Massachusetts' contemporary masterpiece Sunday, July 4, 1999 ELEANOR BERMAN "Bigger is better" could be the motto of the new Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. The nation's newest and largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts, this remarkable renovation of a 13-acre 19th century factory complex makes a strong case for space. The museum, which opened in May, is itself a work of art, made up of six interconnected factory buildings with enormous unobstructed two- and three-story indoor spaces, elevated walkways, and outdoor courtyards providing striking display areas for works too large for most museums. While some walls are new, others are originals, cleaned and patched without losing their distressed paint and brick patterns, which add to the atmosphere of the galleries. I'm not always a fan of the kind of cutting-edge art featured here, but it has never looked so good to me as in these soaring, light-filled spaces, and I found the museum fascinating. It is one of the major reasons that art rivals music and theater for attention this summer in the Berkshires. From 19th century French painter Jean Francois Millet to contemporary video artist Tony Oursler to original paintings by cinema artist Drew Struzan, a master of movie posters, exceptional art can be seen throughout the region. The museum has been more than a decade in the making. It was first proposed in 1988 by Thomas Krens, director of the Williams College Museum of Art, who left soon after to become head of New York's Guggenheim Foundation. His colleague, Joseph Thompson, was named founding director, and survived an economic downturn to gain $8 million in private support to save the concept. Last year, when a collaboration with the DIA Center in New York collapsed, Thompson found help in loans from other museums. Many of the exhibits are giant works such as Robert Rauschenberg's "The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece," a painted journal spanning the last 15 years and occupying a gallery as long as a football field. It is on loan from the Guggenheim Foundation, along with James Rosenquist's "The Swimmer in the Econo-mist," a painting more than 160 feet long, installed in a clerestory-lit, 40-foot-high space with vantage points from several mezzanines and balconies. "Lightning With Stag in Its Glare" by Joseph Beuys features a 16-foot-high slab of bronze suspended by a noose from the ceiling. It belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which itself is unable to exhibit the work until it can raise the roof of one of its own galleries. Not all the pieces at MoCA are enormous. Smaller spaces are used for studies, drawings, and video art, such as Oursler's "Optics," which was commissioned for the building. One of the most intriguing exhibits, to my aesthetics anyway, is Bill T. Jones' "Ghostcatching," which multiplies and divides three-dimensional outlines of the dancer's moving body. The performance spaces of the museum will feature theater, concerts, video, and film all summer. The museum is not the only notable show in the Berkshires, or even in its hometown. The 10-year-old Contemporary Artists Center, an experimental art school and galleries in another renovated mill space in North Adams, has several interesting exhibitions, one of them a unique showing of artworks combining fabric, paint, and electrical devices by Japanese artist Junichi Kasaka. "Mixografia," a mixed-media show, features well-known names such as Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Rivers, George Segal, and Rufino Tamayo. Besides his work at MoCA, Oursler is the subject of a midcareer survey at the Williams College Museum of Art, which is also featuring an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and photos by William Wegman, best known for his comic photos of his dogs. On the more traditional side, the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown has an important exhibition of 80 paintings, drawings, and pastels by Millet, including his most famous work, "The Gleaners." The show continues through Sept. 6. This is the second summer that visitors have been invited into the Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio, next door to Tanglewood in Lenox. The Bauhaus-inspired structure was home to Suzy Frelinghuysen and George L. K. Morris, both key members of the American Abstract Artists Group of the 1930s. Preserved in its 1940s state, the home is hung with their own outstanding collection of cubist paintings by Picasso, Braque, Leger, and Gris, as well as American cubist art and European abstract art. Movie buffs in the Berkshires should also hie to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, where an exhibit running through Oct. 31, "Drew -- Art of the Cinema," showcases movie poster and film-related artworks by Drew Struzan, one of the most prolific Hollywood illustrators. Marking the first time that Struzan's original art has been shown as a single collection, the show chronicles more than two decades of American movie making and includes 51 finished paintings and 15 preparatory studies representing about 40 popular films, including "Star Wars," "Back to the Future," "E.T.," and "The Flintstones." Also on display is 'Hooray for Rockwell's Hollywood," featuring Norman Rockwell's art for the movies, which includes vintage movie posters and original celebrity portraits. For still more art, take in the annual show of sculpture at Chesterwood, the Stockbridge estate of sculptor Daniel Chester French, or drive to Housatonic. * * * Lodging A properly artistic lodging is Field Farm, 554 Sloan Road, Williamstown, (413) 458-3135. The exceptional art-filled modern home of the late collector Lawrence Bloedel is now a bed-and-breakfast on 254 acres with a pool, $125 double. Museum information MassMOCA, 87 Marshall St., North Adams, (413) 664-4481. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, until 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday through Oct. 31; November to May 31, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. Ages 6 and up $3. Contemporary Artists Center, 189 Beaver St. (Route 8), North Adams, (413) 663-9555. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 10. Free. Williams College Museum of Art, Main Street, Williamstown, (413) 597-2429. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free. Clark Art Institute, 225 South St., Williamstown, (413) 458-2303. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday and Monday holidays. $5, children free; free on Tuesday; free daily Nov. 1 to June 30. Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio, 92 Hawthorne St., Lenox, (413) 637-0166. To Labor Day, hourly tours 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday to Sunday. Labor Day to Columbus Day, Thursday to Saturday, $7.50, children $2.50.