Parties & Openings
Pittsfield - August 19 |
Hudson - August 12 |
 Monterey & Pittsfield - August 13High-style parties in town and country for Bidwell House Museum and Word X Word Festival. |
Ferrin Gallery Dish+Dine: An Arts Salon on Decadence & Decay
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield.
The genteel tradition of the art salon finds new vitality at the Ferrin Gallery’s periodic Dish+Dine soirees, which bring together local artists, food, academics, and chefs, plus guests interested in any or all of those topics, to share a meal, libations, and lively discussion over a table set with locally made plates and cups. The latest of such events, on Friday, August 19, was a sold-out dinner on the theme of Decadence & Decay, part of an artBerkshires curated weekend, with a focus on photography. Aprile Gallant, curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Smith College Museum of Art (in photo, left, with Leslie Ferrin); John Stromberg, director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum; and Maria Mingalone, interim executive director of Berkshire Museum, discussed the role of photography in museum collections as a crowd of more than 40 art lovers and bon vivants enjoyed a meal prepared by Brian Alberg of the Red Lion Inn, served on porcelain dishes made by Mary Ann Davis.
Hope Sullivan, executive director of IS183 Art School of the Berkshires, with Joan Salke; Olivia Georgia, executive director of Meredith Monk’s The House Foundation, with Michael Salke.
Paul Goldberg with photographer and gallerist Cassandra Sohn; Deborah Pege and ceramist Frances Palmer.
Arts consultant Bobbie Paley with Vicki Bonnington; Hancock Shaker Village’s interim director Dr. Peter Hansen and Dr. Petra Krauledat.
Publicist Michael Kusek and photographer Susan Mikula; nonprofit marketing consultant Cathy Deely with attorney David Schecker.
MASS MoCA communications queen Katherine Myers with gallerista and artBerkshire collaborator Sienna Patti; sculptor Gordon Chandler with Studio Two’s new project manager Rebecca Weinman.
BART charter school math teacher Curtis Asch, who went on the win the next day’s Word X Word poetry slam, with Maria Mingalone, interim executive director of Berkshire Museum; Ferrin gallerinas Madeline Thompson and Lauren Shea, a B-HIP arts management intern from MCLA, flank photographer Bill Wright.
Sienna Patti holds forth in a lively discussion amidst Ferrin Gallery’s photography show, Beauty in Decay.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 08/22/11 at 02:35 PM • Permalink
From Mountaintop to Rooftop: Celebrants Scale the Heights
Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Monterey and Pittsfield.
Parties reached a peak this Saturday, August 13 – at least two of them did in the Berkshires, where celebrants could scale a rural mountainside to sip pina coladas and daiquiris, or climb a steep set of stairs for an urban party high above the city streets, lubricated by cans of Narragansett beer. The Bidwell House Museum’s Caribbean garden party, high atop Mount Hunger, may have seemed an odd theme for a fete celebrating a New England landmark of the Colonial era. However, the bright sun, warm breezes, lush gardens, and endless views from the home of Kenneth and Malinka Jackson lent the fundraiser a distinctly tropical feel, abetted by guests in Hawaiian shirts and other island attire. A few miles north, a festive crowd (including Gordon Chandler and Karen Lee, above) gathered up on the roof of the Greystone building for the annual rooftop party to kick off the Word X Word Festival. The band Jack the Radio, in town for the festival from North Carolina, played long and hard, high above the city streets, through sunset and beyond.
In Monterey: antiques dealers Lorraine and Steve German with Bidwell House Museum executive director Barbara Palmer.
Executive recruiter Doug Shufelt and realtor Nancy Kalodner; Nancy Jones and Christine Goldfinger.
Jewelry designer Lisa Frankel with Kathryn Roberts and host Malinka Jackson; Karen Gundernsheimer and Louisa Weinrib.
Bidwell family descendants Paula Moats and Marie Bidwell Leuchs; entrepreneur Tonio Palmer, Eyal Shapiro, and Joy Flint.
Michael Weinrib, Paul Dodyk, and Werner Gundernsheimer.
Julie Neu and Peggy Matlow; Hannah Mulvey and Leigh Yates-Weisgal.
Jennifer Greenfield, Walter Ritter, and Diana Deacon; Sandy Pukel and Melanie Kern.
Gordon and Carole Hyatt; Samantha Abdulla, Dominique Steiner, and Dr. Ronald Goldfinger.
In Pittsfield: Simon’s Rock professor and author Brendan Mathews, who curated the narrative fiction component of Word X Word, at the festival’s rooftop kick-off party with participating novelists Stefan Block and Jami Attenberg, and readMedia CEO Colin Mathews.
Aaron Dunn and Studio 2 newbie project manager Rebecca Weinman; Barrington Stage power couple Jeff and Laura Roudabush, directors of production and marketing, respectively.
Berkshire Chamber of Commerce’s Jennifer Glockner with graphic designer Mary Garnish; artist Gabrielle Senza with CompuWorks founder and Word X Word board chair Alan Bauman.
Gallerista Leslie Ferrin with Carole Schultz; intellectual property attorney Paul Rapp and writer Jeremy Goodwin.
Caitlin and Mitch Nash with fellow Blue Q-er Katie Frisina and Ralph Frisina, VP and creative director at Winstanley Partners.
Val Whalingand philanthropic pediatrician Siobhan McNally, board chair at Circle of Health International, with Kelly Dolan; Studio 2’s Heather Rose, medical illustrator Caity Delphia, and gardener Abigail Elwood.
Artist Colin Toomey, who has just joined the Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development, with stylist Tony Barnini; 1Berkshire CEO Stuart Chase and Megan Whilden, Pittsfield’s director of cultural development.
Jenny Cianflone Benson with Peter Alvarez Salon esthetician Sarah Frenkel; Word X Word board member David Rosenthal and the Tenement Museum’s Leslie Milton.
State senator Benjamin Downing Jr. with Dr. Peter Dillon, superintendent of the Berkshire Hills Regional School District; poets Taylor Mali and Marie-Elizabeth Mali.
The North Carolina band Jack the Radio kept the party lively.
Pittsfield real estate magnate George Whaling, entertainment programmer and booking agent Simon Shaw, and congressional candidate Andrea Nuciforo; WAM’s Kristen van Ginhoven with Carrie Saldo, host of Connecting Point on WGBY.
Maria Mingalone, acting executive director of Berkshire Museum, with Dolla Sapeta, visiting artist from South Africa, and MASS MoCA director of retail operations Jodi Joseph; Bra & Girl’s April Burch (aka Dr. Cleavage) with Dr. Nick Webb, assistant professor at Union College and WAM board president.
The view from on high. Word X Word 2011 continues through August 20.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 08/15/11 at 09:58 PM • Permalink
Drama in The Pastures at Volunteers in Medicine Benefit
Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Southfield, Massachusetts.
Supporters of Volunteers in Medicine, which operates a clinic in Great Barrington that provides free healthcare to low-income, uninsured Berkshire workers and residents, gathered at The Pastures during the ‘golden hour’ on Thursday, August 11, for VIM’s annual benefit. After receiving a heart-felt greeting from VIM board vice chairman Matt Mandel and host Bridget Ford Hughes (left), guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in the brilliant sunshine before scattering to dinner parties at private homes across South County. Also on the pre-dinner agenda was a “services auction,” providing an opportunity for supporters to subsidize various VIM services – ranging from prescriptions for all patients for six months to a single patient visit – preceded by personal accounts by VIM patients of their experiences at the clinic. Unfortunately, one patron collapsed before the auction began. Fortunately, there was a doctor in the house – more than a few of them, actually – and the patron was well tended until the ambulance arrived. The evening went on, but the auction, which typically accounts for half of the revenue generated by VIM’s annual gala — the organization’s largest fundraising event — was suspended. Word arrived that the guest is at home and doing fine, and that supporters can still “bid” on VIM services online.
VIM board chair Arthur Piesner and Susan Piesner; CATA founder Sandy Newman and gala chair Jane Salamon.
VIM development consultant Dave Barrett, publicist Gina Hyams, and psychiatrist Jesse Goodman; Susie Weeks with her summer guests David Sanchez and J.J. Allen Thomas.
Jim Rosenstein and Anne MacDonald; VIM client Demetrio Gomez and VIM medical assistant and interpreter Gladis Rave.
Elise Richman, Shirley Mueller, VIM board member Michael Richman, and Lisa Cohen.
Author Efrem Sigel with VIM board member and health coach Nancy Fernandez Mills; host and sculptor Jonathan Prince with Rose Levine, who manages the farmers’ markets in Great Barrington and Lenox.
Executive recruiter Doug Shufelt and realtor Nancy Kalodner; Betty Reba and Nancy Feldman Edman.
Michelle Moore and caterer/restaurateur David Renner; Rocky Greenberg and Susan Popper.
Jane and Alan Salamon flank their daughter, Karen Salamon.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 08/15/11 at 04:13 PM • Permalink
What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Just about everything it turns out, as tout Hudson showed up at Club Helsinki to celebrate the release of Evermore, a new cd by Chris Swicegood, one half of the local favorite singing duo Chris and Lolly Swicegood. (The couple usually sing together and did that night; Lolly will make it on to the next recording, which is to be produced by Bob Dylan’s own, Bob Johnsten.) A microcosm of Hudson itself during its citywide Music Fest, to which the proceeds of the night went, Helsinki was an aural multiplex, with Chris and Lolly serenading the crowds downstairs while swing dancing took place up and various and sundry musical groups played outside in the club’s newly opened courtyard.—Scott Baldinger
Chris and Lolly Swicegood, the honored guests and headline performers at a benefit party for the Hudson Music Fest. Hudson Music Fest volunteer Erika Clark with photographer Alphonse Telymonde
Hudson Democratic Party chair Victor Mendolia with music fan Linda Lovallo, performer Erin Hobson, and Hudson mayoral candidate Nick Haddad. The recently wed B&B proprietors Dini Lamot and Windle Davis, with decorative painter Charlotte Belote.
Antiques restorer Alan Hamilton with Hudson lawyer Kristal Heinz. Five and Diamond owner Lisa Durfee with furniture designer Jules Anderson.
Artist Kianja Strobert with Historical Materialism co-owner Dina Palin. Radiation therapist Suzanne Johnson with Orlando Castillo of Colonia Antiques.
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Posted by Scott Baldinger on 08/13/11 at 04:50 PM • Permalink
A Pleasant (Valley) Evening of Crickets, Critters & Cocktails Fires Up Support for Mass Audubon
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Lenox.
The annual fundraiser for Mass Audubon’s Berkshire Wildlife Sanctuaries, Crickets, Critters & Cocktails, boasts a winning formula. Take one beautiful evening on a lushly verdant property – in this case, July 30 at Pleasant Valley – decorate with colorful banners and crittery kites from Barong Imports (for sale, with half the proceeds going to Mass Audubon); stage a silent auction with surprisingly affordable items; ply guests with frosty drinks and fresh-grilled food; boost the festive quotient with swinging jazz by Lurid Details; and finish the evening with a bonfire and a drum circle. “Drum circle?,” you say, thinking you might instead beat a hasty retreat. With drumming facilitator Otha Day setting the rhythm, most guests opted in, grabbing a seat on a fireside bench and a bongo, tambourine, or other percussive instrument to bang the drum loudly late into the night.
Event co-chairs Mary Garnish and Alan Bauman greeted guests; Dr. Michael Kaplan, a member of the Berkshire Wildlife Sanctuaries committee, with innkeepers Suky and Tom Werman.
Doctors Mark Liponis, of Canyon Ranch, and Siobhan McNally, board chair of Circle of Health International; drum circle facilitator Otha Day and Brad Verter, a professor of history at Emerson College.
Elena, Eric, and Andrea Nucifora; Mission proprietor Jim Benson with Scott Chadwick.
Gentle prices and environmentally oriented lots, such as guided canoe trips and bird-watching adventures, kept the silent auction bidding lively.
Jewelry designer Martha Archambault, who donated a necklace for the silent auction, and John Bridges; Kevin and Kristine Sprague.
Studio 2’s Heather Rose and Kathleen Drohan, associate director of public relations at Tanglewood; Mayme Stansfield, a fashion assistant at Lucky magazine, with her stepmother, nonprofit consultant Cathy Deely.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 08/01/11 at 10:08 PM • Permalink
Beauty in Decay Opens at Ferrin Gallery
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield.
Leave it to Leslie Ferrin, gallerista extraordinaire, to draw a crowd indoors on a perfect summer afternoon. Such was the case on Saturday, July 30, for the opening of her latest exhibition, Beauty in Decay. This two-pronged show features a wall full of antlered trophy heads crafted by Gordon Chandler (at left, with Ferrin) from reclaimed metal parts that Chandler salvaged from junkyards and recycling centers, plus a few of his signature oil-barrel kimonos. The work of four photographers—Gregory Crewdson, Michael Eastman, Susan Mikula, Nicholas Whitman—who explore the beauty that can be found in places and situations that other eyes might find appalling, or at least unappealing, fills the other half of the Ferrin Gallery.
Artists Grier Horner and Mark Tomasi, a marketing specialist at Berkshire Bank, with 1Berkshire CEO Stuart Chase.
Carol and Eric Haythorne; Beth Sapery and Rosita Sarnoff.
Art consultant Barbara Paley with sculptor Misty Gamble; Stockbridge gallerist and photographer Cassandra Sohn with artist Peter Dudek, who runs Bascom Lodge.
Berkshire Eagle art critic Keith Shaw with Julie Chase, the Clark’s director of special projects; sculptor Joe Wheaton and Northampton publicist Michael Kusek.
Lenox gallerist Sienna Patti with South African artist Dolla Sapeta, who just finished a residency at Art Omi and is now in residence in the Berkshires, and studio jeweler Biba Schutz, whose work is now featured at the Sienna Gallery.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 08/01/11 at 01:47 PM • Permalink
Off on a Tangent
Disarming though it is at first, second, third and all subsequent glances, the town of Tivoli clearly lacked one thing: an official Off Off Broadway theater venue to call its own. This void is being filled with the opening of Tangent Arts’ Carpenter Shop Theater, which was previously—you guessed it—a carpenter’s shop, coincidentally right off (if not off- off) of Broadway, the town’s main thoroughfare. (Tangent founders Michael and Andrea Rhodes previously staged works at the even more casual Tivoli venue, the Black Swan pub.) The company’s first planned work: Edward Albee’s sparsely populated (two character) play The Zoo Story, written off off in the distant past of 1958. The opening eve party in the new space was filled to the brim and right on. —Scott Baldinger
Tangent supporters Gregg Moynihan, Henry Moynihan, and Danielle Riou. Lydia Chapin and actor Victor Truro.
Actors Jennifer Skura, Audrey Rapoport, and Ann Osmond, all from New York City. Tivolians David and Rachel Nelson with Tangent member Steven Young (center).
Tangent co- founders Michael and Andrea Rhodes. Tivoli Mayor Bryan Cranna with Tangent volunteer Cathy O’Connor.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/30/11 at 12:31 PM • Permalink
Berkshire Fringe Celebrates Season Seven
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Great Barrington.
Over the past six years, The Berkshire Fringe has hosted more than 400 emerging artists in an annual, eclectic arts extravaganza including theater, dance, music, film, video, and everything in between. This year’s festival—which kicked off on Monday, July 25 with a cocktail party, performance, silent and live auction (conducted by Timothy Olson père et fils, left), and dance party at the Daniel Arts Center of Simon’s Rock—runs through August 15. It includes 50 events (many of them free) and 100 artists, a good portion of whom, it seemed, were on stage to present work created specifically for the gala, with the restriction that three props must be used: an orange, a wheelbarrow, and an unopened letter. Due to high ticket demand, for the first time the performance was moved from the Liebowitz Studio Theater into the larger McConnell Theater. The gala’s five works proved to be as diverse as the live auction items, which included dinner for four prepared by a professional chef in the bidder’s home plus a week’s share of produce from Farm Girl Farm; a week’s stay in a villa on Italy’s Lake Como; and a set of autographed cast photos from the television shows Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Alias, and Sex in the City.
Dentist Jay Wise with Timothy & Kay Olson; Allium sous chef Patrick McGinley, Farm Girl Farm’s Vivian Stein, and auction decor designer George Veale.
Actor Kevin Craig West, who performed during the gala, with Kathleen Carey of Troy, NY; performer and Pilates instructor Karen Lee with Shakespeare & Company’s David Joseph.
Realtor Nancy Kalodner and Dream Away Lodge proprietor Daniel Osman; attorneys David Schecker and Vicki Bonnnington.
Members of the multimedia art collective Satan’s Pearl Horses Nikolai Antonie, Kohta Asakura, intern Ben Welmond, and Jimmy Sakai, who presented a video during the gala performance.
WAM Theatre board president Nick Webb with actor Rosemary Thomas; Sam Williams and restaurateur Bjorn Somlo.
Berkshire Fringe co-founder Timothy Ryan Olson with Elaine Ramos; Jon Deline, who clowned with Pi: The Physical Comedy Troupe during the performance, and Bruce Glaseroff.
Artist Gabrielle Senza, who performed during the gala, and writer Jeremy D. Goodwin; actor Hilary Somers Deely, who is curating this fall’s Made in the Berkshires arts festival, with investor Mark Williams.
After the performance, the actors and writers gathered on stage to talk about their work and take questions from the audience.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 07/26/11 at 03:15 PM • Permalink
