LAMBERT’S COVE, Mass. — James Taylor was 22 when he bought 175 acres of woods here with the proceeds from his first record deal. On a stormy June afternoon nearly half a century later, Carly Simon , his ex-wife; their children, Sally Taylor and Ben Taylor; Ben’s partner, Sophie Hiller, and their friends, the musicians John Forté and David Saw, were gathered in the rambling house that has grown up like a wagon wheel around the original structure, with hallways that hopscotch over rooms and staircases in odd places.

Ms. Simon, or Mama C., as this group calls her, lives in the place, as do Ben and Ms. Hiller, in a house next door. They were strewn over a pair of plump green velvet sofas in front of a crackling fire — it was that cold — to practice for a performance they would give in the Berkshires earlier this month, though the men kept wandering outside, despite the pouring rain, for recreational breaks.

“How nice not to be the focus for a change,” Ms. Simon said.

Their show, a medley of songs that includes some of her old hits, would open a yearlong multimedia installation at Mass MoCA’s Kidspace by Consenses, the arts organization that Ms. Taylor founded half a dozen years ago. Paintings by fifth-grade students have been reinterpreted by artists from around the world in different forms from music to perfume to poetry.

This artistic game of telephone, as Ms. Taylor puts it, is also the basis of an educational program she has developed that focuses on empathy and perception. It has been a career shift for someone who, like nearly every person in her very large extended family, has mostly worked as a musician — though she resisted what she refers to as “the Gig” until she was in her 20s.