotel space is limited.

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is the largest contemporary art museum in North America and one of the world’s liveliest centers for making and enjoying evocative art. With vast galleries and a stunning collection of indoor and outdoor performing arts venues, MASS MoCA is able to embrace all forms of art: music, sculpture, dance, film, painting, photography, theater, and new, boundary-crossing works of art that defy easy classification. Much of the work shown in their light-filled spaces, on their technically sophisticated stages, and within their lovely network of late 19th-century courtyards is made on-site during extended fabrication and rehearsal residencies that bring hundreds of the world’s most brilliant and innovative artists to North Adams all year round.

MASS MoCA is situated in North Adams, Massachusetts, nestled in the Berkshires and approximately 30 miles from Albany, New York (and the location of its closest major airport).

The primary hotel for NAS Homecoming is Hotel Downstreet, located one block from MASS MoCA. Booking the Lodging Package for Homecoming includes three nights at Hotel Downstreet through the NAS room block – a $300 value.

As NAS works to move away from conventional hierarchical leadership and decision making, we move instead towards coalition building, co-design, leaderful movements/organizations/communities, and consensus.

Homecoming was co-designed by a volunteer committee of alumni who represent the dimensions of our community’s leaders. Together in two groups they worked enthusiastically to design a space that is uniquely by and for this family to connect, reflect, learn, and reimagine.

Wondering what North Adams has to offer while you’re in town? Discover what’s on view at MASS MoCA plus downtown projects in the North Adams cultural district started by some NAS Creative Community Fellows!

NAS Creative Community Fellows Projects

• Walkaway House
• Center of Gravity
• Common Folk
• Savvy Hive

On Exhibit at MASS MoCA

• Current Exhibitions
• Upcoming Exhibitions (Will be on view by Homecoming!)

MASS MoCA is a welcoming environment to all and offers services to make the venue as accessible as possible. Read more about MASS MoCa’s accessibility features here on their website.

NAS is committed to gathering as safely as possible. We will watch local guidance regarding COVID-19 and may require rapid testing, supplied by us, upon your arrival.