Uncategorized

Adams, MA fall foliage events during 2016 include RambleFest and RambleFest Half Marathon/8K – Oct. 9, 12pm – 5pm

RambleFest is a day of music, food and fun in celebration of autumn in the Berkshires.
RambleFest Half Marathon will be held along the beautiful Ashuwillticook Trail from Berkshire Mall in Lanesborough, to the Visitors Center in Adams. Starting time is 9:30am for the half marathon and 10am for the 8K – details and registration.
Berkshire Mall.

49th Annual Greylock Ramble – Oct. 10

Mount Greylock, Cheshire Harbor Trail at 281 W Mountain Rd, Adams, MA
Each Columbus Day, thousands hike to the highest spot in Massachusetts. Free shuttles take hikers from downtown Adams to and from the Cheshire Harbor Trail from 8am-4pm.
Please use the shuttle as parking near the trail is very limited.

[mappress mapid=”174″]

Hancock Shaker Village names Jennifer Trainer Thompson president and CEO, roles that she will assume when her current post as senior vice president at the MASS MoCA ends December 31..

Ms. Thompson has over 28 years of experience in arts administration and culture in the Berkshires. One of a small team that developed MASS MoCA beginning in 1988, she has been integral to the evolution of the museum, having organized and developed several departments, including development, membership, public relations, and most recently partnerships and external affairs. As MASS MoCA’s director of development from 1988 to 2012, she helped raise some $70 million for operations and programs, including the Permanence Campaign that launched the museum’s endowment and Sol LeWitt building. More recently, she has focused on partnerships, where she worked closely with museum leadership, institutional partners, and other supporters to identify new ways to leverage an expanding network to further the museum’s core mission both regionally and nationally.

In conjunction with an annual, highly successful New York gala for MASS MoCA that she created and branded, she has worked with performers ranging from David Byrne to Laurie Anderson, as well as artists such as Jenny Holzer, Darren Waterston, and others to develop unique limited-editions of their work for MASS MoCA’s benefit. Those in the Berkshires know her also as one of the models for photographer Gregory Crewdson’s work, most recently in his critically acclaimed show, “Cathedral of the Pines.”

We are so pleased to have Jennifer join Hancock Shaker Village at this pivotal moment in its history… She is a modern-day renaissance woman who possesses the intelligence, skills, style, and a passion for art and community that will propel Hancock Shaker Village into the next decade. – Dan Cain, chairman of Board of Trustees.

“There are few professionals in the museum world as multi-talented as Jennifer Thompson,” said Michael Conforti, former head of the Clark Art Institute and president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, as well as current MASS MoCA trustee. “Her expertise from fundraising to program development has been fundamental to the remarkable success of MASS MoCA over the years and those talents will make her an extraordinary leader for Hancock Shaker Village.”

“I am honored to lead Hancock Shaker Village at this great time of opportunity and transformation,” said Ms. Thompson. “The Village is a jewel in the crown of Berkshire cultural organizations, and it is so many things: a museum, an historic village, a library, a working farm—not to mention an inspiration for innovation, design, and beauty. Tremendous opportunities exist to build upon the foundation and successes of the past, starting with the collection and the property, and identifying innovative approaches to presenting these with a special relevance to the region and today’s audiences.”

Ms. Thompson is the author of 22 books, including ten acclaimed cookbooks, as well as articles on design, science, art, and lifestyle that have been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Travel & Leisure, Omni, and Harvard Magazine. In conjunction with her books, which range in subject from nuclear power to raising heirloom chickens, she has appeared on hundreds of talk shows, such as Good Morning America, CNN, National Public Radio, Live with Regis, and Fox News.

Ms. Thompson will replace Linda Steigleder, who concludes her term as president and CEO in December 2016 after leading Hancock Shaker Village for five years. Ms. Steigleder was instrumental in raising $1.5 million to improve public access and visitor amenities at the historic site, adapt restrooms to handicapped standards, replace and repair roofs, repaint and restore the exteriors of 20 out of the 23 buildings in the Village, including the iconic Meeting House and Laundry and Machine Shop. Under her leadership, the Village energized its public program offerings, completed a partnership study with the Berkshire Museum, collaborated with four other museums on a major exhibition, The Shakers, America’s Quiet Revolutionaries, ramped up the exhibition of contemporary art at the site and programs delivered by living artists and makers, reconnected with lapsed donors, improved the museum’s fundraising event formats and net results, stabilized its finances with a balanced budget to fund all of its exhibits, programs, working farm, facilities maintenance and the presentation of its extensive collection of Shaker artifacts.

Reads and kin in California.

Assembling at the romantic Ramona Oaks RV Resort in the foothills 35 miles east of San Diego for the wedding of Phran Read’s son Devon, were Patricia Read Pistono and son David, Maggie Read, Martha’s son Matthew, Dave, daughter Caitlin and husband Jonathan Falls.

Berkshires cultural organizations have lost all credibility and have squandered decades of good will by acceding to the domination of something called 1berkshire, which came into being lying about funding sources and its own raison d’etre. In the wake of the great Berkshire Museum art heist, which was the year’s most written about story in the global world of art – it was condemned far and wide, 1berkshire and board member Van Sheilds garnered a billion dollars worth of bad publicity, forever despoiling the once-grand “Berkshires” brand.

The “beauty shots” that chamber of commerce types prefer often do a disservice to the area itself, which has developed an interesting enough character on its own, drawing on far more resources than any chamber would contribute. The commercial district of Lenox is the victim of too many people with too many ideas of what looks good that it’s a wonder it still looks as good as it does. But it is beginning to resemble a giant board game with game pieces being represented by “sandwich boards” that are far more annoying than alluring. Anyway, here’s a handful of casual cell phone photos of Lenox village taken on April 29, 2016. Take another look at the same places in two weeks and the difference will blow your mind.

The founding of Lenox, MA

The founding of Lenox is described in the following excerpt from Rev. Clayton J. Potter’s “Historical Address” given at the Centennial Anniversary of the Dedication of the Old Church on the Hill, Lenox, Massachusetts, June 12, 1906.

“The Rev. Peter Reynolds of Somers, Conn., was one of seven men who had purchased from an inhabitant of Stockbridge who was an undesirable citizen, certain lands in that town, in order the community might be relieved of his further residence there. To compensate these men, the government gave them 4000 acres of uncleared land lying north of Stockbridge.

This tract covered all of what is now the present town of Lenox, and perhaps the township; and in the records of the time it was called the Ministers’ Grant, in as much as five of these men were ministers. (The implication, made in a history of the town, that this tract of land belonged to any Minister of the town by virtue of his office and that the title to it was commuted later to his obvious loss, is misleading.)”

Read the full text plus see other material.