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YOUR LINK TO THE SEASON’S OFFERINGS SUM/FALL 2019
WHAT’S HAPPENING
NOW Where to Meet Up The Western Towns Cannabis Has Arrived — at a Dispensary Near You Day Trip: Saratoga, N.Y. And much more
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S U M / FA L L 2 0 1 9
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66
38
46
TOWNS 6 Great Barrington
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40
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FEATURES & DEPARTMENTS
10 Stockbridge
38 Out & About: Dispensaries
12 West Stockbridge
40 Out & About: Where to Meet
14 Lee
45 Events
16 Lenox
46 Music
20 Pittsfield
52 Dance
23 North Adams
55 Theater & Performance
24 Williamstown
58 Visual Arts
27 Sheffield
64 Family Fun
28 Hillsdale, N.Y.
66 Fall Festivals
32 Salisbury, Conn.
68 Farmers Markets
34 Western Towns
7 0 Day Trip: Saratoga, N.Y. BerkshiresCalendar.com
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Welcome to our second year . . . The Berkshire Edge welcomes you to this issue of BerkshiresCalendar.com,
BerkshiresCalendar .com YOUR LINK TO THE SEASONS’ OFFERINGS
Vol. 2. No. 2
an overview of what’s happening in the Berkshires from August through
PUBLISHER
October. Our pattern now is to publish three issues over nine months, with
Marcie L. Setlow
new magazines coming out on May 1, August 1 and November 1. They are designed to keep the Berkshires alive and accessible for you in the three busiest seasons of the year. So, if you like this issue, please look for the next one, which will appear on November 1. The magazine you are holding is a print companion to our extraordinary online calendar, which you can visit at www.berkshirescalendar.com (hence the magazine’s name) and where you will find the most complete, varied and wide-ranging event listings available anywhere in the Berkshires and its environs, from high culture to community dinners, all online, updated daily and easy to use. Our listings are complete because we invite the public to post their own events for free… and they do. Our online calendar puts amazing search features at your fingertips. Search by date, category, venue, name of group or town, and all the events
VICE PRESIDENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
James E. (Jim) Gibbons CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Leslie M. Noyes ART DIRECTOR
Kelly A. Cade WRITER
Phil Holland MARKETING DIRECTOR
Michael Richman ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
Rose A. Baumann
will be sorted and arranged for you. Find in-depth information, including dates and prices, for every event or venue, and click through to the box office to buy tickets or make reservations. Each listing also has a map to
A publication of
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Berkshire
help get you there. And while you’re at the calendar, check out the rest of The Berkshire Edge (www.theberkshireedge.com.) Five years old now, we are still the fastest growing news publication in the Berkshires — a complete newspaper, online-only and updated daily, where you can get the latest news, opinions,
the
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
David Scribner
reviews, real estate information, births and obituaries, and insights into life
MANAGING EDITOR
in the Berkshires. Plus poems, essays, cartoons, serialized novels and lots
Terry Cowgill
of other surprises.
news & views worth having
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR
We figure the more you know about what’s happening in the Berkshires, the more you’ll enjoy yourself. So enjoy! Best regards,
Emily Edelman ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS
Nicole Robbins Kathrine Mason
Marcie L. Setlow, Publisher
The Berkshire Edge, LLC P.O. Box 117, Great Barrington, MA 01230 info@theberkshireedge.com www.theberkshireedge.com Contents Copyright © 2019 The Berkshire Edge, LLC; theberkshireedge.com and BerkshiresCalendar.com No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the publisher.
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more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
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Photographers Spotlight: YUKI COHEN & FRIENDS Tremendous thanks to Yuki Cohen at Methuselah Bar & Lounge in Pittsfield for allowing |us to photograph there. And here’s a special shoutout to her staff and customers — They made us so welcome.
COVER PHOTOGRAPHER:
JOCELYN VASSOS Jocelyn grew up in the Berkshires, moved away, and came back for love. She shoots weddings, events, portraits, and branding photographs for businesses. Some of her wedding photos were featured in the last issue of BerkshiresCalendar.com. Jocelyn works out of Becket. See more of her work at dearedithandlily.com.
DAVID EDGECOMB David is a photographer and IT professional who lives in beautiful Becket. He is the founder and facilitator of Berkshire Photo Gathering, a group of photographers that meets monthly at the Berkshire South Regional Community Center in Great Barrington to network, share knowledge, and support one another. The Group welcomes new members. More at: berkshirephotogathering.com.
GABRIELLE K. MURPHY Gabrielle is a Berkshires-based photographer. While she enjoys shooting a wide variety of subjects, she is especially drawn to capturing the beauty of the natural world. She’s a member of Berkshire Photo Gathering.
MARIA GHI
CREDITS FOR EVENTS SECTION P 45: Gladys Knight, courtesy of Tanglewood; Cha Wa photo Erike Goldring; Twelfth Night courtesy Shakespeare & Company; Parsons Dance, courtesy PS21 P 46: Ken-David Masur, photo Beth Ross Buckley; Goo Goo Dolls, courtesy of Tanglewood; P 47: Linde Center for Music and Learning, photo Robert Benson; Yo-Yo Ma, photo Jason Bell P 48: The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, courtesy Guthrie Center; Jupiter and Okwess, photo Micky Clement P 49: The Forty Part Motet, courtesy The Clark Art Institute; Sam Waterston, courtesy Close Encounters With Music; Pink Martini, courtesy Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center P 50: Daedalus Quartet, photo Lisa-Marie Mazzucco; Spiegeltent, photo Mari Baranovia P 51: Race Brook Lodge, photo Mark Grochowski; The Barn, courtesy photo P 52: Sarah Mearns, photo Sarah Silver; Abraham in Motion, courtesy Jacob’s Pillow P 53: Gallim, photo Franziska Strauss; Parsons Dance, courtesy PS 21: P 54: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, courtesy Albany Berkshire Ballet; Savion Glover, courtesy Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center P 55: The Children, courtesy Shakespeare & Co. P 56: Fall Springs show image, courtesy Barrington Stage; posters, courtesy Berkshire Theatre Group P 57: Berkshire Playwrights Lab, courtesy photo P 58: Renoir, Seated Bather, courtesy The Clark Art Institute P 59: Ida O’Keeffe, Peach Blown Vase, courtesy The Clark Art Institute; Freylinghuysen-Morris House and Studio, courtesy photo P 60: Greg Irons, concert poster for Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young at Winterland and Fillmore West, October 2, 1969; Cauleen Smith, courtesy MASS MoCA P 61: Shimmering Flowers, courtesy Berkshire Botanical Garden; poster courtesy Berkshire Theatre Group P 62: Circus sculpture at SculptureNow by Michael Thomas, photo by MJ Thomas; Dale Chihuly, copyright Chihuly Studio P 63: Knox Trail Forge, courtesy Del Martin P 64: Hiking, Gabrielle K. Murphy; Laurel Hill, David Edgecomb P 65: MASS MoCA’s Kidspace, courtesy photo; Catamount Aerial Adventure Park, courtesy photo; Jiminy Peak Mountain Coaster, courtesy photo P 66: Pumpkin Trail at Naumkeag, photo courtesy of Trustees of Reservations; Apple, Adobe Stock by Roman Samokhin P 67: Hawthorne Valley Fall Festival, photo Catdodge Photography; Ghost Tours, photo Matt Florcyzk P 68-69: Great Barrington Farmers Market, photos Bridgett Stone
Based in Canaan, Conn., Maria has been taking photographs since she was a teenager. Among her favorite subjects: the beauty of animals, architecture, and the quirky details often found when traveling. More at vizionsbymariaghi.com
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: Kelly Cade, Phil Holland, Neil Nourse, Leslie Noyes, David Scribner
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more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
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great barrington
best small town in America
In 2012 Smithsonian Magazine
named it “Best Small Town in America,” and it just keeps getting better. Great Barrington is home to 7,100 people and is the southern Berkshires’ business and cultural hub. Visitors come for the fun shopping, superb restaurants, world-class entertainment, year-round outdoor recreation, and the recreational (and medical) cannabis dispensary that opened in January of this year as Theory Wellness. The dispensary, the first such shop to open in the Berkshires, has been a hit (so to speak) with visitors who like their weed legal and carefully sourced. Four more shops are in the works, all within two and half hours of millions of people without current legal access to this popular herbal remedy. Great Barrington was founded in 1766, and its historic districts and quaint residential neighborhoods are within walking distance of open spaces. The nearby village of Housatonic features renovated mill buildings, dance studios and art galleries. Great Barrington is also home to Bard College at Simon’s Rock, a 4-year liberal arts “early college” with its new Bard Academy for ninth graders, as well as a campus of Berkshire Community College. This is the birthplace of civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois, and his childhood home is open to visitors. The historic Mahaiwe Center for the Performing Arts anchors the cultural life of Great Barrington, with a full schedule of music, theater, films and other performing arts events. New on the scene is church-turned-performance-space Saint James Place, where something is always happening. Enjoy intimate folk concerts at the Guthrie Center on Division Street; Arlo himself has a place not far away. Catch the latest movies at the Triplex Cinema downtown, where three screens have now grown into four.
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Great Barrington is home to the local farm-to-table movement, and wonderful restaurants are scattered throughout town, including Baba Louie’s (which has moved around the corner onto Railroad Street), the Prairie Whale, Café Adam, the solar-powered Barrington Brewery and Restaurant, Number 10 adjacent to the Mahaiwe, and the “roadside eatery” that is the Bistro Box. Meet up with friends for coffee or tea and a bite at Botanica, Rubi’s, Fuel, or the Patisserie Lenox. If you’re cooking for yourself, mingle with farmers (and neighbors) and stock up on fresh produce at the Farmers Market every Saturday on Church Street, and any day of the week at the new downtown digs of the Berkshire Food Co-op or at Guido’s on Route 7. And don’t leave town without a lick of local ice cream at SoCo Creamery. As for shopping, cruise Main and Railroad Streets for charming owner-run shops, such as Griffin or Lennox Jewelers, featuring offbeat and one-of-a-kind treasures. Original art can be found at the Lauren Clark and Vault galleries, as well as newly opened Bernay Fine Art. Craft stores One Mercantile, Evergreen, and HeyDay display pieces by artisans from the Berkshires and around the world. Books new and old can be found at The Bookloft and at Yellow House Books. Great Barrington is becoming a mecca for home furnishing shops and studios. Wingate, opened in 1998 just north of town on Route 7, has grown to become one of the biggest home furnishings stores and design showrooms in the Berkshires. Sett, a tabletop shop, is new on Main Street. Samantha Gale Designs is also on Main, showcasing “the vintage beauty of the farmhouse style.” Just off Main is Hammertown, offering furnishings, “approachable design services,” and more. Slab Design on Main Street belongs to three brothers who are master more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
KELLY A. CADE, PHIL HOLLAND
Left, Shops and restaurants make Main Street in Great Barrington a great destination; right, Among more shops on Railroad Street, a stop at Soco Creamery for ice cream is popular in any season.
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woodworkers and wood repurposers. Destination Design Center on South Hillside Avenue designs and installs kitchens, baths, cabinets, and window treatments, among other things.
Interior design studios are also prominent in the downtown
landscape. William Caligari Interiors is a full-scope design studio, servicing clients in the Berkshires and beyond. Britishborn fabric guru Jennifer Owen works out of her eponymous design studio on Railroad Street, and Jess Cooney Interiors has opened a new studio on State Road. Contemplating a makeover? Professionals are standing by.
Now get up out of that designer easy chair and get some
exercise! Hike up Monument Mountain and follow in the footsteps of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville; they met on an excursion to the top with some literary friends in 1850. Take the Housatonic River Walk, a national recreation trail and a birding hotspot, or stroll around the lake at the Beartown State Forest. Hike, canoe, or kayak at idyllic Lake Mansfield, work out at the gyms at Bard College at Simon’s Rock or the Berkshire South Regional Community Center, or take dance classes at Berkshire Pulse in the village of Housatonic. You’ll be feeling healthy, fit, and happy before you know it. Of course,
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TOP: KELLY A. CADE; BOTTOM: LAKE SCENE BY GABRIELLE K. MURPHY; WALL CLIMBING BY JOSH HILLMAN
Clockwise from top left: The Yellow Book Store and Boho Exchange, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Lake Mansfield, Kilpatrick Athletic Center at at Simon’s Rock.
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stockbridge
Norman Rockwell was – and still is – here
If you can resist just sitting there on the famous front porch of The Red Lion Inn, the self-guided walking tour of the town is highly recommended (the Chamber of Commerce’s helpful website will guide you: https://stockbridgechamber. org/visit/). You won’t be able actually to step into the setting for Norman Rockwell’s “The Marriage License,” but you’ll pass right by the 1884 House that provided it. Nor will you be able to get anything you want at the original Alice’s Restaurant, but the song — or at least the refrain — is likely to come back to you as you pass by that site too — it’s just off Main Street. If other places look familiar, blame Rockwell, who spent the last 25 years of his life in Stockbridge, living and working right in the heart of town. He created some of his most visionary and socially engaged work here, without losing the touch that had already made him the beloved painter of small-town American life. At his death, he bequeathed his studio, archive, and many paintings to establish a museum of his work, now the Norman Rockwell Museum on 36 green acres outside the town center. His studio itself was moved to the grounds of the Museum and provides a fascinating glimpse into his creative process (it’s open to visitors from late April into November — the Museum itself is open year-round). The “Four Freedoms” are spending the summer in France, but a special exhibit on the relation of Rockwell’s paintings to “his own interests, anxieties, and real-life experiences” makes up for their temporary absence. Some drive, some walk, some cycle: most of Stockbridge’s attractions are within easy reach. Naumkeag, designed by Stanford White, is a 44-room Berkshire cottage fantasy that can be yours for a day. This summer through mid-September they’re doing something new: Evenings at Naumkeag, from 5-8 daily, after the house has closed. The draw? The sunset. And the gardens, beautiful at all hours. Chesterwood, too, has
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beautiful gardens and was the summer home and studio of Daniel Chester French, sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial and the Concord Minute Man; many of French’s own studies for sculptures are on view. The Stockbridge Library is a particularly fine small-town library, and some of the portraits of former citizens on the walls date from the 18th century, when the first library was begun in the town. A major renovation in 2016 upgraded facilities without sacrificing aesthetics; you’re welcome to stop in. The Austen Riggs Center, a therapeutic community, open psychiatric hospital, and center for education and research is unobtrusively located right in the center of town; Norman Rockwell was a patient, and his relations with his distinguished therapist Erik Erikson are the subject of a summer exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum. The Center itself, now in its 100th year, is the subject of an exhibition at the Old Corner House, also in the town center. Stockbridge is also home to some exceptional nature trails just south of town. Park at the end of Park Street, take the footbridge across the Housatonic, and take your choice of trails: a paved, handicapped-accessible trail that runs beside the river; a trail that leads up to Laura’s Tower, with a three-state view; and — not to be missed on a hot day — the trail into Ice Glen, with glacial boulders and icy caves that exhale geo-air-conditioned air. If you prefer strolling to hiking, head to the 15-acre Berkshire Botanical Garden just west of town. In the evening, if you can emerge from the Lion’s Den (all roads lead to — and from — The Red Lion Inn), the Berkshire Theater Festival beckons with two Stockbridge stages, the iconic 314-seat Fitzpatrick Main Stage and the smaller 122-seat Unicorn Theatre, both just east of downtown. This is the BTF’s 91st season: the Festival has legs.
KELLY A. CADE, LESLIE NOYES, R. CHEEK
Left to right: Stockbridge Bowl, Olivia’s Overlook; Main Street; Naumkeag.
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west stockbridge
it’s happening
Clockwise from top left: Hotchkiss Mobiles Gallery; the old Shaker Mill, now part of Shaker Mill Books; Rouge restaurant; a Turn Park Art Space event.
FIND OUT EVERYTHING THAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK — Go to: www.berkshirescalendar.com 12
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it’s time you pointed your radar in its direction. The town of 1,650 lies between Stockbridge and the New York border, only 40 minutes from Albany but a world away, with hills, ponds, and streams beckoning the city dweller with visions of the countryside. Don’t let the dreaminess deceive you, though, because West Stockbridge is hopping. The opening of No. Six Depot in the old railway station in 2013 started it all. No. Six is a small-batch coffee roastery, café, art gallery and event space that serves as a gathering place for both locals and visitors; the sandwiches are delicious, and their coffees show up on menus throughout the Berkshires — and in SoCo Creamery ice cream. The lively downtown area is home to stylish restaurants, including Rouge, one of the best in the region, and one-of-a-kind shops, too. Oneof-a-kind, as in Charles H. Baldwin & Sons, which has been preparing extracts for cooks for 125 years; boomers will think they’ve gone back in time, too, amidst the retro novelties and candies. Not far away, Truc Orient Express offers authentic Vietnamese food in their eatery, as well as Vietnamese crafts such as pottery, silk scarves and jackets, and lacquer work. An exceptional bookstore awaits browsers: Shaker Mill Books on Depot Street has a large but choice selection of rare, used, and out-of-print books, including a great collection of books about the Berkshires. Hotchkiss Mobiles Gallery is another West Stockbridge gem; Joel Hotchkiss has been designing ingenious mobiles since 1978, and the gallery will open your eyes to where the concept has travelled since Calder. Just a short walk away from the town center is the 16-acre Turn Park Art Space — and it comes with a story. In 2016 a young, Russian, art-collecting couple, Igor Gomberg and Katya Brezgunova, appeared out of nowhere and bought 14 acres that included an old lime and marble quarry on (of all places) Moscow Road. They’d been looking for a place to house their sculpture collection and hoped to establish an art park. Turn Park Art Space now combines a sculpture park, exhibition venues, and a beautiful marble amphitheatre for outdoor performances. It’s a fun place for adults and children alike, with a trail that runs along the river and next to striking sculptures from the Soviet Nonconformist Art Movement of the 1950s–1980s. The Stanmeyer Gallery and Shaker Dam Coffeehouse are located under one charming roof at the north end of town. The walls are hung with stunning images by National Geographic photographer John Stanmeyer, and there’s a great selection of coffee table books to browse on. The ongoing Town Hall restoration project is another sign of the town’s vitality. And if you can’t forget that you came for nature as well as culture, or simply want to relax, just join the canoeists, anglers, or strollers along the gently flowing Williams River as it winds through this unusually attractive town. more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: PHIL HOLLAND, KELLY A. CADE, KELLY A. CADE, DAVID EDGECOMB
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lee
eat, shop, learn
“What I love about Lee is that it’s very low key,” says a visitor who knows the Berkshires, “and it’s so pretty, too.” Lee may be unpretentious, but that makes its charm and eye-appeal only more alluring. Even the steeple on the First Congregational Church, the tallest wooden spire in New England, soars discreetly above the town. But make no mistake: Lee will welcome you warmly and keep you quite busy. For one thing, Lee hosts an astonishing range of restaurants, from those serving sophisticated farm-to-table fare such as Starving Artist Café and Chez Nous, to Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese, Peruvian, Italian, French, and Indian establishments, as well as humbler eateries where you can get a hot dog on the go, pick up a pizza (try Timothy’s), or join the locally sourced customers for a plate of corned beef hash at Joe’s Diner or a pint of draught beer at Moe’s Tavern. Newly opened Canna Provisions, right off the Mass Pike as you head into town, with a full line of THC and CBD wellness offerings (legal weed, in plain English), also draws a crowd. The eclectic collection of shops downtown is complemented by the more than sixty stores at Premium Outlets, with namebrand merchandise at discount prices, just one mile east of town via US Route 20. The Outlets is the most popular attraction in Berkshire County, with about two million annual visitors, some of whom then head into Lee and environs to find things that can’t be found anywhere else. Several places just outside of
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town are worth a visit, too. The Retro Pop Shop on Route 20 heading toward Lenox is full of memorabilia neatly displayed, and the scoop shop next door has home-made ice-cream that will transport you into the past; Pierre runs the former, his wife Paula the latter shop. While not as eminent in the arts as its Berkshire neighbors, Lee has its own distinction. From a renovated former five-anddime on Main Street, the College Internship Program (CIP) offers a year-long curriculum focusing on creative and educational development in the visual and performing arts for young adults with Asperger’s, autism, ADHD, and other learning differences. The Spectrum Playhouse in a converted church and the Good Purpose Gallery on Main help integrate these individuals into the community and enrich their lives through creative work in fields where they often display special abilities. Lee will appeal to nature lovers too. October Mountain State Forest, the largest in Massachusetts, is just north of town. It offers camping, hiking, picnicking, and non-motorized boating; the campground has showers and a place to do dishes. There’s also the Goose Pond Reservation in a dreamy setting south of Lee. The Appalachian Trail crosses adjacent National Park Service land, and Goose Pond itself, a mountain lake with exceptionally clear water, is ideal for canoeing, kayaking, and fishing. And if you’d like to try fishing, or simply floating, on the region’s rivers, Berkshire Rivers Fly Fishing can help.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DAVID EDGECOMB, LESLIE NOYES, LESLIE NOYES
Clockwise from top left: Starving Artist Café hosts regular musical performances, Main Street, the Lee Premium Outlets.
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lenox
still gilded after all these years
Lenox has been a popular retreat
since the 19th century, when wealthy New Yorkers built some 75 so-called “cottages” there and in nearby Stockbridge. Many of those that remain are open to the public. Ventfort Hall, built for J.P. Morgan’s sister in 1893, even has a museum dedicated to the Gilded Age in several of its 50 rooms. The Summer Tea & Talks series includes presentations like “New York Exposed: A Gilded Age Police Scandal,” by Prof. Daniel Czitrom on August 27; come learn about voter fraud and suppression, police brutality, anti-urbanism, and the bitter partisan politics of the early 1890s. Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said, “History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes?” Twain is also the one who first called it “The Gilded Age.” The Mount was not only the summer home of novelist Edith Wharton; she designed the house and gardens herself, and you can be her guest and feel her presence. Canyon Ranch Spa occupies another “cottage,” as do the luxurious hotel/restaurant/ spa/condo complexes at Blantyre and Cranwell; the latter, now a Miraval Resort, has recently emerged from a major renovation. The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health occupies a former Jesuit seminary and offers classes and stays that focus on yoga, creative expression, wellness and self-discovery. The Gateways Inn, with only eleven rooms, is the height of Berkshires B&B lodging, with a restaurant and live music in the lounge nightly. First-class professional theater is a mainstay of the Lenox cultural scene. The season of plays at Shakespeare & Company
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is always a treat. Two comedies from the Bard — Twelfth Night and a #MeToo-era take on The Taming of the Shrew — continue their runs, and a third, the seldom seen The Merry Wives of Windsor, opens on August 8. For many, Lenox is the gateway to Tanglewood. The Tanglewood Music Center, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is the jewel in the Lenox crown — the place for premier classical music performances as well as concerts by big names in rock, folk, and pop through September 1. The setting is as spectacular as the music, and a picnic on the lawn at Tanglewood is a tradition for many visitors. This summer also marks the debut of the TLI–Tanglewood Learning Institute, which runs through August. Art is all around: the 2019 Lenox Sculpture Walk in the town’s historic district includes contemporary sculptures in a variety of media that will raise a smile, an eyebrow, and awareness of the power of public art. Explore downtown on Main and Church Streets and you’ll find that Lenox is alive with fine shops and restaurants — some of the best in the Berkshires. Catwalk, a stylish resale clothing store sponsored by the Berkshire Humane Society, is a recent addition to Church, and the popular upscale clothing retailer Casablanca has now moved to elegant new quarters on the street. Lenox is also home to many fine and unusual galleries for browsing and gift-giving. Lenox Print & Mercantile on Housatonic Street offers vintage treasures as well as crafts by over 60 local artisans. The Bookstore & Get Lit Wine Bar brings more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: LESLIE NOYES, DAVID DASHIELL, DAVID SCRIBNER, PHIL HOLLAND, LESLIE NOYES
Clockwise from top left: Walker Street, the Mount, the Lenox Library, Catwalk, and An American Craftsman.
the town together for regular readings, good conversation — and wine; out-of-towners definitely welcome. Steilmann, also on Church, carries women’s European fashions at good prices, and trendy CERI Boutique has just opened a women’s clothing store on Housatonic Street where Casablanca used to be. Lenox is also home to many fine and unusual galleries for browsing and gift giving. An American Craftsman features the work of many artisans working in wood, clay, fiber, metal, glass, leather, and mixed media. Music, theater, shopping, and cottage hopping are all very well, but it’s time to eat. Alta, Nudel, Bistro Zinc, and Firefly can help. The latter has good music on the weekends and attracts a younger crowd. The Restaurant at the Gateways Inn offers seasonal fare in an elegant setting. One treat for the palate is right off Route 7: divine chocolates and great coffee and cocoa await you at Chocolate Springs Café. Saveur magazine recognized chocolatier Josh Needleman as one of the top 10 in the United States. Don’t miss the Lenox Library Annual Book Fair August 9–11, and if you’re in town for the weekend of September 21–22, chances are you’ll be joining in the fun of the 40th Lenox Apple Squeeze, an annual street fair and harvest festival. Yes, Lenox is still gilded — but in a good way. Right, clockwise from top: Heritage Restaurant, Annie Selke boutique, The Bookstore.
DAVID SCRIBNER
SCULPTURENOW 2019 30 NEW WORKS
EdithWharton.org | 413-551-5111
D E S I G N F O R S U S TA I N A B L E L I V I N G
/
917-312-3775
/
J H A R W O O DA R C H I T E C T. C O M
Included with admission. Presented in partnership with SculptureNow.
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Visit Lenox A Place For All Seasons Shop Dine Spend the night Enjoy!
Art Comes In Many Forms
Miniature Puzzle Boxes by Richard Rothbard
LENOX
•
STOCKBRIDGE
Creative excellence
Representing 400 American Artists The perfect gift, home furnishings & everything in between From $5-$5000
An American Craftsman
Josh Simpson Glass
22 Walker St. Lenox, MA 36 Main St. Stockbridge, MA 845-661-1221
AnAmericanCraftsman.com 18
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more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
Steilmann E U R O P E A N L A D I E S FA S H I O N
CASABLANCA
WE’RE SO EXCITED!
CASABLANCA HAS MOVED TO ITS NEW HOME AT 50 CHURCH STREET IN LENOX!
The Latest European Fashion Trends Labels Exclusive To The Area Great Quality And Excellent Value 28 Walker Street Lenox, MA 01240 413-637-0700 Open Daily: 10am - 6pm
413.637.2680
We welcome you to visit us this summer!
Lifestyle boutique styling women for over 37 years. Exclusive collections of clothing, accessories, and gifts. Visit our new Lenox location at 21 Housatonic Street! And in Newton, MA at 386 Langley Road.
CERI 413-637-330 | www.ceriboutique.com
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the city at the center
Clockwise from top left: the Berkshire Museum, a Third-Thursday event, shopping for vintage furnishings at Circa, the Colonial Theater, browsing at the Museum Reproduction Shop.
A city of 45,000, Pittsfield is the geographic and commercial center of the Berkshires, with a proud history of manufacturing — and the contemporary challenges and opportunities that the decline of that sector has brought. Cultural initiatives have lifted the city’s mood and kindled its aspirations to become a cultural hub. The recent openings of cannabis dispensaries Temescal Wellness west of town and Berkshire Roots to the east have also lifted moods. Pittsfield’s downtown is now its Upstreet Cultural District, anchored by the beautifully restored 1903 Colonial Theatre, part of Berkshire Theatre Group, and the innovative Barrington Stage Company, which now attracts almost 60,000 patrons per year to its four downtown venues and has become the incubator of shows that regularly go on to stages in Boston and New York. The Whitney Center for the Arts, established by
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Pittsfield native Lisa Whitney in 2012 and located in the creatively repurposed 1865 Thomas Colt House, is another beehive of culture: it presents art shows, intimate theatre and music performances, and special events. The vibrant Pittsfield visual arts scene features public art, galleries, studios, and cooperatives, and the First Fridays Artswalk (on the first Friday of the month). Cultural festivals include 3rd Thursdays, the WordXWord Festival, and the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival in October. The Berkshire Museum’s legal dispute around the sale of artworks (including Rockwells) has been resolved, and the Museum is going ahead with plans to enhance its science and natural history offerings on a sounder financial foundation. The natural history displays in “Berkshire Backyard,” the aquarium, and exhibits of industrial technologies developed in the
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: LESLIE NOYES, PITTSFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, PHIL HOLLAND, DAVID EDGECOMB, LESLIE NOYES
pittsfield
Why Why Cross...? Cross...? Why Cross...?
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Robert Zuber • 413-445-5648 • 101 South Street, Pittsfield, MA
OLLI
directed by
Joel Zwick
(413) 997-4444 • www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org
OSHER LIFELONG OSHER LEARNING LIFELONG INSTITUTE LEARNING INSTITUTE
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Berkshires make it a great place to take children to discover worlds beyond their screens. Let Whitman keep Brooklyn; Melville had Pittsfield. The native New Yorker bought a 1785 farmhouse in 1850 and settled in for some serious writing — and an intense affair with the mistress of the neighboring manor. He named his new digs Arrowhead after the many Indian ‘points’ that turned up in his fields, and it’s now a museum run by the Berkshire Historical Society dedicated to his 13 years’ residence under its roof. Visitors can see the room where Melville wrote Moby Dick, with its view north to the profile of Mount Greylock, which is said to have evoked for the author the whale that obsessed Captain Ahab. He built a porch on the north side and called it a piazza; you too can sit there and dream. The house is open every day; a guide takes you through. Pittsfield isn’t all urban: the 11,000-acre Pittsfield State Forest offers fall camping and hiking, and the Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary, Lake Onata, and the Bousquet Mountain Adventure Park also provide fun outdoor experiences. You’ll have to eat and you’ll have to stay: you can do both at the stylish 45-room Hotel on North, another repurposed downtown building that successfully blends new and old. There are 50 other restaurants, cafés (meet a friend at Dottie’s), and wine bars to choose from, too. For an entirely different vibe or family visit, 700-acre Hancock Shaker Village beckons from outside of town on Route 20. The Shakers created a utopian religious farming community here in the 1780s. The buildings and grounds are now a living history museum. Read more about Hancock Shaker Village in our coverage of the town of Hancock on p. 37.
Support for ‘Now I Let You Go…’ is provided in part by Katherine Rushford with in-kind support from Today Glitter, Bio-glitter, and Blue Sun International. Special thanks to Displays2Go. Programming at MASS MoCA is made possible in part by the Barr Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and Mass Cultural Council.
TICKETS: massmoca.org or 413.662.2111 | North Adams, Mass.
Ashuwillticook Rail Trail for biking and walking is 12 miles long and runs from Lanesborough, north of Pittsfield, to Adams.
FIND OUT EVERYTHING THAT’S HAPPENING TODAY— Go to: www.berkshirescalendar.com
MUSEUM HOURS: Open every day 10am–6pm | (Beginning October 16) 11am–5pm, closed Tuesdays
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more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
MASSACHUSETTS OFFICE OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM
ON VIEW NOW
if you build it . . .
Clockwise from left: MASS MoCA, Motorama on Main, Tunnel City Coffee (bottom right), and the Downtown Celebration.
It began with manufacturing,
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: MASS MOCA: NORTH ADAMS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/ JOSH MANTELLO, TUNNEL COFFEE, NORTH ADAMS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/ JOSH MANTELLO
north adams
thanks to power generated by the Hoosic River flowing right through the center of town. Shoes, bricks, hats, cloth, marble, and the iron plates that sheathed the battleship Monitor in the Civil War poured forth from North Adams’s busy factories. When the Depression shut many of those factories down, the Sprague Electric Company arrived to save the day. Sprague’s development and manufacture of components for early NASA launch systems and the consumer electronics industry provided employment for more than 4,000 workers in the post-war period, until foreign competition in the 1980s led to the closing of the firm and a sharp decline in the town’s economic fortunes. Many former New England mill towns have never recovered from such setbacks. For North Adams, recovery came from a surprising source: contemporary art. Sprague Electric’s beautiful and extensive brick buildings, dating from the 19th century, lay idle. Thomas Krens, then Director of the Williams College Museum of Art, saw an opportunity. The result was the creation of MASS MoCA, the largest museum of contemporary art and performance in America, which opened in 1999 and has been growing in space and scope ever since. It hosts both temporary and permanent exhibits, spaces for artists in diverse media to create large-scale works, and events like the annual musical FreshGrass Festival September 20–22. They built it, and people came, about 160,000 a year at last count. The town began to thrive once again. Galleries, restaurants, and shops sprang up to cater to visitors. The ongoing River Revival project reimagined the Hoosic as a community resource.
The town (technically a city, the smallest in Massachusetts), now has a vibrant Cultural District and a Downstreet Arts Initiative. The creative economy has spread to other former factory facilities as well, now home to artisans and specialized producers of everything from food to beer. If downtown gets too trendy for you, nature beckons on all sides with hiking trails, picnic spots, and recreational opportunities. Take in the free concerts on nearby Windsor Lake. And don’t miss the weekly Farmers Market — it’s one of the biggest in the Berkshires. Looking for a novel place to stay? Consider The Porches, which bills itself as (brace yourself) “an intimate 47-room boutique property whose retro-edgy backdrop and industrial granny chic décor combine to create a strikingly colorful style all its own”; it’s right opposite MASS MoCA. TOURISTS, located down by the riverside where an old motel once stood, opened last year and brings you close to nature. And to eat, try PUBLIC eat + drink for original, farm-fresh take-offs on American classics and a wide selection of craft beers; Gramercy Bistro (“eclectic modern fare”); or the Hub on Main Street (“comfort food in a retro-accented diner”), all within walking distance of MASS MoCA. If you prefer food for the mind, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) has caught the art bug with its innovative undergraduate art programs and MCLA Gallery 51. It’s not just a great car show: Motorama is “a celebration of all things motorized.” A cruise-in concert takes place on August 24, and the show itself runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on August 25 in the center of town. BerkshiresCalendar.com
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williamstown
a college town and then some
Williamstown, nestled in Massachusetts’ northwest corner, was one of America’s first college towns; the town and the college both date to 1791. Williams College, consistently ranked at or near the top of America’s liberal arts colleges, is the town’s largest employer. You don’t have to have a connection to Williams, though, to enjoy what the town — and the College — have to offer. You could begin with Spring Street, the commercial center, where you’ll find galleries, stylish clothing stores, coffee shops with fast Internet connections, and restaurants that cater to the tastes of college students, locals, and visitors alike. Stop by the Greylock Gallery, which brings together traditional and contemporary art from emerging and established artists. Or step into Mountain Goat Artisans around the corner on Water Street for pottery, weaving, furniture, jewelry, women’s clothing, honey, photography, original art and more. For DIY knitters, the Spin-off Yarn Shop is right there on the ground floor. Pick up a book at the Williams Bookstore and start reading at Tunnel City Coffee across the street. If you have Apple computer needs, there’s Mad Macs to help out. And if you have medical or recreational marijuana needs, recently opened Silver Therapeutics is ready to serve you from a small shop a mile east of downtown. Hurry: the Williamstown Theatre Festival season ends August 18. Its presence — and the presence of theater people in the streets, some of whose faces are familiar — moves the town’s compass from the academic to the theatrical in the summer months. Images Cinema, one of the few independent movie theaters still in operation, is also on Spring Street. The popcorn is always fresh. Visitors travel from all over the globe to The Clark Art Institute for its extraordinary permanent collection, ground-
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breaking special exhibitions, and striking architecture by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando. The Clark campus boasts 140 acres of lawns, meadows and walking trails. Seasonal exhibitions are a special draw; this summer’s Renoir show runs through September 22. The Williams College Museum of Art has been closed for renovations and will reopen September 6. In the meantime, the WCMA Summer Space has opened on Spring Street, presenting works from the museum’s collections in the ambiance of a contemporary gallery until September 2. If it’s more art you’re after, you can travel over the Vermont border to the Bennington Museum, or east to MASS MoCA in nearby North Adams. Then get outdoors and visit Sheep Hill, a 50-acre former dairy farm that was purchased by the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation (WRLF) in 2000. The farmhouse and grounds are open to the public for picnicking, hiking, and bird watching, and a full schedule of regular seasonal events and exhibits. The WRLF, at its Sheep Hill trail kiosk, offers complete information on all Williamstown trails, including those in the Hopkins Forest, the Mount Greylock Reservation, and Field Farm. Climb (or drive) to where the Appalachian Trail crosses Mount Greylock at the highest point in Massachusetts. Local restaurants like Mezze source local foods. The Neapolitan-style pizza at Hot Tomatoes on Water Street is exceptional. Chase it with homemade ice cream from the Lickety Split scoop shop on Spring. The old Williams Inn has closed, and the new one, at the foot of Spring Street, is due to open in September. If you’re not an Eph (that would be a Williams graduate — an “eef”, as in College founder Ephraim Williams) you may wonder why everyone is wearing purple come September. Hint: the college mascot is a purple cow.
JEFF GOLDBERG, PHIL HOLLAND, PHILL HOLLAND, GABRIELLE K. MURPHY
Clockwise from left: the Clark Art Institute, Spring Street, a view from Sheep Hill, Mount Greylock Reservation.
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Garlic ad - Berkshire Calendar 1-4pg - 070319.qxp_Layout 1 7/3/19 1:57 PM Page
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Aug. 31 & Sep. 1 10 am to 5 pm
200+ Vendors Music
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Bennington, VT At Camelot Village 26
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Food
LoveGarlic.com
more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
sheffield
a quiet town, with ukuleles and cannabis canopy
Clockwise from top: Campo de’ Fiori, Bash Bish Brew & Que, and Magic Fluke.
ALL PHOTOS: KELLLY A. CADE
The town of Sheffield lies just north of the Connecticut border in the Housatonic River Valley, with gentle mountains on both sides. It’s only 100 miles from New York’s Central Park as the crow flies, or two and a half hours by car, and it’s where the Berkshires begins. After almost 300 years, it’s still a rural town with a comfortable pace of life. Second homes both new and old mix in nicely with working farms; produce from the latter goes on sale at the weekly Farmers Market. Part of the town lies along Route 7, and the charming village of Ashley Falls is just a few miles to the southwest. The Colonel John Ashley House there, where the enslaved Mum Bett (later Elizabeth Freeman) lived before suing for and winning her freedom in 1781, is a stop on the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail. Sheffield is also home to visitor-friendly Big Elm Brewing and the Berkshire Distillery (both offer tours and tastings), a prominent clay works, and a surprising number and variety of antiques dealers. Campo de’ Fiori has hand-made terra cotta pots (complete with moss) and a range of decorative and useful items for home and garden. There’s always something going on at Dewey Memorial Hall, an impressive fieldstone and marble structure on the Sheffield green. The Stagecoach Tavern, as its name implies,
got its start in an earlier age; now it’s a place to go not only for food and drink but jazz and events; it’s part of the Race Brook Lodge cluster of buildings in a woodsy setting off Route 41. And if you like your music with strings attached, you might also like to visit Magic Fluke, where they make ukuleles, banjos, violins, and more. Many visitors head straight to the Marketplace Café on Elm Court in the center of town. The chef-owners created a popular catering business in 1993 and have branched out into four “retail” locations, each with its own style (the others are in Pittsfield and Great Barrington). Bash Bish Brew & Que on Main Street is a popular source for barbeque and pizza. They legalized it: Sheffield is now the site of Massachusetts’ first licensed outdoor cannabis growing facility, Nova Farms, “boasting 80,000 square feet of cannabis canopy.” Cannabis canopy? That’s simply the extent of contiguous vegetative growth — like the rain forest, but with marijuana. In Sheffield, the times, they are a-changin’.
FIND OUT EVERYTHING THAT’S HAPPENING THIS MONTH — Go to: www.berkshirescalendar.com BerkshiresCalendar.com
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hillsdale, new york towards Great Barrington is a well-worn path for many visitors to the Berkshires. Nowadays, though, the traffic goes both ways, as Hillsdale has become a destination that Berkshire residents and visitors are increasingly drawn to. Just when Hillsdale tipped towards trendy could be debated, but it has definitely happened: the formerly sleepy farming town is now a second-home magnet with a vibrant artistic and commercial culture in which part-timers are as invested as year-rounders. Passiflora hung out a lonely shingle in 2009, billing itself as “an eclectic mix of all things contemporary, quirky, and chic” (primarily housewares and personal care products, with an emphasis on local artisans); ten years later, it’s still going strong. The Federal designation of the Hillsdale Hamlet Historic District in 2010 certainly advanced the cause. In 2011 interior designer Matthew White renovated an 1855 commercial structure on the village square into what is now the stylish Hillsdale General Store; the building also houses the CrossRoads Food Shop, a farm-to-table restaurant. White then went a step further, opening HGS Chef, which sells cookware and offers on-site cooking classes with top chefs, in another made-over building across the street. If you’re looking for traditional American food and drink and perhaps a game of pool, the 1881 Mt. Washington House is also in the neighborhood. In addition to its tavern with antique pressed-tin walls and ceilings and the original mahogany bar, the Mt. Washington fits three pool tables under its roof and presents live music on weekends. The Casana T House is closed for the present, but the Hillsdale House, right in the center of things, has reopened after a makeover; expect great pizza. Meanwhile, the owners of Passiflora have turned a former tattoo parlor into the Village Scoop, which serves non-alcoholic cocktails as well as exceptional artisanal ice cream. You can still get a haircut in Hillsdale, too, at least if the pole outside Trudy’s Barber Shop is spinning; haircuts $17, beards extra.
Not all the action is in the village. Mirror Mirror, located on Route 23 between the Route 22 junction and the town center, offers both vintage clothing and housewares. The Swiss Hutte Inn & Restaurant, just east of downtown on Route 23, is a popular spot for lunch and dinner. Zurich native Chef Gert Alper presides over a marriage of European cuisine with locally sourced ingredients. Turn south on Route 22 and you’ll see O’s Hillsdale Country Diner on your left; the O is for Otto and the food falls in the “fine diner dining” category. For DIY food, Hillsdale also has the Hillsdale Supermarket (“home of the one dollar sale”), a classic full-service IGA right near the village square. It’s locally owned and has an excellent meat department. If you’re coming to the Berkshires for the weekend, the IGA is a great place to stock your larder for less. Random Harvest is a worker-owned neighborhood market, café and community space that offers food and goods sourced directly from more than seventy local producers. If you’re coming in from the Taconic, it’s a convenient stop for fresh local produce just east of Craryville on Route 23. The supply of older houses around Hillsdale for use as second homes has been depleted. Newer weekend houses on the back roads tend to be architecturally bold interpretations of country house design with energy-saving features that make them feasible for year-round use. Of course, you don’t have to own a home to spend a weekend. The hosts of the Green River Inn, Silvanus Lodge, and Honored Guest B&B will be happy accommodate you. Hillsdale still has plenty of dairy farms and cornfields. The Farmers Market merged with neighboring Copake’s market several years ago and attracts hundreds of shoppers to an open-sided barn every Saturday. And the farming scene itself is changing. Witness Tiny Hearts Farm, which grows flowers organically on 15 acres in Copake and has a showroom and shop in Hillsdale’s business district.
Left to right: HGS Chef and Tiny Hearts, tables outside the Scoop Shop by the Hillsdale General Store, Mt. Washington House.
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ALL PHOTOS: KELLY A. CADE
Route 23 from the Taconic through Hillsdale
where New York meets the Berkshires
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Hail, Columbia K-12 WALDORF SCHOOL BIODYNAMIC ® FARM GROWING SEASON CSA ORGANIC/NATURAL FOODS & GROCERY STORE SUMMER FARM CAMP FARM TOURS + MORE! Join us for our ANNUAL FALL FESTIVAL SUNDAY, OCT. 13TH
H AW T H O R N E VA L L E Y. O R G | G H E N T N Y
Saturday, September 21, 2019 James Gurney
Live music, food and fun for the whole family! Come and make a day of it...
In the Heart of the Hudson Valley for schedule and updates visit
www.hardscrabbleday.org 30
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Go west from Hillsdale on Route 23 and you’ll soon find yourself in the heart of Columbia County, New York. The hills roll through agricultural land until you arrive at the city of Hudson, the county seat, where the Hudson River runs toward New York City. Columbia County itself sits atop Dutchess County, which begins at a point due west of the southern line of the Berkshire County. In recent years the region has become a prime destination for second home owners and weekenders from points south, who come to enjoy the cultural and recreational opportunities, and the fresh air and excellent food, that the region provides. There’s always something going on, but the following events are headliners this season. The 31st Falcon Ridge Folk Festival runs August 2–4 at Dodd’s Farm in Hillsdale: four stages, new and established folk musicians, a Dance Tent, camping, and community. At the Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck (August 20-25), agriculture takes center stage as farmers show off their best livestock and produce. There are two horse rings, a carnival, kids’ activities, music, and more. The 179th Columbia County Fair takes place over six days (August 28–September 2) at the Fairgrounds in Chatham. It’s got everything from agricultural competitions to demolition derbies, with pig racing somewhere in between. The 12th annual Art Studio Views gives art enthusiasts a close-up look at Hudson Valley art and artists (33 of them) on their own turf over Labor Day weekend, August 31–September 2, in southern Columbia and northern Dutchess County. The Hudson Valley Wine and Food Fest takes place September 7 and 8 at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck. Your cup will runneth over. The village of Red Hook puts on Hardscrabble Day on September 21: live music, vendors, free events for kids, food, and a parade. The Winnakee Land Trust sponsors a Tour of Barns and Working Farms in northern Dutchess County on September 21. The tour begins at 11am; an after-party follows. The Hawthorne Valley Fall Festival takes place this year on October 13 at the 900-acre Hawthorne Valley farm campus in Ghent. The event is free and open to the public. Hawthorne Valley bills itself as a “diverse non-profit organization committed to the renewal of soil, society, and self by integrating agriculture, education, and art.” The Festival is both fun and educational, especially for children. more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
DUTCHESS COUNTY FAIR
(and Dutchess County, too)
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salisbury, connecticut
the quiet corner, with bears
If you don’t live in Salisbury or own a second home there, you can be forgiven if you wish you did. Tucked into the northwesternmost corner of Connecticut, it’s where Litchfield County meets the Berkshires. It’s elegant and well kept and home to two prep schools, but also wild and mountainous: black bear habitat. Salisbury has small-town feel, with full-time and part-time residents whose lives often take them into Manhattan, just a little over two hours by car and also reachable by rail from Wassaic, only fifteen minutes away. Who wouldn’t feel a little tug at a little place with a “For Sale” sign on the lawn? Salisbury is a welcoming town, whether you own real estate there or not. It thrives on the mixture of people it attracts, from celebrities (Meryl Streep has lived there for years) to race-car drivers and their fans drawn by Lime Rock Park. You might see — or be among — the locals and weekenders heading for dinner at Neo, the new restuarant in town — or one of the shaggy, hungry Appalachian Trail hikers descending the half-mile from the Trail into town to pick up groceries at LaBonne’s Market. Begin with a walk down Main Street and follow your nose to Sweet William’s Bakery, famous for pies, cookies and (in season) its gingerbread men. Right across the street is the General Store, which also doubles as the town’s pharmacy. Around the corner is browser-friendly Johnnycake Books, specializing in rare and collectible volumes. Go a little further and you’ll soon be on the Railroad Ramble, Salisbury’s scenic Rail Trail. Outdoor activities draw many people to the area. Don’t let the AT hikers have all the fun. If you can hike half a mile — uphill, that is (the hike is listed as ”moderate to strenuous”) — pluck up your courage and try the trail to Lion’s Head for spectacular views over the surrounding countryside. The trailhead is only a mile out of town on Bunker Hill Road (there’s a parking lot marked “Hiker Parking” where the road comes to an end); the road begins at the Salisbury Town Hall in the center of town. There are six lakes, with names like Wononscopomuc, Washinee,
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Washining, and Wononpakook (brush up on your Algonquian before you visit). Deep, beautiful 348-acre Wononscopomuc (also known as Lakeville Lake, in very plain English) is the site of the well-run public beach, known as the Salisbury Town Grove. There’s a $10-per-head fee for non-residents. Boat launching (at an additional $10) and various watercraft rentals are also available. The fishing is excellent, and Connecticut licenses are available at the Grove. If hooking a bass from a boat is too peaceful for you, head to Lime Rock Park. Lime Rock is one of Salisbury’s “hamlets,” but don’t look for thatched cottages. Since 1956 the 1.5-mile track at Lime Rock Park has been a mainstay on the American racing circuit, and it’s also where amateur drivers can drive and dream and (if they qualify) compete. One of the big events of the fall is the Historic Festival, which brings vintage cars together for racing and showing August 29–September 2. If chamber music is more to your taste, Music Mountain (90th season!) is 12 minutes away in Falls Village and presents exceptional ensembles on Saturdays and Sundays through September 22. But perhaps you took the advice of the New York Times and travelled to Salisbury simply to dine at the White Hart Inn on dishes prepared by celebrated British chef Annie Wayte. The Inn houses Provisions, a stylish café and sandwich spot, the casual Tap Room, open for dinner and serving what the restaurant characterizes as “elevated British-inspired comfort food,” and the elegant Dining Room, with offerings that highlight seasonal ingredients sourced from nearby farms. The food is both exotic and local — a good reflection of the town itself.
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ALL PHOTOS: KELLY A. CADE
Left to right: Main Street, Sweet William’s Bakery, the Joie Maison shop.
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the western towns
head for the border
Baldwin Hill, Egremont
Massachusetts-New York border. Half a dozen roads connect the two states where the range lets down its guard, but otherwise only hikers and black bears pass over a ridgeline that runs from Mount Everett in the south to Berlin Mountain in Petersburg, N.Y., in the north. Seven Berkshire towns lie along the border: they are (south to north) Mt. Washington, Egremont, Alford, West Stockbridge (see page 12), Richmond, Hancock, and Williamstown (see page 24). With the exception of Williamstown, they all play second fiddle to the larger towns immediately east of them — and that is one reason they have something special to offer the visitor, the second-homeowner, and of course their roughly 13,000 year-round residents.
Mt. Washington
The Berkshires’ Mt. Washington is a sparsely settled township on a high plateau below the western slopes of Mount Everett, at 2,602 ft. the highest point in the Southern Berkshires. Much of the land belongs to the Mt. Washington State Forest and the Mount Everett State Reservation. The population was only 167 at last count, but Mt. Washington is home to Arlo Guthrie and James Taylor and other lovers of mountain air and the arts. This is a mountain town with a Cultural Council. There’s also a town hall, a library, a church, and a ball field on Garrett Green in the town center; Sunday softball games bring the community together in the summer months, culminating in the All Town Labor Day Picnic.
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Mt. Washington also lays claim to Bash Bish Falls State Park, right near the New York border, the highlight of which is the impressive, two-headed, single-drop falls. Access is easier from the New York end, off Route 22 on Route 344 through Copake Falls. If you’re making that approach, you’ll have the option of parking in New York (at Taconic State Park) and hiking in on a level trail, or passing into Massachusetts and climbing down — and back up — on a well-maintained but steeply stepped slope. Swimming in the large pool at the base of the falls is not permitted (though it happens), but there are rocks for sunbathing, and on a hot day the air is cool and fresh. Many children come to know Mt. Washington by attending YMCA Camp Hi-Rock, founded in 1948; there are both overnight and day sessions through the first half of August. The Appalachian Trail passes over the summit of Mount Everett, the windswept dome of which offers panoramic views of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The views from Alander Mountain, reachable from a trail in the Mt. Washington State Forest at the western edge of the Taconic escarpment, are also worth the climb. Or you can simply wander in shady Garrett Garden back in the town center and let yourself get lost in a green labyrinth.
Egremont, North and South Egremont is one town with two villages, the larger one (South Egremont) located at the junction of Routes 23 and 41, the lesser at a crossroads along
NEIL NOURSE
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DAVID EDGECOMB
Berkshire Equestrian Center, Richmond Route 71. Both villages are easy to pass through, but 1,225 people are happy to live in this peaceful, rural town. Egremont still has a lot of land under cultivation; the mountains rise only along the border, with Catamount Ski Area straddling the New York-Massachusetts line. Numerous establishments make Egremont a destination for outsiders. Prospect Lake Park attracts campers of all kinds, including those who pull in with an RV at one of the 140 well-appointed campsites; cabins are also available. Families with children enjoy the lake, and the Park makes a great (and affordable) base for exploring the Berkshires. For fine dining in a warm ambiance, the Old Mill has built a faithful following serving inspired American and vegetarian cuisine for more than two decades. The elegant 1786 Egremont Village Inn has only 12 rooms, but each one is light-filled and spacious. The nearby Egremont Barn, built in 1820, sets a different and more rustic tone, and hosts music and other entertainment most evenings; you can become part of it on Karaoke nights, or anytime you step up to dance. If you want to get away from it all, try the Jug End State Reservation and Wildlife Management Area in the southernmost portion of the town; the Jug End Loop Trail offers dreamy, scenic hiking. To outfit yourself in all seasons, family-owned Kenver is a former South Egremont stagecoach stopover that has been a destination store for outdoor equipment and apparel since 1959; they rent bikes in the summer, too.
Don’t miss the next issue AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 1 MORE great events, stories, and adventures. Until then, visit BerkshiresCalendar.com online, updated daily, for a complete listing of what’s happening right now in the Berkshires and beyond. Ad deadline September 1, 2019 BerkshiresCalendar.com
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Alford
Some say “ALL-ford,” and some say “AL-ford,” but no one would want to call this town of 500 souls off. It consistently ranks among the municipalities with the oldest average-age residents in Massachusetts, and among those with the highest per capita income in the Berkshires. And it has one of the lowest tax rates, too, which may account for its popularity among retirees and second-home owners. It has no police or fire department, no state highways, no commercial development, no apartments, no gas station, and until recently it had no high-speed Internet; now it boasts among the highest speeds in the region. What it does have are beautiful country roads for biking: the mostly level 9.7-mile Alford Loop runs through farmland and woodland along smooth, lightly trafficked roadways; begin either at the south end at the junction of East Road and West Center Road or at the north end over the West Stockbridge line at the junction of West Center Road and Wilson Road. For hikers and strollers, the Alford Springs Trails on Berkshire Natural Resources Council land, open to the public without charge, offer moderate treks; the Mother loop is 2.4 miles, the Father loop, 4.3. Both have abundant blackberries in season and views up and down the Housatonic Valley. Green River and Alford Brook help keep the landscape verdant, and several farms account for some of the open land. The town has an active Cultural Council and a Children’s Library, too. Before you decide to move to Alford, bear in mind that the average price of a single-family dwelling there is upwards of half a million dollars. Visiting picturesque Alford, however, is free.
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Richmond It’s not that there’s no there there, just that there’s no obvious town center. The town offices, the school, and the Post Office are strung along Route 41 as it runs on a northsouth axis through town. Richmonders are happy with their low-key, rural paradise, however, complete with two fine apple orchards. The town lies due west of Lenox but seems a world away. It’s popular with weekenders like former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and his wife Diane as well as with families, who appreciate the excellent pre-K through 8th-grade school. The Berkshire Equestrian Center is also located in Richmond; lessons available. The orchards — Hilltop Orchards in the western part of town off Route 295, and Bartlett’s Orchard in the east — are both thriving, year-round operations and idyllic pick-your-own destinations come September and October. There are two wineries, too: Furnace Brook Winery (under the Hilltop Orchards umbrella and located at the orchard) and Balderdash Cellars, on Route 41, which makes fine wines from carefully sourced grapes. Both wineries offer tastings at posted times. Hancock One third of the N.Y.-Mass. border belongs to Hancock, but the town is also the narrowest of the Berkshires, only three miles across at its widest point. The northern half is bounded by two mountain ridges, giving the mile-wide valley in between a Shangri-La feeling. Route 43 runs along the western edge of the valley, and if you’re just passing through, you’re likely to miss the town altogether, as the center of settlement lies along a discreetly marked byway that soon rejoins the more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: PHIL HOLLAND, HANCOCK SHAKER VILLAGE, GABRIELLE K. MURPHY, PHIL HOLLAND
Clockwise from top left: Jiminy Peak, Hancock Shaker Village, , bird watching at Alford Springs, Ioka Valley Farm.
main route. That makes Hancock’s Main Street the road less traveled, and the small-town peace is palpable for those who make the detour. Don’t miss the Taylor Library if it’s open; it seems the entire town turned out for a panoramic photograph a hundred years ago, and it hangs on the wall. The southern part of Hancock is still physically divided from the northern half by mountains. Children from the south have to leave the state (and come back again) to get to school. The first-rate elementary school, the low taxes (thanks to the presence of Jiminy Peak), and the small-town feel make Hancock a desirable spot to raise a family. Residents work in Williamstown, Pittsfield, Albany, and at home. Three attractions might bring you to the town. In the north, along Route 43, lies 500-acre Ioka Valley Farm, now in its 4th generation. The Farm raises beef cattle, but it also
has other animals, and some of them are pettable; bring your children or grandchildren. Visitors come from near and far to sample the Farm’s maple syrup, purchase the summer produce, pick pumpkins in October, and select a Christmas tree at year’s end. Jiminy Peak, which rises on the east side of the valley, is also a four-season enterprise these days, following the trend of climate-change-challenged Berkshire ski areas transitioning into year-round recreational centers (see Family Fun, p. 64).
In the town’s southeastern corner along Route 20 sits Hancock Shaker Village, a complex of 22 buildings, fields, and woods. The Village, founded in the 1780s on 700 acres, is the oldest working farm in the Berkshires and became a living history museum in 1959. Gone are the celibate, pacifist, intensely religious Shakers themselves, whose practice of communal living is reflected in the living quarters that remain today. A number of the most influential Shaker leaders were women, and gender equality prevailed in the 20 communities the sect founded from Maine to Kentucky. The Shakers are most famous for furniture and crafts that combine beautiful design, mechanical invention, and fine workmanship. Many examples are on view at the Village in the very workshops in which they were constructed. Shaker design also produced the ingenious architecture of the 1826 Round Stone Barn and the light-filled Poultry House, now used as an exhibition space (see Events for current offerings). The Village is a favorite with families, and children are invited to observe — and touch — the heritage-breed sheep and goats. Further west on Route 20 begins the 36-mile-long Taconic Crest Trail, which heads north through and across Hancock before entering New York, Williamstown, and Vermont. You’ll pass over Misery Mountain with its ten well-defined summits. If that sounds discouraging, consider that the southernmost is popularly known as Bill’s Lunch. Don’t expect trailside takeout, however.
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Passionate, modern interpretations of Shaker songs by artists including Natalie Merchant and Allison Russell, with musical introduction by Yo-Yo Ma
HANCOCK SHAKER VILLAGE
1843 West Housatonic St • Pittsfield, MA
hancockshakerVillage.org
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out and about
they legalized it marijuana for the masses If only Peter Tosh could have seen the day (he was murdered in 1987). Millennials, if you don’t know what we’re talking about, just stream the song he sang in 1976, with its catchy reggae beat and lyrics that begin, “Legalize it, don’t criticize it . . .” After many delays, it all happened so fast. The Massachusetts legislature authorized the sale of medical marijuana through licensed dispensaries in 2013. The green light for recreational sales came in 2016. The Cannabis Control Commission began granting recreational licenses in 2018, and the first license in the Berkshires went to Theory Wellness in Great Barrington, which opened its doors in January of this year. The line of customers outside its shop on Route 7 just north of town has become a familiar sight to local residents. Many customers have traveled some distance to queue up, government-issued photo ID and cash or debit card in hand, to purchase cannabis in its many forms (more on those below). The reward has been, for many, the first lawful weed purchase of their lives. BerkshiresCalendar.com 38 BerkshiresCalendar.com 38
For those who in the past had had to depend on black market transactions to procure a product that was both illegal and of uncertain origin and potency, the first shopping experience was a heady feeling in itself. Soon other licensees got into the act. Berkshire Roots and Temescal Wellness opened shops in Pittsfield, and Silver Therapeutics in Williamstown was not far behind. As of this writing, Canna Provisions in Lee is the latest to join the club, but more shops in Great Barrington and Pittsfield are in the latter stages of the approval process. Who shops at these establishments? “All kinds of people, from college students (age 21 or over) to seniors,” says Brendan McKee, one of the owners of Silver Therapeutics. “Local people, moremore newsnews and and features at theBerkshireEdge.com features at theBerkshireEdge.com
cannabis and the law A few words about the legality of legal weed. As is widely known, the Federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, putting it in the same class as heroin and cocaine. Thus far the Feds have not called out the troops to suppress recreational sales that are legal in eleven states (with more on the way) and in Congress’s own backyard in Washington, D.C. Federal suppression would be sheer reefer madness and, it is safe to say, politically unpopular (a substantial majority of Americans favor legal weed). For now, the states are calling the shots, except when it comes to the banking laws, and those are likely to change. Certain restrictions do apply to the use of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts. Adults 21 years of age or older with a valid, government-issued ID are able to purchase up to one ounce of marijuana or 5 grams of concentrate. You can’t smoke it in public or in rented facilities without the consent of the owner. When driving, you have to carry your stash in a locked glove compartment or the trunk of your car. You can’t take it across state lines, though in the absence of checkpoints it is reasonable to assume that the law is frequently flouted. And of course, only licensed dispensaries can sell it. In Massachusetts, as of this writing, 19 of them do.
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people from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and beyond. You probably can’t find a more diverse group of customers at any other kind of shop in the Berkshires.” As you may have heard, this is not your father’s dime bag anymore: an eighth of an ounce of flower (as the dried buds of the cannabis plant are known in the trade) runs $50 to $60. Nor is the plant the same, as cannabis breeders have been busy boosting the content of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive ingredient. Proceed with caution, especially where edibles are concerned. Meanwhile, the CBD craze has taken hold. CBD (cannabidiol) comes from the cannabis plant but contains no THC and produces no high. It’s an unregulated herbal supplement with some promising therapeutic benefits for treating pain, anxiety, and childhood epilepsy. Dispensaries offer it, but it’s also widely available elsewhere in many forms. As the recreational market evolves, so does the THC-bearing product, which comes as the smokable flowers of the plant (both indica and sativa varieties) and in extracts such as shatter, wax, chews, tinctures, oils, cartridges, and more. Half-gram and onegram pre-rolled joints are popular, too, though pricey ($10 to $18, plus 20% tax). Dispensaries have well-trained “bud-tenders” to guide your purchases. They also offer the equivalent of wine lists for the discerning consumer; menus change, moreover, as different strains become available. For example, Theory Wellness recently listed “The legendary ‘Mendo Breath,’ bred by Gage Green genetics, a very rare, sweet and earthy smelling, indica-leaning hybrid. The distinct smell offers a bit of brininess, mixed with funky vanilla, and notes of caramel. This strain is best for those who enjoy a more full body expression from their flower, or are looking for a potent body high.” Some strains promise creative stimulation, others deep relaxation, with everything in between. It’s not a bad idea to peruse current offerings online before you arrive. Allow time to wait in line, or better yet, pre-order (though there is no drive-thru option yet). It’s been a long time coming; Peter Tosh, R.I.P.
news, views & what’s happening at theBerkshireEdge.com
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out and about
where to meet up with friends in the Berkshires
Mint Indian Lakeside Dining, Lee
Dalton The pretty village of Dalton is just a few miles east of Pittsfield on Route 8. The Shire Breu-Hous, opened in 2017 in a converted Crane Stationery factory, makes it worth the trip if you’d like to try something different. Good food, great brewed-on-site beer, Instagrammable
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surroundings, perfect for a night out with friends.
Great Barrington All roads lead to Great Barrington, the Rome of South County. It’s no accident that it’s filled with places to meet, from chic cafés to restaurants with lively bar scenes. For coffee and a croissant and a place to talk, Patisserie Lenox is a standby. A few doors up along Main Street and Fuel will also get you going (and provide lunch besides). Or try Rubi’s, a short hop down an alley off Main. The paneled walls are unadorned and the wooden seats have no cushions, but this is New England, and the coffee and treats are first-rate; there’s a fireplace, too, for when the weather gets cold in October. Botanica, on Railroad Street, has a fine choice of coffees and teas, plus pastries more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
DAVID EDGECOMB
It all depends, of course, on where you’re coming from, who you and your friend or friends are, and why you’re getting together — not that you need a reason! This much is certain: the Berkshires are friend-friendly. The region abounds in congenial places for people to come together — to commune, to confer, to have a drink before a show, or simply to get better acquainted. Think of it as sharing, but in person.
DAVID EDGECOMB
Brick House Pub, Housatonic
and lunch daily, and Thursday through Sunday after 5pm it’s a trendy setting for cocktails, oysters, jazz, and more. One street over (on Castle), next to the Mahaiwe, is Number Ten, a newly opened steakhouse with a long, oldfashioned bar, with what they claim is the largest selection of American whiskies in the Berkshires. The name of the Prairie Whale is a nod to old slang for the humble Midwestern porker: forget Melville, think charcuterie. The food at the restaurant is excellent, and the lively bar and terrace have an ambiance of their own. Prairie Whale stands above street level; for The Well, you’ll have to go down a flight of stairs. If you do, you’ll find a restaurant with a warm atmosphere, a tempting menu, and a bar area to meet at over a glass of wine or a specialty cocktail.
South of town, the Great Barrington Bagel Company has been baking its own New York-style bagels daily since 1996. The flourish of the name carries over into the delicious sandwiches and friendly service. If you’re in the mood to leave all things New York behind, there is a portal to France at the Bizalion Café and Market a little further south on Route 7. You and your friend can order a café crème and pretend you’re in Paris; go ahead, order in French, but keep those Gauloises in your purse, even if you’re seated outside. Farther south on Route 7, the Bistro Box is a modest roadside eatery with a devoted following. Once you have lunch in hand, you and your friends can take it to one of the shaded tables for your very own picnic social. If you’re headed north of town,
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Barrington Brewery awaits. You can have a meal if you like, but there’s also a classic bar hung with ceramic mugs stamped with the Brewery’s name and the names (but not the mugs) of regular patrons. It’s not exactly Cheers, but close enough. Taft Farms, north of town on Route 183 at the corner of Division Street, has a little café surrounded by beautiful plants for sale. They serve sandwiches, cooked dishes, and delicious baked goods, all prepared on site, and in August, you can take home some of their fresh sweet corn. It still counts as local if you continue on a few miles to the village of Housatonic and stop in at Pleasant and Main. You can have a tasty meal or just a glass in a relaxed setting perfect for conversation. Also in Housatonic, the Brick House Pub is a popular local source for burgers, pizza, beer, and BerkshiresCalendar.com BerkshiresCalendar.com
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out and about: where to meet up
friendly atmosphere; Wednesdays are Trivia Nights.
Hillsdale, New York Start your day right by meeting up at Crossroads (Wednesday-Sunday) in the little town center — you won’t be the only ones having coffee and a nutritious breakfast; then come back later for lunch or just to sample the beer and wine menu. Meet your friends for pizza and a 64 oz. pitcher of craft draft at recently renovated Hillsdale House, or check out the Mt. Washington House for food and drink and a game of pool. If you would prefer more elegant, but still casual, surroundings, the Swiss Hutte on Route 23 near the Massachusetts-New York state line is a fine spot for a tête-àtête over food and wine.
LEE You don’t have to be a starving artist to love the spacious Starving Artist Café on Main Street; it’s where local entrepreneurs come to spread out their spreadsheets, too. The vibe is friendly, and the coffee and crêpes are always
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first-rate. There’s a long table available if you’ve gotten a group together or are planning a family gathering. The Jacob’s Pillow crowd flows through on performance nights; customers also make it their next stop after a purchase at Canna Provisions. If it’s a beer and a baseball game you and your buddies are after, Moe’s Tavern is the place; it’s just off Main. Bucky’s Tavern is another provider of local atmosphere, and did I mention there’s a mechanical bull? If relaxed elegance in a lakeside setting is more to your taste, arrange to meet at the Lakehouse Inn. Non-guests are welcome at the bar and on the porch and lawn overlooking Laurel Lake on Friday and Saturday evenings. Here’s an idea: drinks at the Lakehouse Inn, and on to dinner nearby at Mint, an excellent Indian restaurant at the Black Swan Inn, overlooking the same lake.
Lenox You can party like it’s 1902 at the Terrace Café at The Mount. It’s a sweet spot for light fare and refreshments in an elegant setting outdoors. Don’t let the extra “e” in “olde” put you off: The
Olde Heritage Tavern downtown on Housatonic Street is the real thing, a popular gathering spot for locals and out-of-towners alike. Bagel and Brew on Franklin Street has a split personality: it’s a café for in the morning and for lunch and brunch, then a bar and beer garden in the evenings, ideal for casual get-togethers. Haven (sounds like heaven) on Franklin Street is a café and bakery well known for “food and community;” it’s a popular spot for coffee, breakfast and lunch. Here’s a tip: give the Trailside Café a try. It’s got great espresso and baked treats inside the premises of the Arcadian Shop, an outdoors outfitter located on Route 7 north of town. Chocolate Springs, also north of town at Lenox Commons, is a café as well as a chocolate shop, with comfortable couches as well as tables. The heady scent of chocolate provides an aromatherapeutic touch to any meeting — especially if you’re coming as a couple.
North Adams The scale of MASS MoCA can be a little overwhelming; it’s a good idea to go with a friend. Besides, you’ll have
KELLY A. CADE, PHIL HOLLAND
Fast casual bites at The Clark,
Prairie Whale, Great Barrington
lots to talk about, either as you stroll through the galleries or at one of four eating and drinking establishments on the museum campus. Lickety Split is the Museum café, with coffee, soups, and salads; Gramercy Bistro is for a serious (but not too serious) lunch, dinner, or Sunday brunch; at Tunnel City Coffee, sit inside or take your beverage out and drink it under the upside-down trees; Bright Ideas Brewing crafts beers on the premises that pair well with modern art. Be adventurous: downtown North Adams is right next door, and you’ll discover places like PUBLIC Eat + Drink, and Brewhaha on West Main, where you can sip your iced coffee with a view. No. Six Depot, West Stockbridge
PITTSFIELD Pittsfield’s downtown renaissance has made North Street a social magnet.
The lively horseshoe bar at Hotel on North is the kind of place where someone can knock off work, go for a beer, and expect to see friends or fall into conversation with out-of-town guests. It’s also a popular spot for theatergoers to have a drink and perhaps an order of oysters before they catch a show at the Colonial or one of the stages of Barrington Stage, all within walking distance. If it’s a cup of good coffee and a bite (with a friend) that you’re after, Dottie’s Coffee Lounge can provide them, along with plenty of space to enjoy them. You can even sit in the window on a couch, as if you’re on the set of Friends. Never mind the fast Wi-Fi: talk to your friend! Besides its market offerings, Guido’s on Route 7 also has a café with a salad bar, hot food, tables to linger at, and stools lined up
A charming wedding venue in Great Barrington.
PHIL HOLLAND
Serving Dinner Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 5-9 pm Reservations:
413-229-3131
Visit us • saintjamesplace.net/weddings Photo: Christina Lane Photography
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out and about: where to meet up
Richmond Balderdash Cellars is a little off the beaten track: all the more reason to go there. A tastings menu is available Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons. If you have something secret to share, a glass or two of Truth Serum #2 (a red blend at almost 14.9% ABV) can help; the winery calls this wine “tongue-loosening.” Live music keeps the mood convivial.
woodsy setting. Neither can Berkshire bohemians; it’s why they live here. Dinner is available, but you can also just order drinks. The live music makes any get-together more festive. The Tap Room at Big Elm Brewing is a cool gathering spot on a hot day — think of a tap as a fountain. In fact, there are eleven fountains. The beer they spout is brewed right there: can’t get more local than that. A favorite spot with locals and out-of-towners alike for coffee, sandwiches, and more is The Marketplace Café, just off Route 7 on Elm Court.
under a tent at the Norman Rockwell Museum, is a good spot for conversation, and you can order a sandwich called “Freedom from Want” (turkey breast with cranberry mayo, lettuce, and stuffing on multi-grain bread). Also recommended: strolling by the river on the Museum grounds. The Café, the grounds, and Norman Rockwell’s studio are all open to visitors free of charge (though that sandwich will set you back $10.50). Of course, the exhibits inside the Museum are a wonderful social experience in themselves; you’re in Mr. Rockwell’s neighborhood.
Stockbridge
West Stockbridge
There is always room (somewhere) at The Red Lion Inn, though the famous porch gets crowded with visitors in season. The Lion’s Den (downstairs) and The Courtyard can get crowded too, but with good reason: they’re nice places to enjoy food, drink, and Berkshires hospitality beside others who may also be “from away.” Lastly, the Inn houses Widow Bingham’s Tavern, a blend of quirky and classic for get-togethers with family and relations (and food). If you’re looking for a more sylvan setting, the Runaway Café, outdoors
No. 6 Depot is a well-known coffee roastery on the site of the oldest former train station in the Berkshires, and it’s also a place where people come in for a cup and a bite in a friendly, aromatic atmosphere. There’s art on the walls and seating outside as well as in. At the opposite corner of the small downtown area, the Stanmeyer Gallery and Shaker Dam Coffeehouse provides comfort as well as freshly brewed coffee. Look for the Joel Hotchkiss mobile with coffee-bean wings pinwheeling outside the door. The Shaker Mill Tavern is back as The Tap House, open Thursday through Monday from 5pm, giving the town a gathering spot as the sun drops down.
Williamstown
Salisbury, Connecticut Meet up for coffee, breakfast, or lunch at Provisions inside the White Hart Inn seven days a week (7am-6pm Monday through Saturday, 8am-6pm Sunday). Or stop in for coffee and superlative baked goods at Sweet William’s. Both places are in the picturesque town center.
Sheffield If you’re from Brooklyn, you might run into your neighbors at the Stagecoach Tavern at Race Brook Lodge. It seems that people from that borough can’t resist a cosmopolitan atmosphere in a
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Markets = meetings If you live in the Berkshires full or even part time, chances are you run into your friends either at the new quarters of Berkshire Food Co-op on Bridge Street in Great Barrington or at the region’s many farmers markets (see p. 68), where you can catch up against a backdrop of fresh produce,
Spring Street is the town’s commercial district, and it’s also the meeting place for residents and visitors alike. Spring Street Café and Tunnel City Coffee both have indoor and outdoor seating. Come September, expect to share space with college students; they come from all over the world to study at Williams. If you’re visiting, chances are the Clark Art Institute is on your itinerary, and it’s a wonderful meeting spot in itself. The café inside the museum is always humming, and if you really want to get to know someone, walk through the exhibits with said someone, or just sit together by the reflecting pool — and reflect.
MARIA GHI
at a counter along the window; meet for lunch. The Marketplace Café is another popular spot for fueling up with friends, or talk things over over fabulous food and drink at the recently opened International House of Tacos. If the weather’s nice, consider sharing a bottle of Vinho Verde on the patio at Mission. It’s a restaurant, tapas bar, wine and beer bar, and all-around gathering place on North Street. Methuselah Bar & Lounge (go figure) attracts a stylish younger crowd. Sixteen taps of craft beer, artful cocktails, artful eats: you could happily grow old here, but it would also make a good start for a Pittsfield pub crawl. Why not stop in at Thistle and Mirth? For the beer, for the company. You could end up at The Lantern, a venerable and recently reopened Pittsfield institution. Lastly, thanks to Jacob’s Pillow, every Third Thursday there’s dancin’ in the street by St. Joseph’s church: a chance for folks to meet.
events get your calendars ready!
Left, Gladys Knight at Tanglewood, Cha Wa at MASS MoCA, Shakespeare & Co. performs at the Mount, PS21 hosts Bridgeman Packer Dance.
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music
it never stops
From concerts at Tanglewood by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and top popular performers to folk, jazz, and cabaret in the intimate settings of cafés, bars, and galleries, there is music in every town and village during the summer and fall. You will even find it in the splash of streams and the songs of birds (which is what Julie Andrews was actually singing about). TANGLEWOOD | Tanglewood has been the main attraction since the BSO made it its summer home in 1937. Whether you listen from inside the Shed or from the surrounding Lawn, the acoustics are a marvel, and the drop-down screens allow everyone a close-up view of the orchestra. Wonderful musical events go on in Seiji Ozawa Hall too, where you can listen to Yo-Yo Ma play all six of J.S. Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello on August 11. The BSO’s Tanglewood season continues on August 2 when Ken-David Masur (son of Kurt and soprano Tomoko Sakurai) conducts works by Martinů and Dvořák. This performance is one of the BSO’s UnderScore Friday evenings, featuring commentary from an on-stage BSO musician. The rest of the BSO’s month includes some of the symphonic repertory’s greatest hits: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (Pastoral) on the 11th, Mahler’s Fourth on the 18th, Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the 23rd, and on August 24 Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erde (Peace on Earth) for unaccompanied chorus and Beethoven’s Ninth, both with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, led by James Burton. Pinchas Zuckerman and Amanda Forsyth team up for the American premiere of Anver Dorman’s Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra on August 3, a BSO co-commission.
Ken-David Masur
Alison Krauss is at Tanglewood June 19 at 7:00 pm Goo Goo Dolls at Tanglewood August 5
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At Tanglewood, it’s not just the music anymore.
This summer marks the debut of the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI), “offering participants new levels of wide-ranging enrichment and education initiatives,” housed in the new Linde Center for Music and Learning. In the Open Studio series, renowned violinist Leonidas Kavakos leads a class on the art of the violin on August 12. What goes into the making of a modern concert flute? Find out from Aiven O’Leary and Alan Weiss in the Meet the Makers series on August 21. Daniel Shapiro, acclaimed expert on the art of conflict resolution, shares his thoughts on peacemaking on August 24, the day prior to music from Shoenberg and Beethoven on related themes.
Yo-Yo Ma at Tanglewood, August 11
It wouldn’t be Tanglewood without the Boston Pops. The Pops accompanies a screening of Star Wars: A New Hope with a live performance of the John Williams score on August 16 with Keith Lockhart leading the orchestra. John Williams himself will make an appearance for another John Williams Film Night on August 24. The composer introduces music from Hollywood “and beyond”; David Newman conducts. A performance by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra on the 21st promises to be a special treat. The 80 members of the orchestra play traditional Chinese instruments in a western orchestral configuration. Tanglewood is one of two stops in the U.S. on their world tour. Rock band Train comes to the Koussevitzky Music Shed for the fifth time, joined by the Goo Goo Dolls and singer-songwriter Allen Stone on August 5. Seven-time Grammy winner Gladys Knight and special guests The Spinners perform in the Shed on August 28. The following night it’s Squeeze; these rockers ‘ail from Great Britain and this is their Songbook Tour. Then, on the 30th, rock icons Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo and ever-popular singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge take the stage. The month ends (on the 31st) when Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals performs with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue; this is their Tanglewood debut. Wait, there’s more: On Sunday, September 1st, Country Hall of Famer Reba McIntire wraps up the season with an afternoon performance, and the last of the picnickers packs up on the Lawn. BerkshiresCalendar.com BerkshiresCalendar.com
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music find more events at berkshirescalendar.com The Slambovian Circus of Dreams at The Guthrie Center, August 24
THE GUTHRIE CENTER | The Center, located in Great Barrington’s Trinity Church (where a certain restaurateur named Alice once lived), was founded by Arlo Guthrie to honor his parents, the great Woody Guthrie and his wife Marjorie Mazia-Guthrie. It’s a home for interfaith services, spiritual exchange, and music. Arlo has made a lot of friends in his many years of music making, and he brings some of them to the Church each summer for the Troubador Series. Performances take place Friday and Saturday nights through the end of August, with an emphasis on blues, folk, and social engagement, but with room for bands that you can kick up your heels to. Beer, wine and a full dinner menu are available on concert nights and may be ordered between 6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. MASS MOCA MEANS MUSIC, TOO | Not only is the Massachusetts
Jupiter and Okwess, August 17
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Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams the biggest contemporary art museum in the U.S., it’s become one of the top music venues in the Berkshires, offering more than 75 performances each year, featuring indie-rock, progressive bluegrass, world music dance parties, barn dances, and a great deal more. August starts off with a bang, the Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend, to be precise (August 2–4), which the Museum describes as “a fully loaded eclectic super-mix of minimal, experimental and electronic music.” Other August weekends present Jupiter and Okwess, August 17, Roomful of Teeth (on the 23rd), and Cha Wa (on the 24th). The FreshGrass Festival, September 20–22, is the major musical event of the fall, drawing thousands of fans for three familyfriendly days of bluegrass and talents like Andrew Bird, Mavis Staples, Greensky Bluegrass, The Travelin’ McCourys, and five other acts. It’s a scene. FreshGround is a tent-camping field less than a mile away, and Camp Aggie can accommodate RVs as well as tents four miles down the road; shuttle service is provided. more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
The Forty Part Motet
Sam Waterston at Close Encounters With Music, October 27
wait, there’s more Early Music specialists Aston Magna will be concluding their 47th Berkshire season with a Shubert and Beethoven program at the Hudson Area Library on August 2 and at Saint James Place in Great Barrington on the 3rd. A 45-minute talk precedes each program, and at Saint James a wine and cheese reception for the artists and the public follows the performance. The Season Finale takes place at the Mahaiwe on the 8th with an exciting program of baroque concertos, including two by J.S. Bach and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins. This summer sees the first sound installation at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. A site-specific combination of sculpture and music by the Canadian artist Janet Cardiff, The Forty Part Motet, created in 2001, features forty separately recorded choral parts that are played through forty speakers arranged in an oval at ear-height in a reworking of a 16th-century motet by Thomas Tallis. Listeners can circulate, approach individual voices, or stand or sit on benches at the central focus of the glass-enclosed Michael Conforti Pavilion. The motet is played in a 14-minute loop that includes eleven minutes of singing and three minutes of intermission, when the singers were recorded talking freely among themselves. You may notice a box of tissues on a bench. It’s there for those whom the intensity of the experience moves to tears. The Shakers settled their Hancock community west of Pittsfield (now Hancock Shaker Village) in the 1780s and eventually founded 22 communities from Maine to Kentucky over the course of the 19th century. Their distinctive way of life was characterized by communal living, gender equality, celibacy, pacifism, and religious devotion. Their beliefs found expression in song no less than in exacting craftsmanship. “Simple Gifts” may be the most widely known Shaker song, but there were some 25,000 others, of which roughly 10,000 survive. “These are not just songs,” wrote one Shaker believer, “but deep feelings from the soul.” In While Mighty Thunders Roll: Popular Artists Sing the Shakers, Grammynominated producer Jeffrey Gaskill and Hancock Shaker Village curator Sarah Margolis-Pineo have assembled an impressive audio and video installation that brings fourteen of these songs vividly to life in a cappella performances by contemporary artists, ranging from Natalie Merchant to 12-year-old crooner Little Nora Brown. Shaker song sheets, tune books, and musical instruments are also on display. Close Encounters With Music kicks off its 2019–2020 season on October 27 at the Mahaiwe with the American premiere of a new rendition of Ecclesiastes. The performance will involve actor Sam Waterston, CEWM artistic director Yehuda Hanani, and guest artists.
Pink Martini, October 28
AT THE MAHAIWE | You must admit, the Fab Faux is a pretty clever name for a tribute act known for its uncannily persuasive covers of songs by the Beatles. Hear for yourself when they come to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington on August 2 for a 50th anniversary tribute to the music of Abbey Road. Sweet Honey in the Rock, the celebrated a cappella quartet of black female voices, performs at the Mahaiwe on August 3. Singer Natalie Merchant has reached the stage where she can sing wherever she likes. What she likes is to perform with guitarist Erik Della Penna in towns like Great Barrington as she tours New England this summer; they’re at the Mahaiwe August 6. The Berkshire Opera Festival brings Donizetti’s comic opera Don Pasquale to the Mahaiwe for three performances August 24, 27, and 30; fun for the entire family, sung in Italian with projected English translations. Pink Martini’s genre-bending “little orchestra” comes to the Mahaiwe October 18; the effect has been described as “the United Nations house band of 1962 meets Lawrence Welk on acid.” Their repertoire is international, their following global. Come see why they’ve sold three million albums since starting up in Portland, Ore., 25 years ago.
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music find more events at berkshirescalendar.com Just over the New York line in New Lebanon, Tannery Pond will be presenting six chamber music concerts this summer, and in Annandale-on-Hudson the Bard SummerScape festival offers seven weeks of musical excellence. Leon Botstein directs the American Symphony Orchestra in the U.S. premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera The Miracle of Heliane, which concludes its run with performances on August 2 and 4. The 30th Bard Music Festival explores Korngold and His World with special programs August 9–11 and 16–18. If you’re looking for lighter fare, get under the Spiegeltent (that’s “tent of mirrors”) on weekends through August 17 for fun and funky cabaret performances (and dancing).
Daedalus Quartet, Music Mountain, September 8
Also in New York in nearby Hillsdale, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival celebrates its 31st year of folk music and dance August 2–4; the venue is Dodds Farm, and many come and camp out. Dip into northwestern Connecticut and there’s Music Mountain in Falls Village, a short hop from Salisbury. It’s the longest running summer music festival in America (begun in 1930), featuring outstanding chamber music, jazz ensembles, and more on weekends through September. In nearby Norfolk, also in Connecticut just below the Berkshires, Infinity Music Hall and Bistro presents a varied lineup of wonderful musicians into early October.
The Spiegeltent at Bard Music Festival, weekends through August 17
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Race Brook Lodge
Experience the Drama
CONCERTS AREN’T EVERYTHING | The larger performance venues dominate the music scene, but many smaller venues present singers and musicians in a more intimate setting, often where there is also food and drink. The Gateways Inn in Lenox has live music six nights a week in an elegant setting, while the Firefly Gastropub, also in Lenox, brings blues and rock acts to play on Friday and Saturday nights. Number 10, right next to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, has live music every Friday and Saturday in the bar. Race Brook Lodge and the Stagecoach Tavern frequently bring a variety of accomplished performers to their woodsy Sheffield location, while in South Egremont The Barn is home to a lively music (and dancing) scene on the weekends.
The Barn
Chamber Music Arti Dixson & James Cammack, Michael Chertock, Borromeo Quartet, Rachel Priday, Yehuda Hanani
Of Live
Sam Waterston, Avirodh Sharma, Inna Faliks,
OCTOBER 2019 JUNE 2020 CELEBRATING OUR 28TH SEASON
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dance
while you can . . .
The season ends all too soon! With a couple of exceptions, the festive summer dance season in the Berkshires winds up in August. Fortunately, some excellent and adventurous companies will be performing in the meantime.
New York City Ballet principal Sarah Mearns at Jacobs Pillow, August 14–18
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In 1931 American dancer Ted Shawn had a vision. He purchased a run-down farm in the Berkshire town of Becket with the extravagant idea of turning the place into a home for modern dance. The farm was not far from the switchbacks of Jacob’s Ladder Road, and a large, sloping boulder on the grounds had already earned the place the name of Jacob’s Pillow (the Bible says that Jacob laid his head on a stone before dreaming of a ladder to heaven). It all made sense to Shawn, who turned his own dream into reality. “The Pillow,” as it’s known, has grown through the years to become America’s top summer destination for dance. The Jacob’s Pillow Festival continues into mid-August, first with Kyle Abraham’s dynamic A.I.M. (that’s Abraham.In.Motion). The program features a new solo by Abraham himself, along with several other works in the company’s exuberant and expressive style. Meanwhile, at the Doris Duke Theatre, choreographer Lucinda Childs, more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
Gallim, August 7–11
dancer Wendy Whelan, cellist Maya Beiser, and composer David Lang have pooled their top-notch talents to create DAY, which “explores memory, life’s journey, resilience, and survival of the soul through the shared language of music and dance,” as the program guide neatly puts it. Andrea Miller’s Brooklyn-based Gallim performs at the Ted Shawn Theater August 7–11. Miller was recently the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first choreographic Artist-in-Residence; this is her company’s debut on the Pillow’s main stage, and they’ll be premiering a work commissioned for the occasion. On the same dates on the Doris Duke stage, Red Sky Performance, led by Artistic Director Sandra Laronde of the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe (People of the Deep Water, indigenous to Canada) performs Trace, a highly kinetic dance that maps the Anishinaabe sky and its star stories. This is dance with a cosmic setting. The Martha Graham Company comes to the Pillow August 14–17 with works both old and new. This is your chance to see Graham’s iconic interpretation of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring as well as the all-female Chronicle and a suite of Lamentation Variations, plus new work by choreographers Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith. Graham and Copland collaborated closely on Appalachian Spring. The first performance of both score and ballet took place in 1944, when Graham danced the role of the bride, Erick Hawkins was the husbandman, Merce Cunningham the fire-and-brimstone preacher and May O’Donnell a pioneer woman. Seventy-five years later, the work still casts a spell. The acclaimed New York City Ballet principal Sarah Mearns
Parsons Dance at PS21, August 23 and 24
performs Sarah Mearns: Beyond Ballet at the Doris Duke Theatre August 14–18; she’ll be joined by postmodern dancer Jodi Melnick and others. From August 21–24, the outstanding Boston Ballet comes to the Pillow for the first time in a decade, performing work by choreographic and visual artist William Forsythe, and others. Urban Bush Women, now in its 35th year since its founding by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, presents Walking with ‘Trane, to a score inspired by John Coltrane’s spiritual saxophone journey on his classic album A Love Supreme. The Festival also features free performances, tours and Pillowtalks, exhibits, community events, classes, and more. Pillow Pride weekend takes place August 3–4, with several events planned, including a Saturday Night Dance Party. On August 15, the Festival extends all the way into the Dance Zone at the north end of Pittsfield’s Third Thursday street festival to present free, family-friendly, pop-up performances beginning at 6pm, helping make dance a force for cultural expression and social connection in the greater Berkshires. These days the Pillow is about more than dance performances. An intensive school that attracts an international mix of young professionals and advanced level pre-professionals is woven into the fabric of Pillow life. Many patrons arrive early to take in the free Inside/Out series of outdoor performances by emerging and established dance companies as well as presentations by dancers of The School at Jacob’s Pillow every Wednesday through Saturday at 6:15 p.m.; their final performance of the season (Gotta Dance) comes on August 18 as a benefit for the School. BerkshiresCalendar.com
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dance find more events at berkshirescalendar.com PS21 in Chatham, New York, has become an exciting new venue for modern dance, with a new Pavilion Theater to match. Four different companies perform on Friday and Saturday evenings in the month of August, and three of them offer free looks at their inner workings Fridays at 1:00 p.m. Philadanco and Parsons Dance are likely to be known to dance audiences, and Ephrat Asherie Dance and Bridgman-Packer Dance are worth getting to know. PS21 is also screening a couple of favorite dance films: Black Ballerina on August 6 and Dirty Dancing on August 20 (remember, the movie is set not far away in the Catskills). The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center brings Tony Award-winning tap dancer and choreographer Savion Glover to Great Barrington for one performance on August 11. The irrepressible Glover will present a new show created in collaboration with the percussion group OUT’KNiGHTz. The everpopular Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to the Mahaiwe for the 12th straight year for three performances over Columbus Day weekend, October 11–13. If ballet is more to your taste, the Albany Berkshire Ballet comes to Pittsfield’s Colonial Theatre on September 7 with a single performance Savion Glover of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with new choreography by Paula Weber. The ingenious plot is by Shakespeare, the enchanting score by Mendelssohn, the original set by Thurston Munson. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
CHATHAM DANCE FEST photo: Matthew Murphy
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BRIDGMAN I PACKER
AUGUST 23-24
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theater & performance
one region, many stages
“Summer theater” – the very sound of those words is catnip to theater-goers. That’s because there is nothing quite like live professional theater on summer evenings, away from the hurly-burly of city streets. What better way to end a summer’s day than by going to see a play? The Berkshires has been providing superb summer theater for decades, and there are many plays to choose from this season, from Shakespeare to exciting new works that haven’t yet arrived in urban settings. Expect a variety of stages, too, from the great outdoors at The Mount to the classic “boards” of the Berkshire Theatre Festival’s The Children at Shakespeare & Co., through September 18
SHAKESPEARE & CO. | The Bard deserves top billing, and he gets it at Lenox-based Shakespeare & Co. Two comedies — Twelfth Night and a #Me-Too-era take on The Taming of the Shrew — continue their runs, and a third, the seldom seen The Merry Wives of Windsor, opens on August 8. The Taming of the Shrew takes place outdoors in the Dell at the company’s old home at The Mount. If you’re not in the mood for comedy, catch one of the six workshop performances (August 21–25) of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, a play about an arrogant Roman general who seizes power but is unable to wield it to win the support of the people. One of the “Co.” in “Shakespeare & Co.” is Suzan-Lori Parks, whose searing and highly praised two-man drama Topdog/ Underdog, about the rivalries between two African American brothers, won a Pulitzer in 2002. The play runs August 13– September 8. Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children continues its run through September 18. The immediate subject of this Tony-
Fitzpatrick Main Stage in Stockbridge. nominated drama is the aftermath of a Fukushima-like disaster; the larger question it asks is what we are expected to do for the generations that follow us. Prolific playwright Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still opens on September 13 and closes out the season on October 13. This story about human relationships and choices was nominated for a Tony for Best Play in 2010.
MEANWHILE, IN WILLIAMSTOWN . . . | Since 1955 the Williamstown Theatre Festival has been revisiting classic plays with fresh productions and also developing new plays and musicals. This year’s season ends August 18 with two plays that meet that formula. Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, which runs on the Main Stage through the end of the season in a new translation by Paul Walsh, provides a searching look at a family’s inner life. Uma Thurman plays Mrs. Alving. Meanwhile, on the smaller Nikos Stage, Adam Bock’s Before the Meeting examines the emotional burdens that go into the process of recovery. BerkshiresCalendar.com
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theatre & performance
find more at berkshirescalendar.com
BARRINGTON STAGE | The Barrington Stage Company attracts almost 60,000 patrons annually for nine stage productions and numerous concerts, cabarets and special events with over 285 performances in four venues in downtown Pittsfield. A lot of this growth has come since the year 2000; the BSC has been a major player in the revitalization of the city center. BSC’s Musical Theatre Lab has an impressive track record as an incubator of new shows. Fall Springs is a darkly comic exploration of what happens to a village that sits on a supply of essential oils; those are the kind used in cosmetics, and yes, this is a musical about fracking. It opens Barrington Stage Company, August 9-31. on the Boyd-Quinson Main Stage on August 9 (the world premiere) and runs through the 31st. The play that follows is also a world premiere: Brent Askari’s American Underground, an award winner in the BSC’s Bonnie & Terry Burman New Play competition. The plot involves an unexpected visitor: a Muslim woman looking for safe passage in modern America. Meanwhile, the BSC’s Mr. Finn’s Cabaret, also in downtown Pittsfield, offers a roster of cabaret-style acts all summer long.
BERKSHIRE THEATRE GROUP | Don’t let the corporate sound of “Berkshire Theatre Group” or the word “merger” fool you. True, the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge and the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield did join forces in 2010 under a new name, but they have retained the ethos that inspired the creation of those two institutions in 1928 and 1903, respectively, namely to foster the unique power of theater to engage and entertain. Shrek the Musical opens on August 1 at the Colonial and runs through the 17th. One hundred young performers from the Berkshires are part of the cast. August 16 is Free Fun Friday at the theater, when both Shrek and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (the latter performed by the BTG’s 2019 Acting Interns) are on the bill. George Gershwin Alone is an unusual, one-man musical featuring Hershey Felder, who is an unusually talented performer. Gershwin gets credit for the music and lyrics, but Felder wrote the book, acts the part, sings the songs, and plays the piano, including a complete performance of Rhapsody in Blue. You’ll have ten chances to catch the show, August 24–31. Thornton Wilder’s prescient 1943 drama The Skin of Our Teeth continues its run at the Fitzpatrick Main Stage in Stockbridge through August 3rd. A new comedy by Kathleen Clark, What We May Be, premieres at the Fitzpatrick August 10 (with previews on the 8th and 9th) and runs through the end of the month; the actors play actors confronting “the reality of their relationships to the stage and to each other” at the closing of their show and their theater. Meanwhile, at the nearby Unicorn Theatre, Working: A Musical, based on the book by Studs Terkel, continues its run through August 24. The Unicorn season closes with Mark Harelik’s What the Jews Believe, opening September 28 (with previews the two prior evenings) and running through October 20. The only Jewish family in a town in central Texas reckons with matters of faith and family.
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theatre without borders NEW YORK | The Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham is all-musicals-all-the-time through September 1. Ragtime (through August 4), Little Shop of Horrors (August 8–18), and Oklahoma! (August 22–September 1) take the stage, and on August 31 the popular End-of-Season Cabaret features the entire company in a song-filled evening. The Theater Barn in New Lebanon is also presenting a fun series of plays and musicals. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (the 2018 version) continues through August 4. Then it’s The Great American Trailer Park Musical (set in Florida) August 8-18, followed by Lucky Stiff August 22–September 1 and Moonlight and Magnolias September 6–22.
CONNECTICUT | Slip down to the Sharon Playhouse in Sharon and help celebrate their 60th season with crowd-pleasing musicals. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast closes August 4, followed by Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (August 9–25) and Nunsense (August 30–September 15).
VERMONT | The lively Dorset Theater Festival in picturesque Dorset is presenting two new plays in August. Mrs. Christie, by Heidi Armbruster, delves into Agatha Christie’s tenday disappearance in 1926 with dramatic techniques that recall the methods of the master mystery writer. The world premiere is August 1; it runs through the 17th. Wendy McLeod’s Slow Food follows August 22–31. It’s a delicious comedy set at a restaurant; a couple encounters a highly neurotic waiter. Bennington’s Oldcastle Theatre Company has been presenting new and classic plays for 47 years. One of their most popular productions, of David Budbill’s Judevine, set in a fictional Vermont village, takes the stage August 16–September 1; six actors play thirty different Vermonters over the course of the play. Water, Water, Everywhere . . ., a new play by Oldcastle’s Producing Director, Eric Peterson, is also set in a fictional town that discovers that its groundwater has been contaminated by PFOA — not unlike the drama that the real towns of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., and North Bennington, Vt., have found themselves caught up in since a Hoosick Falls resident made unsettling discoveries in 2014. The play runs October 4–20 at the Theatre’s downtown location. Berkshire Playwrights Lab will present a staged reading of Tom Fontana’s Screenplay By Stalin at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington August 7th. more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
AWARD-WINNING THEATRE IN DOWNTOWN PITTSFIELD
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BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW FOR OUR GROUNDBREAKING 2019 SEASON! Skyler Volpe and Ensemble, West Side Story, 2018. PHOTO Daniel Rader.
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Glenn Close (right) and Grace Van Patten in Mother of the Maid (Public Theater, NY).
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Roger Robinson (right) and Wendell Pierce in James Anthony Tyler’s Some Old Black Man (BPL, 59E59 Theaters, NY).
people who are passionInspiring audiences. ate about new plays…” -Jane Anderson, playwright,
MOTHER OF THE MAID
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Chris Tucci and Kevin O’Rourke in Steve Otfinoski’s The Audition (BPL, Radius Festival).
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visual arts
museums & galleries
Outside of urban settings, there may be no place with more art of more kinds than the Berkshires in the summertime. The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, and MASS MoCA in North Adams are the headliners, but innumerable galleries, craft shows, and intriguing displays of public art extend the visitor’s art experience in virtually every town. Not only are the permanent collections of the region’s museums impressive, their special exhibitions are worth traveling for in their own right. This is a region that has long attracted visual artists and craftspeople, too, a place where art is a living presence in many forms.
Renoir, Seated Bather
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“This daring exhibition is the first major exploration of Renoir’s unceasing interest in the human form,” reads the press release for the show Renoir: The Body, The Senses, through September 22 at the Clark Art Institute. The Clark and the painter are both implicated in that “daring.” Artist of the male gaze, Renoir painted sensuous, and occasionally sensual female nudes all his life (which ended 100 years ago this year) in original ways. Through 60 paintings, drawings and sculptures spanning the whole of Renoir’s long life, the Clark invites you to look through the lens of the nude body at the trajectory of the painter’s career — and at the figures themselves. The provocative choice of a young male nude as one of the poster images promises a fresh look at a painter you might have thought you knew.
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Frelinghuysen-Morris House and Studio
Ida O’Keeffe at The Clark
THE CLARK ART INSTITUTE | The rural setting is serene, the permanent collection extensive and important, the special exhibits often sensational. The Clark is destination enough for any art lover from anywhere; one visit is typically not enough to take it all in. Moreover, the Clark has grown substantially in recent years. The collection features European and American paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, and decorative arts from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. It’s especially rich in French impressionist and Academic paintings, British oil sketches, drawings, and silver, and the work of American artists Winslow Homer, George Inness, and John Singer Sargent. A Gilbert Stuart George Washington looks down at you with a profoundly reassuring gaze; seemingly around the corner, Gauguin invites you to escape to Tahiti. The Clark’s summer surprise is not its Renoir show, though that is the headliner, but the first exhibit devoted to the work of Ida O’Keeffe, two years her famous sister Georgia’s junior and an accomplished artist in her own right. The 35 works on view, first gathered last year for an exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, confront head on the title of the show: Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow. The Clark’s Robert Wiesenberger, who curated the show, remarks that “Creation (c. 1936), O’Keeffe’s stunning foray into total abstraction, prompts us to ask what might have been, had the artist’s career unfolded differently.” If you haven’t been getting to Venice for the Biennale lately, that’s understandable. Fortunately, the Clark has brought what it calls Art’s Biggest Stage to Williamstown.
Since 2007 the Clark’s library has built a wonderful collection of artist editions, books, posters, publicity materials, and other objects produced for this most prestigious of art festivals. The Biennale, held in odd-numbered years, is all about contemporary art and the social issues it engages. This exhibit is a great way to explore — and catch up on — the international art world, without crowds or pigeons or cruise ships running aground in the canals. Through October 14.
FRELINGHUYSEN-MORRIS HOUSE AND STUDIO | For intimate contact with great art, it’s hard to beat the Frelinghuysen-Morris House and Studio in Lenox. Suzy Frelinghuysen and George L. K. Morris may not be household names, but they are well known to connoisseurs of 20th century art and architecture as a couple who were both abstract artists and collectors. Morris’s studio at Brookhurst, his parents’ estate, was the first building in New England in the Modern style. He and Suzy went on to integrate a stucco and glass house onto it and to decorate it with frescoes, furniture, their own paintings, and works by Picasso, Leger, Gris and others. They extend a posthumous invitation to you.
CHESTERWOOD | Daniel Chester French, the sculptor of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial and the Minute Man in his hometown of Concord, Mass., spent working summers at his elegant (and functional) home in Stockbridge. The 1908 house itself, a National Trust property, with original wallpaper and furnishings, is worth a visit, but the permanent collections gallery, with over 150 sculptures by French and with portraits of the artist and family members, on view for the first time in this gallery, is no less a draw. The 122 acres of formal gardens and woodland paths were created by French himself.
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visual arts find more at berkshirescalendar.com
Left: 1969 Illustrated at the Norman Rockwell Museum; Cauleen Smith at MASS MoCA.
THE NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM | Not only does the Norman Rockwell Museum hold the world’s greatest collection of Rockwells, it mounts special exhibitions on the art of illustration and on aspects of Rockwell’s life and career. The Museum opened in “the Old Corner House” in 1969. The House itself is the subject of a small exhibition, but the tumultuous year 1969 is the subject of a greater one, Woodstock to the Moon: 1969 Illustrated, which displays the ways in which American illustrators of the time, including Rockwell, imagined contemporary culture and events. The picture-perfect town of Stockbridge provided an ideal setting for an artist who celebrated American values in his canvases. But Norman Rockwell did not choose to move his family to Stockbridge in 1953 for its wholesomeness; it was the presence of the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric institute founded in 1919, that drew him there; the Center still occupies a site near the town center and is now celebrating its centennial with an exhibition of its own. Rockwell and his wife Mary had already been receiving treatment at Austen Riggs; they moved in virtually next door. Rockwell’s therapist was none other than psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, famous for coining the phrase “identity crisis,” who had once considered becoming an artist himself. He and Rockwell became fast friends. This summer a special exhibit chronicles their friendship and the ways in which each stimulated the other’s creativity. Another exhibit also explores the private side of the artist: Norman Rockwell: Private Moments for the Masses, which traces autobiographical elements in Rockwell’s art. All three special exhibits run through October 27. Whatever Rockwell’s private travails, he painted for the American public. It’s fitting that on September 20, for the eighth straight year, a United States Citizenship Naturalization Ceremony will be held at the Rockwell Museum against a backdrop of his paintings. Visitors are welcome to observe. The event begins at 10:00 a.m. 60
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MASS MoCA | To comprehend the phenomenon of MASS MoCA, you have to think big. It’s the ultimate loft, with 500,000 square feet of open and naturally lit industrial space in the former Sprague Electric complex of 28 buildings on 16 acres astride the Housatonic River in the heart of North Adams. But it’s also a big idea: it reconfigures the traditional, jewel-box concept of a museum as “a dynamic open platform that encourages free exchange between the making of art and its enjoyment by the public, between the visual and performing arts, and between an extraordinary historic factory campus and the patrons, workers, and tenants who once again inhabit it . . .” Patrons come — more than 160,000 of them last year alone — for collections like the Sol Lewitt galleries, Anselm Kiefer’s striking Velimir Chlebnikov (2004), a steel pavilion containing 30 paintings dealing with nautical warfare, and to see other large-scale contemporary works, some of which were created at MASS MoCA. If our pre-apocalyptic times make you anxious, take comfort in the fact that Lewitt’s walldrawing retrospective is scheduled to remain open through 2043. More than a dozen other exhibitions remain open at least through the summer and fall. New exhibits have opened, too, for those who want to experience le dernier cri. Suffering from Realness, for example, features works by 17 artists curated by Denise Markonish in an attempt to explore the politics of representation in an age of uncertainty. Also new and spanning the entirety of MASS MoCA’s expansive first-floor galleries, Cauleen Smith’s We Already Have What We Need features a new immersive installation, a survey of her videos made over the last decade, new textiles, a selection of banners from her In the Wake series featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial, a written manifesto, and new works on paper. Lawn chairs upholstered in indigo-dyed jute, made inviting with fake fur and satin pillows, provide a space for contemplation. more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
MASS MoCA isn’t just for grown-ups. In its Kidspace, Still I Rise uses portraiture to re-imagine nuanced portrayals of women, with a focus on women of color at various stages of life. The title of the exhibit is drawn from the title of a volume of poetry by Maya Angelou.
and a galaxy of galleries, too When world-class museums are not enough, or simply for a change of pace, the region’s distinctive galleries and extensive craft fairs beckon. Some draw on the creative resources of the Berkshires’ own artists; some bring fine art and objets d’art from the far corners of the world to the main streets and side streets of the region’s towns. But be forewarned: the quality of the art on offer is likely to put you in an acquisitive mood. To gallery-hop in the Berkshires is to feel the pulse of the region’s creative economy. And perhaps to contribute to it . . . Whether you’re after a one-of-a-kind gift or simply an object of desire for yourself, or just to browse, the Berkshires make it easy to see original examples of the latest developments in painting and sculpture, home furnishings, work in glass, clay, and cloth, handmade furniture, bowl-turning, iron-working, photography, jewelry, quilting, and more. Don’t be surprised to find 19th-century nautical scenes and vintage home decor on the same block as the latest trends in ceramics. It’s all part of the region’s charm. Community Access to the Arts (CATA), presents its annual Art Show I Am a Part of Art at the Clark Art Institute through August 25. This curated show celebrates paintings, drawings, sculptures, and more by artists with disabilities. It’s the culmination of hundreds of visual arts workshops that CATA holds throughout the year across Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and Columbia County, New York, in day programs, residences, schools, elder-care settings, and in the CATA Studio.
Opening Reception Friday, August 2 5pm-6:30pm
July 17–September 9
at The Colonial Theatre Lobby
BTG’s Pittsfield Campus 111 South Street, Pittsfield
Art Exhibition presented by
Showcasing art from the
The Berkshire Botanical Garden is presenting Shimmering Flowers: Nancy Lorenz’s Lacquer and Bronze Landscapes in its Center House Leonhardt Galleries in Stockbridge through September 30. New York City-based Lorenz is a well-known abstract painter who grew up in Japan, and her work incorporates techniques from traditional Asian craft. For Shimmering Flowers, the artist has created gilt and mother-of-pearl paintings that complement the Garden’s collection of flora. In 2017 New York- and Williamstown-based artist Barbara Ernst Prey executed at MASS MoCA what may be the largest watercolor in the world. The subject: one of the largest indoor exhibition spaces in the world, the Robert W. Wilson Gallery in the Museum’s Building 6 just before it was renovated. A dozen of Prey’s watercolors of scenes at Hancock Shaker Village are currently on exhibit in the Village’s Poultry House Gallery; the show, called Borrowed Light, is an homage to the inner light that imbues Shaker objects as well as to the use of light in Shaker architecture.
Guild of Berkshire Artists
No Boundaries in Art No Boundaries in Art - Series Sponsor
A portion of all sales will benefit BTG PLAYS! and Berkshire County Kids Place.
www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org (413) 997-4444
Top, Shimmering Flowers at Berkshire Botanical Garden; Above, The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield is the site of an exhibition showcasing art by members of the Guild of Berkshire Artists exploring the theme of “Far, Far Away.” The opening reception, on August 2 from 5:00–6:30 p.m., is part of the First Friday’s ArtsWalk. The show runs through September 9. Admission is free, and the art is for sale. BerkshiresCalendar.com
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visual arts find more at berkshirescalendar.com sculpture, sculpture everywhere The availability of outdoor spaces and the presence, now and in the past, of working sculptors and an appreciative (and acquisitive) public are responsible for the flourishing of art in three dimensions in the Berkshires. The Mount is the site of the 2019 SculptureNow Exhibit, a juried show that has been going on in the Berkshires for two decades. Thirty large outdoor sculptures by nationally recognized artists adorn the grounds of Edith Wharton’s Lenox estate. An audio guide is downloadable. Eminently walkable downtown Lenox is the setting for the Lenox Sculpture Walk, where modern sculpture and classic New England architecture are surprisingly complementary. In Williamstown, works of public art, most of them from the collection of the Williams College Museum of Art, can be found all across the Williams campus. These sculptures and installations, from the newly controversial 1867 Haystack Monument (commemorating the American missionary movement) to Louise Bourgeois’s striking Eyes (nine elements) of 2001, integrate encounters with art into the daily lives of students, residents, and visitors. A guide to the location of the artworks is available online. MASS MoCA has been a home for contemporary sculpture since its opening. An exhibit of marble sculptures by Louise Bourgeois is one of the current highlights. The works are both intimate and grand in scale, with one piece weighing in at fifteen tons.
Above: SculptureNow at The Mount, Bella Nyszczot, from Philadelphia, explores Circus by Michael Thomas. Left: The displays at the Schantz Galleries in Stockbridge are worthy of a museum — with the option not just to look but to buy. Visitors can experience the work of more than 50 internationally recognized glass artists, including some of the best known in the world. Without a doubt Dale Chihuly is one of the latter, and a special exhibition of his work will open at Schantz Galleries on August 1 and run through September 22. Dale Chihuly, Copper Ruby Persian Wall Sconce (detail)
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more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
crafts of all kinds
Woodstock to the Moon 1969 Illustrated
Photo by Bill Scovill. Norman Rockwell Museum Collection. © Norman Rockwell Family Agency. All rights reserved.
Norman Rockwell. The Final Impossibility: Man’s Tracks on the Moon, 1969 (detail). Collection of National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. © Norman Rockwell Family Agency. All rights reserved.
Arnold Skolnick, Concert poster for the Woodstock festival, August 1969. ‘WOODSTOCK’ and the Dove & Guitar Logo are registered trademarks of Woodstock Ventures LC and are used under license.
Knox Trail Forge
Fine art is all fine and good, but a number of crafts also involve shaping raw materials into something that is aesthetically pleasing and functional, too. Woodturners such as Matthew Hart of Lenox turn out beautiful and distinctive bowls from native woods, and blacksmith Del Martin of Knox Trail Forge in Monterey makes stylish tools, hinges, railings and other items of wrought iron. Joel Hotchkiss’s mobiles, on view at his studio in West Stockbridge, showcase an astonishing variety of kinetic sculptures designed for both outdoor and indoor placement. An American Craftsman is a source for crafts of all kinds made by artisans from across the country; the store has two locations, one on Main Street in Stockbridge and one in spacious new quarters on Walker Street in Lenox. Co-owner Richard Rothbard is himself a master maker of ingenious, puzzle-like boxes. He calls his craft Boxology, and one of his specialties is custom portrait boxes that capture a photographic image in wood. A variety of crafts will also be on display at the annual Berkshire Craft Fair, held August 9–11 at the Monument Mountain Regional High School on Route 7 between Great Barrington and Stockbridge.
Celebrate our 50th Anniversary with special exhibitions and programs.
5oyears of
illustration art
KIDS & TEENS FREE! Stockbridge MA 413.298.4100 • NRM.org
Sponsors: Brenda & Jeffrey Bleustein, Audrey & Ralph Friedner, Dena M. Hardymon
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family fun
so bring the fam— and even the dog
The beauty of the Berkshires for families is that there are fun activities to suit every age group and pocketbook, from traditional pursuits like hiking and horseback riding to activities that may be as new to parents as to children, such as negotiating the treetops on aerial walkways and ziplines. Laurel Hill, Stockbridge
On the Hollow Fields Trail in Richmond
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In the Berkshires, wild nature is often just a short drive out of town. The waterfall at Bash Bish State Park (with the longest vertical drop in Massachusetts) in Mt. Washington or the caves of Bartholomew’s Cobble in Sheffield will give kids (and adults) destinations to aim for. The Cobble itself rises a thousand feet above the local terrain and rewards the hiker who makes it to the top with exceptional views of the surrounding countryside. There are also great views from Monument Mountain in Great Barrington, another popular hiking destination. Every year on August 5, it’s the scene of a literary pilgrimage, as hikers commemorate the climb undertaken by Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. A thunderstorm forced the newly acquainted writers to take shelter in a boulder cave; they talked about an idea that the younger writer (Melville) had for a novel about a white whale. more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
MASS MoCA’s Kidspace
The Berkshires are mountains. The Appalachian Trail traverses 90 miles of western Massachusetts, passing over Mt. Greylock in Adams, at 3,491 feet the highest peak in the state; the summit is accessible by trails and an automobile road. Camping is available at many state parks and state forests, such as Beartown State Forest in Monterey and October Mountain Forest in Lee. The Guilder Pond Loop at Mt. Everett State Park circles around a lovely mountain pond, and you can bring the family dog. The 11,000-acre Pittsfield State Forest offers camping, hiking, and swimming, and both Mass Audubon Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary and Lake Onata also provide fun outdoor experiences close to the city. Eleven-mile long, ten-foot wide, paved Ashuwillticook Rail Trail runs over an old railroad track through the towns of Cheshire, Lanesborough and Adams; it’s well suited to hiking, biking, roller-blading, and pushing a stroller. Four adventure destinations in the Berkshires promise memorable experiences. Jiminy Peak in Hancock, in winter a ski mountain, offers chairlift rides in summer and fall, mountain biking, a mountain coaster, an alpine super slide, a self-guided aerial forest ropes course, a two-person zipline, a giant swing, a climbing wall, bounce houses, and — wait for it — a Euro bungy trampoline. Catamount Aerial Adventure Park in South Egremont features twelve self-guided treetop courses with varying levels of difficulty; they’ve been at it for
Catamount Aerial Adventure Park
twelve years. Ramblewild is another top arboreal adventure destination in a beautiful hemlock grove in Lanesborough, and Bousquet Adventure Park in Pittsfield has waterslides, ziplines, miniature golf, and more. Many of the region’s farms welcome guests and provide children with both fun and learning. Hancock Shaker Village is a whole world of rural living designed for family visitors. Ioka Valley Farm in Hancock offers fun farm activities for kids through Labor Day, and then again for pumpkin season, and at Cricket Creek in Williamstown you can meet the calves and watch the dairy herd come in at milking time. Even the region’s cultural attractions take children into account. MASS MoCA’s Kidspace is a creative child’s playground, and the Berkshire Museum also offers special experiences for children, including one for infants (and their caregivers); the aquarium and nature exhibits are perfect for days when your hiking plans get rained out. The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge offers numerous hands-on programs for children during the month of August, and the Heritage State Park Museum in North Adams will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered how they bored the Hoosac Tunnel through almost five miles of rock in the 19th century to link the town to Albany by rail. You can ride a train today between Adams and North Adams on the Berkshire Scenic Railway. The Railway also operates a fun museum-station in Lenox, with rides in the rail yard.
Jiminy Peak, mountain coaster
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fall festivals
& special events
Pumpkin Trail at Naumkeag
The leaves begin to put on their fancy clothes in mid-September, and by mid-October the party’s in full swing. By the end of the month the autumn winds have carpeted the woodland paths with color, and the orange globes of pumpkins that had decorated many fields are for sale at roadside stands. It’s one of those times of year when city-dwellers head for the Berkshire hills to get in touch with nature, and local residents take to the back roads as well. Some of those roads lead to the region’s orchards. The apples must be picked! You can purchase a bag of local apples at any number of places, but there is nothing quite like picking a peck or two yourself. Jaeschke’s Orchard in Adams, Lakeview Orchards in Lanesborough, Bartlett’s Orchard and Hilltop Orchards in Richmond, Riiska Brook Orchard in Sandisfield, Windy Hill Farm in Great Barrington, and Bear Swamp Orchard and Cidery, a little farther afield in Ashfield, all offer pick-your-own experiences. Of course, you’ll want to take home a half dozen cider donuts too, and a quart of apple cider to wash them down with. While you’re at it, why not join in the fun at the 40th annual Lenox Apple Squeeze, a street fair and harvest festival, on the weekend of September 21–22. Extend the festive mood at the 21st annual Harvest Supper to benefit Berkshire Grown, an organization that promotes a thriving food economy in western Massachusetts; the event takes place on September 23 from 6–8 p.m. at the Upper Lodge at Ski Butternut in Great Barrington. Come back for the Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual Harvest Festival October 12 –13, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. in Stockbridge. The Festival encompasses the entire
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Hawthorne Valley Fall Festival, Sunday, October 13, Ghent, New York, free admission, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., rain or shine. Come experience the beauty of autumn in Columbia County.
Berkshire Grown Harvest Supper
Ghost Tours, The Mount
15-acre Garden campus, with children’s activities, pony and hay rides, games, live entertainment, over 100 regional artisan vendors, a farm market, tag and plant sales, and educational offerings scheduled throughout the weekend. Proceeds from this event benefit the Garden’s horticulture and education programs; children are admitted free.
then come the pumpkins Hit the Pumpkin Trail at Naumkeag in Stockbridge October 4th and 5th, and 11th and 12th, from 5–8 p.m. for a pumpkin-lit walk through the gardens, and meet story-telling creatures of the Berkshire forests along the way. But beware: the Haunted House will be open on the 18th and 19th, and 25th and 26th, from 6–9 p.m. Not recommended for those under 13 or for seniors with unreliable pacemakers. If you’re in or around Stockbridge on October 26, don’t miss the Halloween Parade & Party and Pumpkin Walk-About. The parade begins at 6 pm at the corner of Main and Pine Streets, the Walk-About at the Stockbridge Library following the parade. Over the New York line in Hillsdale, town and country come
together for the 8th annual Pumpkin Festival in early October, and free seasonal family events at the Sandisfield Arts Center include Pumpkin Decorating on October 21, 2–4 p.m. Hancock Shaker Village puts on a fun, Halloween-themed day on October 26, with trick-or-treating and flying on a Shaker broom (or at least appearing to fly for the family photographer). At Ioka Valley Farm at the northern end of Hancock you — or your children — can enjoy a free hayride on the Giant Pumpkin wagon or take the mobile Haunted House straight to the Pumpkin Patch, weekends from mid-September through October. Some say that Edith Wharton’s manse in Lenox, known as The Mount, is haunted. Find out for yourself on one of its popular Ghost Tours. Wharton’s house is now more than a century old, the stairs creak, there are hidden nooks and stairways, and sometimes doors swing and slam shut for no apparent reason; no wonder that Wharton wrote ghost stories. On Wednesdays through August, on Fridays through October, on Saturdays in October itself, and on Thursday the 31st (Halloween), a two-hour tour takes you on a ghostly journey through the house and grounds. Ages 12 and up; reservations required. If you’re thinking of taking a walk on the wild side on the Columbus Day weekend, why not try the 51st Annual Greylock Ramble on Monday, October 7 from 8 a.m.–4 p.m.? Free shuttles take hikers from downtown Adams to and from the base of the Cheshire Harbor Trail. From there it’s an exhilarating 3.3-mile trek up to the summit of Massachusetts’ highest mountain. If that’s too much for you, it’s only fair to mention that there is also a 16-mile paved road to the top from Lanesborough. Or you can just stay in Adams and enjoy the Ramblefest on BerkshiresCalendar.com
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farmers markets BERKSHIRE GROWN
ameniafarmersmarket.com Amenia Town Hall parking lot, Rte. 22 Fridays 3–7 p.m., May–October A wide selection of fresh produce, farm products, prepared foods, and more. Accepting WIC, SFMNP. BENNINGTON, Vt. Bennington Farmers Market
benningtonfarmersmarket.org 150 Depot St., at the Riverwalk Park Saturdays 10 a.m.–1 p.m., May 4–October 26 Fresh produce, baked goods, eggs, crafts, jams and jellies, and more. Accepts debit cards. COPAKE/HILLSDALE, N.Y. Copake Hillsdale Farmers Market
copakehillsdalefarmersmarket.com Roeliff Jansen (Roe Jan) Park, 9140 Rte. 22, ½ mile south of Rte. 23, Hillsdale Saturdays, 9 a.m.–1 p.m., May 25–October 26 Organic vegetables, fruits, locally raised meats, specialty products, prepared food, cheese, bread, baked goods, eggs, jams/jellies, honey, maple syrup. Live music and children’s programming.
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CORNWALL, CONN. The Original Cornwall Farmers Market
cornwallfarmmarket.org 413 Sharon Goshen Tnpk., West Cornwall CT 06796 Saturdays 10 a.m.–1 p.m., May 18–October 26 Locally grown, raised and artisanal handcrafted food, flowers, edible and ornamental plants. DALTON, Mass. Dalton Public Market
Community Recreation Association, 400 Main St. Thursdays 4–7 p.m., June–August Organic vegetables, grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured heritage pork, maple products, plants, seedlings, micro greens, soaps, books, and other locally made items. Artist pavilion features local artists works for sale. Libation tastings and prepared foods. GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. Great Barrington Farmers Market
greatbarringtonfarmersmarket.org 18 Church St. Saturdays 9 a.m.–1 p.m., May 11–October 26 Meet your farmers, listen to live music, run into friends, and above all eat good food. Accepts SNAP/EBT/HIP/WIC/ Senior FMNP.
HANCOCK, Mass. Hancock Farmers Market
3210 Hancock Rd/ Rte. 43, Located between the firehouse and Hancock Central School. Sundays 10 a.m.–3 p.m. and Wednesdays 10 a.m.–2 p.m., June 16–October 13 A roadside farm stand and farmers market offering local organic fruit and produce. LANESBOROUGH, Mass. Berkshire Area Farmers Market
Berkshire Mall parking lot, Old State Rd. and Rte. 8 Wednesdays and Saturdays 8 a.m.–2 p.m., May 4–October 26 Vegetables, fruit, plants, meat and more. LEE, Mass. Lee Farmers Market
leefarmersmarket.com 25 Park Place, at the town park at the intersections of Main St., Housatonic St., and West Park St., in front of the First Congregational Church. Saturdays 10 a.m.–2 p.m., May 25–October 12 Market held rain or shine. Accepts SNAP/HIP.
ALL PHOTOS, GREAT BARRINGTON FARMERS MARKET
AMENIA, N.Y. Amenia Farmers Market
MILLERTON, N.Y. Millerton Farmers Market
millertonfarmersmarket.org Millerton Methodist Church, 6 Dutchess Ave. Saturdays 10 a.m.–2 p.m., May 18–October 26 Managed by the North East Community Center. A wide variety of seasonal organic produce, pasture-raised meats, fruit, cheeses, baked goods and prepared foods. All vendors are local and follow sustainable and ethical growing practices. MONTEREY, Mass. Monterey Farmers Market
In the center of town Tuesdays, 4–6 p.m. Opening June 5th Offering vegetables, eggs, meat, cheese, baked goods, jam, fruit and more. NEW LEBANON, N.Y. New Lebanon Farmers Market
facebook.com/ newlebanonfarmersmarket 519 State Rte. 20/22 Columbia County Turnpike Sundays 10 a.m.–2 p.m., June–October A community gathering place to access locally grown and produced food, goods, art, and entertainment. Vendor- run market. Accepts SNAP/ EBT/HIP, Senior Coupons, credit cards. NORFOLK, Conn. Norfolk Farmers Market
norfolkfarmersmarket.org Town Hall, 19 Maple Ave. One block north of Rte. 44 Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m., May–October Locally grown fruit and vegetables, locally raised meat, herbs, cheese, yogurt, bread, cookies, tarts and pies, jewelry, honey, maple syrup, jams,
pickles, arts, crafts, and much more. Enjoy our local farmers, food producers and artisans while listening to live music. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. North Adams Farmers Market
explorenorthadams.com/item/northadams-farmers-market Municipal parking lot on St. Anthony Drive between Marshall St. and Holden St. Saturdays 9 a.m.–1 p.m. June 8–October 19 Accepts SNAP/EBT/HIP. OTIS, Mass. Otis Farmers Market
In the parking lot of Papa’s Healthy Food and Fuel, 2000 East Otis Rd., East Otis Saturdays 9 am-1 pm May 25–October 12 Otis Farmers Market has been going strong since 2005. Each year continues to get better and better with more vendors and more to choose from. PITTSFIELD, Mass. Downtown Pittsfield Farmers Market
farmersmarketpittsfield.org The Common Park on First St. Saturdays 9 a.m.–1 p.m. May 12–October 13 Year-round producer-only market. Fresh, local and seasonal produce, pasture-raised meats, eggs, cheese, bread, wine, coffee, artisan goods and more. Live music, chef demos, workshops and children’s activities. A program of Alchemy Initiative. SNAP, HIP, WIC and Senior FMNP benefits proudly accepted SALISBURY, Conn.
news, views & what’s happening at theBerkshireEdge.com
Salisbury Farmers Market
38 Main St. Scoville Memorial Library Lawn Saturdays 10 a.m.–1 p.m. May 18–October 12 Organic vegetables, grass-fed meats (chicken, pork, and heirloom beef), breads, fresh donuts, coffee, maple syrup, honey, jams, seedlings, ornamental plants, cut flowers, health and beauty products, breakfast, lunch, occasional tastings and chef demos. SHEFFIELD, Mass. Sheffield Farmers Market
sheffieldfarmersmarket.org Old Parish Church parking lot 125 Main St. Fridays 3–6 p.m., May 4–October 11 The place in Sheffield to buy and sell food fresh from the farm as well as other locally produced goods directly from the producers while socializing with your friends and neighbors. Rain or shine. Accepts SNAP, HIP, Berkshares, debit and credit cards. WEST STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. West Stockbridge Farmers Market
weststockbridgefarmersmarket.org Village Center, The Green at the Foundry opposite the Post Office Thursdays 3–7 p.m. May 23–October 3 Fabulous Food, Entertainment and Fun. Meet the farmers! Find the Rooster at the Market and Win a Prize! Rain or shine. Accepts SNAP/EBT. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Williamstown Farmers Market
williamstownfarmersmarket.org also Facebook Parking lot at the base of Spring Street Saturdays 9 a.m.–1 p.m., May 18–October 12
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day trip
saratoga, new york
It can’t be done in a day.
There are too many good things to see and do. It’s a parallel universe of recreation, shopping, and culture only an hour and a half from the Berkshires. With horses. And geysers. And much, much more. Saratoga is really the small city of Saratoga Springs (pop. 27,763), and it all began with the springs. The Iroquois had discovered the medicinal benefits of a spring near the site of the future town, and they took a British officer there for treatment of a wound in colonial times. The wound healed, and word got around. By the early 19th century, more springs had been discovered, each with different properties, and visitors were drinking the waters and bathing in them, sometimes on the advice of their physicians. By mid-century, Saratoga was booming as a resort town, the site of a fashionable summer colony as well as a tourist destination.
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In 1863 came the horses. Or rather the horse races, and they’ve been going on ever since at the Saratoga Race Course, a track that gives you a close-up view of the action, before, during, and after the race. The 40-day racing season (July 11 – September 2 this year) is still a major draw, and no day trip should be without a taste of the turf. The first post-time is at 1:00pm, with nine to eleven races per day. The atmosphere is festive, and most people gamble at least a few bucks before they’re through. A million people come to the track every summer. If you want to be one of them, consider coming for the Travers Stakes on August 24; it’s one of the premier racing events in the country. If you want to take the waters — and many visitors come to do just that — the 1935 Roosevelt Baths & Spa in Spa State Park will accommodate you in one of 42 treatment rooms. A bath will be drawn for you with crystal clear water at 55 degrees, more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
SARATOGA COUNTY CHAMBER
Congress Park
TOP RIGHT: SPAC/CHRIS LEE; BOTTOM: SARATOGA COUNTY CHAMBER, NYRA
just as it bubbles up from the earth; then fresh hot water is mixed in to bring the water up to body temperature, and iron and other minerals in the spring water oxidize to produce a rusty-olive color. Step in carefully, as the tub is a foot deeper than you’re probably used to. The first thing you’ll notice is that your body has become a lot more buoyant (the mineral salts are responsible for that). You don’t float, but gravity has less of a hold on you, and before long you’re leaning back with your head on a towel experiencing a feeling of well-being, while those therapeutic minerals are being absorbed by your skin. Expect to soak twenty minutes to half an hour, then to emerge refreshed, and perhaps cured of what ailed you. Alternatively, you can simply wander in Spa State Park a mile from the center of town and sample the waters there from the various springs (tours are available, and you may fill your canteen at several of the springs if you like). A geyser spouts up along Geyser Creek. Some of the water is bottled commercially under the Saratoga Springs Water brand, an enterprise begun in 1872. In the Park, you can play a round of golf at one of two courses, both open to the public, or attend a performance at SPAC (the Saratoga Performing Arts Center). August dates are divided between the Philadelphia Orchestra and top pop and rock acts, and mostly take place in the evenings, but there are also special free performances aimed at children and families at earlier hours. The Park is also home to two outstanding (and fun) museums, the National Museum of Dance and the Saratoga Automobile Museum.
The Batcheller Mansion Inn
Other museums also beckon. You don’t have to be a horse person to enjoy the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame near picturesque Congress Park at the top of downtown; the attractive displays tell the story of racing at Saratoga from the earliest days to the present. If you have the history bug, the Saratoga History Museum in Congress Park will keep you happy. One of the current special exhibitions is a display of 235 portraits of stars of stage and screen by photographer Cris Alexander, who seems to have known (and been sought out by) everybody who was anybody over the past sixty years. The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College just north of town is another fine museum, and if you’re with children, by all means take them to the Children’s Museum.
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So much to do in a day! And you haven’t even shopped or had lunch yet. Fortunately, Broadway (Saratoga’s Broadway) is there to take care of both of those needs. It’s the main drag, lined with a variety of beckoning restaurants and stores, including the spacious, well-stocked Northshire Bookstore with an upper level devoted solely to children. The side streets are also worth exploring, especially if you want to escape the concourse of shoppers and strollers on Broadway. Saratoga has been a destination for gamblers from the days of Nathan Detroit. You’ll recall that he was the guy in Guys and Dolls who said he was taking Adelaide to Niagara (to get married) but got off at Saratoga (for the fourteenth time). Besides opportunities to bet on thoroughbred racing at the Saratoga Race Course, there’s also a harness track and a 55,000- square-foot casino with gambling machines (1,700 of them) at the Saratoga Casino Hotel complex just south of town. Since you’re in the neighborhood, you might also want to take in Saratoga National Historical Park 15 miles southeast of Saratoga Springs in the town of Stillwater by the Hudson River. It was here in 1777 that the Patriots put a stop to General John Burgoyne’s invasion from Canada and turned the course of the war — and world history. The scenic Park is visited not only by history buffs but by cyclists, birdwatchers, and picnickers. You were forewarned: the Saratoga area is too much for a single day! But once you’re acquainted, it’s easy to come back.
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Strollers and shoppers on Broadway more news and features at theBerkshireEdge.com
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