Events & Activities for Kids
Saturday, March 13 @ 10 a.m.
Preschoolers get off on the right foot with the Clark’s Start with Art program, a series of fun gallery talks and art projects designed for preschoolers, 3 - 6 and their parents. The series winds up on March 13 (flowers and plants)—attend any or all; no registration or admission fee required. Clothing suitable for art-making recommended. Each session lasts two hours.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
Williamstown, MA
Saturday, March 13 @ 11 a.m.
Eric Carle’s story books have infinite appeal to children, and to adults with a sense of whimsy. Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia marks the 40th anniversary of Carle’s classic by bringing The Very Hungry Caterpillar to life on stage, along with Little Cloud and The Mixed-Up Chameleon.
Bardavon Opera House
Poughkeepsie, NY
Saturday, March 13 @ 1 - 4 p.m.
Award-winning fantasy artist and creator of the Dinotopia series, James Gurney leads a family art program exploring the creation of “realistic” fantasy illustrations. The afternoon program begins with an in-depth discussion of Gurney’s technique, followed by hands-on art-making exercises and a book-signing of Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist. Free with museum admission.
Norman Rockwell Museum
Stockbridge, MA
Saturday, March 13 @ 7:30 p.m.
Members of the Dudley Observatory and the Albany Amateur Astronomers will be on hand to illuminate what goes on in the night sky at a free star-gazing party at The Fields Sculpture Park at Omi International. The new cafe and the visitors’ center will be open for those who find themselves in need of sustenance and warmth.
Omi International
Ghent, NY
Saturday, March 20 @ 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
It seems as if MASS MoCA has been celebrating its 10th anniversary for a full year. The celebration continues as Kidspace—a collaborative project of the Williams College Museum of Art, the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, and MASS MoCA—reaches its own milestone: ten years of serving the community with family-oriented exhibitions and art-making activities. The anniversary party includes the opening of A Delectable Decade: Kidspace Restrospective; a concert by electronic instrument-maker Ken Butler; a Make Your Cake and Eat It Too cupcake challenge; an Iron Artist competition, modeled after the Iron Chef television show, in which six former Kidspace artists will be given a variety of materials and 90 minutes to create original works of art; and a benefit auction of work donated by the Iron Artist competitors.
MASS MoCA
North Adams, MA
Monday - Friday, April 19 - 23 @ 9 a.m. - noon
Things are looking kind of Medieval at Berkshire Museum over school vacation week—but in a good way. During Medieval Camp, parents can drop off their child in the morning and pick up a lord or lady of the manor at noon. Campers will create a coat of arms, pick up a few phrases in olde English, learn the skills of the jester, and participate in courtly crafts, games, and tournaments—all in the midst of genuine suits of armor on display for Armed & Dangerous: Art of the Arsenal. Recommended for kids in grades 2-5. $125 for the week ($100 for members); call 413.443.7171, ext 10 for more information and to register. February’s camp sold out, so consider acting early to reserve a spot.
Berkshire Museum
Pittsfield, MA
Sunday, April 25 @ 12 - 4 p.m.
We’re hoping spring weather sets in in time for the free People and Spaces Family Day at the Clark, which offers a challenging maze (and guides from the Williams Outing Club), a rock-climbing wall, and performances by acrobats from Nimble Arts who will explore the concept of moving through space. Kids can decorate clothespins to create miniature people, then build a miniature museum their creations can visit. Take a hike on the Clark’s bucolic grounds, but before you do, pick up a map identifying tiny gnome homes and fairy houses made of natural materials for families to discover.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
Williamstown, MA
Now - June 6
Birds do it; bees do it; even little Berkshire aborigines, do it: all living creatures defend themselves, but only humans have turned self-defense, and the accoutrements that aid it, into an art. The Berkshire Museum’s latest exhibition, Armed & Dangerous: Art of the Arsenal, offers enough bang-bang for anybody’s buck—from the horned, antlered, and taloned animals that inspired primitive spears and clubs across continents and centuries; to finely crafted swords, shields and armor; to contemporary artistwork inspired by camouflage, war propaganda, and the arsenal of the natural world.
Berkshire Museum
Pittsfield, MA
Monday - Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday noon - 5 p.m.
Closed Memorial Day
Admission: $13/Adults; $6/Children 3 - 18; $1/Members; Free/Children under 3
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 11/23/09 at 04:03 PM • Permalink
Matrushka: A Toy Store With Timeless Values
For 18 years, the Matrushka toy store was the best kept secret in Great Barrington. Started by parents from the progressive Rudolf Steiner School and located on the second floor of Yellow House Books, it was a not-for-profit shop that carried wholesome toys like all-wood play kitchens, hand puppets, and Chinese checkers. Two years ago, when the shop’s manager, Ruth Blair, decided to retire, the shop was sold to Brooke Redpath (left), a Steiner alumna whose three children (ages 5, 7 & 9) attend the school. “We had to go to the attorney general to change the not-for-profit status,” says Redpath. “It took a long time.”
Once she finally became the owner, Redpath decided that she needed a street-level location. “Our primary customers are young parents with strollers and grandparents who often found it challenging to climb the stairs to the old store,” she says. What’s more, the former store was a series of small rooms and the new airy store that opened over Labor Day weekend now feels much like the playrooms that Redpath believes every home with young children should have. “A playroom should be a place that stimulates the imagination,” she says. “It should be a room where children will want to spend time from age two to ten. We don’t carry anything electronic. Our basic approach is that play should be child powered. Play is in the action.” She doesn’t flinch when she hears children horsing around at the other end of the store, because she wants the store to be a hang out for them. “I want people to feel at home here on a rainy day,” she says.
While Steiner parents instinctively understand what her store is about, Redpath knows that other parents may find it challenging to encourage their children to play with old-fashioned toys and she is offering empathy and education along with exquisite merchandise. “Mothers will come in and say, ‘My children don’t play anymore’, and I will show them things for dress up or putting on puppet shows. These are things that have a universal appeal,” she says pointing to the Marble Whacker (a pared-down all wood arcade game) Anchor stone blocks (which date to the 19th century) and dress up clothes from Sarah’s Silks (which include fairy wings and other make believe items.). She also sells books and natural fiber children’s clothes. “The Merino wool long underwear has been a huge hit!” she says.
Some parents may also have sticker shock because many of the hand-crafted natural material toys are not cheap. “They’re heirloom quality,” says Redpath with sincerity. “Children recognize beauty and quality as much as adults do.” She was gratified when a customer compared Matrushka to a world-class New York toy store in bygone days. “A gentleman said, ‘This reminds me of F.A.O. Schwarz in the 1970s’,” says Redpath. “I was very pleased.”
Matrushka
309 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA; 413.528.6911
Monday - Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 09/27/09 at 03:43 PM • Permalink
Family Day at Music Mountain & Other Festivals
Everybody knows that classical music needs to woo young audiences to survive, which is why Music Mountain in Falls Village—the oldest continuing summer chamber music festival in the United States—is hosting its 4th annual free Family Festival on Saturday, August 15. While the Bergonzi String Quartet‘s performance of Prokovief’s “Peter and the Wolf” is a child-friendly introduction to chamber music (photo), the family day is a celebration of world music and reflects Music Mountain’s continued efforts to offer concerts beyond the classical music canon. Founded in 1930 on the eponymous hilltop by Jacques Gordon, the concertmaster for the Chicago Symphony, the festival is now run by his son Nicholas. The centerpiece of the storybook setting is Music Mountain’s Gordon Hall, which is considered an acoustical marvel, especially because it came from Sears, Roebuck & Company, along with four houses for musicians; the 132 acre campus is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
While internationally renowned artists such as Peter Serkin and the Shanghai Quartet play here, the Family Festival is a chance to welcome a diverse contingent of local artists with national reputations such as Joe Brien, who will give three puppet-making workshops for children over 8, and Mark Alexander of Mortal Beasts & Deities, whose stilt dancers (right) and mimes often perform in New York City at Central Park, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. There will be performances of Caribbean, jazz/funk, and tap dancing on Music Mountain’s new outdoor dance floor, storytelling and Cheyenne flute-playing by Joseph FireCrow, folk and rock music on the outdoor stage, and excerpts from TriArt’s production of The Music Man (from 3 - 3:40 p.m.) Famiies are invited to picnic on the lawns or buy fresh-grilled food from the Falls Village Volunteer Fire Department, and shop for bargain-priced new and slightly worn books under the tent set up by the David M. Hunt Library.
Music Mountain Family Day - August 15
225 Music Mountain Road, Falls Village CT; 860.
Other Festivals This Weekend
August 15
Hillsdale Community Day
Children’s bounce tent, flea market, live music all day, local food and flea market at the former Roe Jan School on Route 22.
Information: 518.325-3098
Noon - 7 p.m.
August 15
New Marlborough’s 250th Anniversary
Elihu Burritt Day & The Fire Company Annual Pig Roast
On the Village Green (Route 57)
Antique car show, petting zoo, craft sale, blacksmith demonstration and food from the PTA and Southfield Store
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Pig Roast at the Firehouse in Southfield
Adults $15; children $7.50
5 - 7 p.m.
Live music by Corner Stone at 7 p.m.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 08/11/09 at 03:05 PM • Permalink
Juggling! Fireworks! Boat Rides! Hudson’s Namesake Celebration
For anyone who missed the big Hudson River flotilla in June, here’s another shot at Quadricentennial ballyhoo, as well as a rare chance to interact with the river that most of us love from afar, unless we’re crossing a bridge. On Thursday, July 23, a replica of the Half Moon, the tall ship Henry Hudson was captaining on behalf of the Dutch when he came upon the river that would one-day bear his name, sails into the City of Hudson harbor at approximately 3 p.m. The next day the public is invited to a Dedication Ceremony, where the new signs marking the Henry Hudson Riverfront Park will be unveiled. A benefit reception for the Quadricentennial celebration follows in a tent in the park.
But for kids, the real fun begins on Saturday, July 25, which marks the beginning of the City of Hudson’s two-day Namesake Celebration, with tours of the ship, juggling and circus skills workshops conducted by the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, demonstrations of native technologies, a visit from Roger the Jester—whose jokes are funny to adults as well as kids. The Dutch folk singers Nanne & Ankie will be on hand to perform at 11 a.m. There will be food vendors, souvenirs for sale, boat trips to and tours of the Hudson-Athens lighthouse, and ferry rides to Athens and back—just like in the good old days. Anyone so inclined may don a ruff and have his or her picture taken with “Henry Hudson.”
Bring a blanket or a folding chair and at 8 p.m., pick your seat on the great lawn of Henry Hudson Riverfront Park for the evening concert. The effortless harmonies of The Johnson Girls open for Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (Pete’s grandson), whose music “fuses the Folk styles of his family heritage with modern day Rock ‘n’ Roll.” After the concert, there will be fireworks in the colors of the Dutch flag (in Hudson’s day orange, white and blue), and a mysterious “display” that promises to “further unite the communities of Hudson and Athens through the magic of light and technology.”
Then on Sunday, more tours of the ship and juggling lessons, a second performance by Nanne and Ankie, and an appearance by Mr. Twisty, whose balloon animals never fail to delight. Those who missed the musical River of Dreams, based on a book by Hudson Talbott with music by Frank Cuthbert, will have a chance to hear some of the songs from the show, performed by students from three Greene County school districts. At 2 p.m., the Henry Hudson Look-Alike Contest will commence. Since no one knows what H.H. looked like, anyone can win.
Both days the commemorative poster of the 2009 Quad, signed by illustrator/artist Arlene Boehm, will be on sale, as will “Henry on a Stick,” the official souvenir of the celebration (thanks to Stair Galleries) and the sort of memento future generations will use as evidence of how “quaint” we were back in ‘09.
Should it rain, the celebration will move across South Front Street and indoors to Patrick Doyle’s Basilica Industria, except, of course, for tours of the ship which will continue rain or shine.
Thursday’s reception admission: $25. Reservations: 518.822.1912
Ship tours, Saturday & Sunday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.: $5/adults; $3/students & seniors; free/children under 12 who are accompanied by an adult.
Hudson-Athens Lighthouse tours, Saturday only, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.: Adults/$20; children/$10; members/$10 and $5
Ferry ride to Athens; $5/round trip
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/20/09 at 02:44 PM • Permalink
It’s Official, The Berkshire Museum is Now “Toad Hall”
Keep your old Prince Charming. With a mug like this to smooch, who needs him?
Nearly every eco-system has a frog of its own, more likely several. Now many of the most exotic species have gathered at the Berkshire Museum, as if to attend a reunion of their own Far-flung Cousins Club.
Like human cousins, these amphibians come in an amazing range of sizes—from half an inch to fifteen inches—and weights—up to seven pounds. Some even have a cousin-like propensity for alarming colors—tangerine, electric blue—which, mercifully, look much better on them. There are more than 4,000 species throughout the world, and visitor’s to Frogs: A Chorus of Colors will meet a wide range of them, including bizarre ornate horned frogs (top photo), delicate tree frogs (above), fat bullfrogs, giant toads, and dart poison frogs (the elegant blue ones below). Visitors can activate recorded frog calls, view videos of frogs in action, spin a zoetrope, and perform a virtual frog dissection.
Frogs are among the most diverse life forms on earth and can be found in climates ranging from tropical forests to frozen tundra and scorching deserts, on all continents except Antarctica. They’ve roamed the earth for more than 360 million years, and their chorus has filled the night air since the dawn of the dinosaurs. Alas, frogs are one of nature’s most delicate animals, acting as climate canaries, and there’s overwhelming evidence that their chorus is fading. Part of the exhibition focuses on why endangered frogs are disappearing, not just, understandably, from our own sadly polluted backyards, but, more mysteriously, from the most remote, unsullied rain forests, as well.
“Galleries have been transformed into an oasis of peaceful waterfalls filled with a symphony of song,” says Executive Director Stuart A. Chase. “Everyone will be able to get to know some of the earth’s most fascinating creatures in an up-close and personal way.”
Sounds like Froggie’s come acourtin’.
Frogs: A Chorus of Colors, June 13 - November 1
Berkshire Museum
39 South Street (Route 7), Pittsfield; 413.443.7171
Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m..
Admission: $11/adults, $6/children 3-18; $1/members & children under 3.
Grand opening, Saturday, June 20, noon - 4:30 p.m.
Free/musuem members
Inflatable frog on front lawn, frog face painting, a talk by an expert on, “Why Frogs Are So Fascinating and Frail.” From 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., appetizers and drinks in the Crane Room.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/08/09 at 12:20 PM • Permalink
Michael Moschen - The Avant Garde Juggler
When Michael Moschen of Cornwall performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s New Wave Festival several years ago, The New York Times described him as “a juggler by profession, but there should be a more chimerical way to characterize what he does in performance. He is a movement artist, a manipulator of geometric forms, a sculptor in motion . . . an alchemedian, transforming ordinary objects into objects of esthetic value.” On Saturday, June 20, he is giving a special performance at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville to benefit the The Arts Fund for Region One, a not-for-profit, which provides extra-curricular arts programming and scholarships for arts classes for students in northwestern Connecticut. Certainly, you don’t even need to have or bring kids to enjoy this show
Michael Moschen at The Hotchkiss School
Saturday, June 20; 7:30 PM
Tickets: $10 for children; $25 for adults; $50 for preferred seating
Information: 860.927.4646
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/03/09 at 05:42 AM • Permalink
Beekeeping: Learn How at the Berkshire Museum
After the long winter, the Berkshire Museum is having a little party to celebrate Spring. The guests of honor: the Museum’s own bees. When not in hibernation, the bees live in the Museum’s Berkshire Backyard exhibit in an enclosed, see-through hive, traveling to the outdoors to collect pollen through a tube. Visitors may observe them building their hive and interacting with one another, as each goes about fulfilling his strictly prescribed role.
Honeybees are the most important pollinating insect in all of nature, so it is a source of great concern that, in recent years, the bee population has dwindled due to a little-understood ailment called “colony collapse disorder.” Keeping bees is one way that anyone with outdoor space can make a substantial contribution to improving the environment. Therefore, as part of the Museum’s celebration, the Northern Berkshire Beekeepers Association President and Secretary, Tom Stefanik and Tony Pisano, will hold a beekeeping workshop. They will discuss how to start a hive, how to harvest honey, the medicinal uses of honey, the differences in honey color and taste, bee predators, diseases that befall bees, even how not to get stung.
Cake and lemonade in The Berkshire Backyard, 11 a.m. - noon
Beekeeping Workshop, noon - 2 p.m.
Berkshire Museum
39 South Street (Route 7)
Pittsfield, MA. 413.443.7171, ext. 10
Admission: free throughout the month of May
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 05/13/09 at 10:53 AM • Permalink
May Day Festival at Hawthorne Valley
Hawthorne Valley isn’t just a school, it’s a way of life, and a very sweet one, it seems. At their festival on Saturday, the kids will dance around a Maypole to the music of the Fiddle Club or Peter Defoe’s Kitchen Kaylie Band, watch a puppet show, play games, make crafts and eat things that are good and good for them, as is their custom, while their parents shop for vegetables, annuals, and herbs at a plant sale and, of course, eat, too—Indian food, waffles, salads and desserts. Attached to this school, there’s an excellent natural foods market, the Hawthorne Valley Store, that is stocked with an extensive range of fresh produce and frozen protein from (mostly) Columbia County Farms, including this Waldorf school’s own. There’s even a cozy bookstore, Red Maple Books, with lots of titles for kids, at this unusual, little country crossroad. Outsiders are warmly welcomed by these exceptionally open kids.
Hawthorne Valley School
Route 21 C, 2 miles east of the Taconic Parkway
Harlemville, NY; 518.672.7092 ext 114.
Saturday, May 2; 10:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/30/09 at 06:08 PM • Permalink
A New Home for Tom’s Toys in Great Barrington
For more than a decade in Great Barrington, Tom’s Toys has managed the amazing feat of being an independently-owned toy store that appeals as much to conscientious parents as to consumerist children. It’s a Barbie-free zone where toys with television tie-ins are not welcome. “We don’t carry Fisher-Price either, but we do carry Lego, though it’s tough for a small store like ours to get shipments.” says owner Tom Levin. In an age of discount chains and internet bargain-hunting, he has managed to create a joyful environment where shoppers are willing to pay full-price because he sells toys that will engage children’s imaginations. (He does carry Webkinz—the stuffed animals that have alter egos on the Internet—but he does not really approve of them.) “I like toys that require kids to make up stories,” says Levin, who also owns JWS Art Supplies on Railroad Street.
After paying rent at 307 Main Street for more than a decade, Levin decided to buy the building next door and create a much larger version of Tom’s Toys, which opened its doors two weeks ago. (It will have a grand opening on April 25.) Designed by local architects Clark & Green, the airy store features colorful custom light towers and enough shelf space for Levin to neatly display box after box of Playmobils and Bruder trucks. “I like to carry lines in depth,” he says, explaining that the German-made trucks are phenomenally well made. “You can actually squirt water from the hose of the fire truck.” He carries old-fashioned Madame Alexander dolls (the green witch from Wicked is the best seller) and newfangled dolls like Groovy Girls. “They’re modern rag dolls,” he says. “They’re the anti-Barbie—no big boobs!” (And reasonably priced at $12 - $18.) He carries lots of puzzles, craft projects, books, science kits, miniature toy soldiers and stuffed animals of all sizes. “I have something for every imaginable child.”
Tom’s Toys
297 Main Street, Great Barrington; 413.528.3330
Monday - Friday 10 AM - 5:30 PM
Saturday 10 AM - 6 PM
Sunday 11 AM - 5 PM
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/08/09 at 10:18 AM • Permalink
Diversions for Shack Wacky Kids
Winter may be this close to over, but that’s little comfort to a kid with cabin fever. Fortunately, the region’s museums have both indoor and outdoor programs that are guaranteed to keep boredom at bay.
Cribs at MASS MoCA
The big cultural guns up north—Williams College Museum of Art, the Clark and MASS MoCA—have collaborated on the new KIDSPACE that opens this weekend on the 2nd Floor of Building 10, at MASS MoCA. The inaugural exhibition, CRIBS, features a gigantic “crib” by Brooklyn-based artist Matt Bua, that is so overloaded with random detritus from the street—lost gloves, found paintings, entire collections of cast-off guitars—that it exceeds the “bars” that contain “the infant,” spreads across the floor (this portion is dubbed an “outro-spective”) and climbs out the gallery’s second-story window, where it tumbles down to the museum’s entrance below.
Bua encourages others to start constructing their own perhaps smaller-scale visionary spaces. To get them started, in May, his KIDSPACE installation will expand to include a storefront satellite at 107 Main Street, North Adams. There students from the North Berkshire School Union are working with Bua to create an an off-shoot of CRIBS. Summer visitors to CRIBLIOUSDOME [def.: n., a cool space designed by rugrats and Matt Bua] are invited to add their own “junk-i-tecture” sculptures to the installation.
To mark the opening of KIDSPACE, MASS MoCA will hold an all-day celebration on Saturday. There will be art-making activities for little ones, plus gallery talks by Matt Bua at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.. At noon, 2:00, and 4:00 p.m. in Club B-10, a troupe of professional actors will read a play written by Julianne Hiam Scribner and North Adams third graders.
Cribs at KIDSPACE, MASS MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams; 413.662.2111
March 21 – May 31
Saturdays & Sundays only; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The exhibition also will be open daily during Spring Break (April 13–17) and on Memorial Day (May 25)
Admission is free.
Reservations required for Saturday’s play (call number above), which is also free.
Into the Woods at Clermont
On Saturday, March 21st, Clermont State Historic Site will host two outdoor activities; a new family activity, “X Marks the Spot: Orienteering for Kids.” Local naturalist and educator Drew Hopkins will teach kids (with caregivers, please) some woodland safety basics, as well as how to use maps and compasses to navigate in the woods around Clermont.
Clermont State Historic Site
One Clermont Avenue; Germantown; 518. 537.4240
Admission: $3 (please reserve)
One-hour program starts at 10 a.m. on the museum’s east porch.
Children’s Art at Vassar
More than 200 works of art by local nursery, elementary, and intermediate school students, including this work by Jazlyn Santos, a 2nd Grader at Columbus Elementary School in Poughkeepsie, will be on display in “A Celebration of Children’s Art,” Vassar College’s 24th annual John Iyoya Children’s Art Show.
Palmer Gallery in Main
Vassar College
124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie
Sunday, March 22 from 2 p.m. - Saturday, March 28.
Regular gallery hours: Monday - Saturday; 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Admission: Free
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 03/10/09 at 02:47 PM • Permalink
