Bread-Baking Appliance Designer Moving to Mass MoCA Campus
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Commission welcomed bread-baking appliance designers Brod & Taylor to the campus on Monday.
The commission voted to bring Brod & Taylor to Building 1. Owner Michael Taylor, who called into the remote meeting, said the space will primarily be used for photography and content creation to promote their products, with an overarching philosophy of growing the bread-baking community.
"The genesis of the whole business of this company is to really get more people involved in bread baking," Taylor said. "We think it is something that is good for individuals and good for society; the more people that bake bread the better people are off in the world. We are looking for ways to make connections between people and the community based on bread baking."
The 1,500-square-foot space was built out for the company and will include a home kitchen and a microbakery.
Taylor said the company started in 2010 and operated out of Williamstown, above the Purple Pub.
"It was a business that brewed slowly in the teens but since COVID, sourdough bread sort of became the center of the world. We have expanded rapidly," Taylor said, adding that the company employs around 15 employees who work in the area.
Two years ago, they moved to the Norad Mill in North Adams but found the space too noisy to accommodate filming and content creation, Taylor said.
Taylor admitted that Brod & Taylor will not be fully utilizing the space 100 percent of the time, and they hope to make the space available to others who need to use the kitchen for content creation, noting the closest similar facility is in Kingston, N.Y.
"It is going to be a really unique set up in this area with a facility that does not exist anywhere close," he said. "So to the extent we can make it available for others, we would like to do that."
He added that they will not only bring in nationally known bakers, but hope to extend the invitation to local bakers.
"We want to bring in people from all walks of life to make content and make connections with people. Connecting different parts of their lives through bread baking," he said. "...Use that as marketing material, but also, bring people in the community together."
Taylor said this concept is still in "germination" and requires additional staff. He added this opportunity drew them to the Mass MoCA campus.
The commission asked if the space could ever be leased out as a commercial kitchen.
Taylor said although the kitchen is a full working kitchen, its main purpose is content creation.
"It is a set in a sense there are doors that won't open because we don't need them," he said. "But it is a fully operational kitchen."
He added that the space can't turn out the scale likely needed for commercial use.
There was also the question of whether Brod & Taylor could partner with Northern Berkshire Community Television Corporation (NBCTC) to create content for public access. Taylor said there have been no discussions with NBCTC, but it is certainly possible.
The commission asked if Taylor would use the space as a classroom. He said although the space is not suitable for that use, classes have been on their radar.
Morgan Everett, Mass MoCA's head of public initiatives and real estate, said Brod & Taylor agreed to an initial three-year lease and will move in above Bright Ideas on April 1.
"Between what Brod & Taylor are doing and when the brewery is brewing, that is the yeasty building," he said. "It's great; all the good smells."
The commission also voted to appoint Matthew Davis as vice chair.
Tags: new business, mass moca,
