Parties & Openings
June 7 - Great BarringtonBerkshire Playwrights Lab new Season |
June 8 - RhinebeckCelebrating Empire State Pride Agenda |
June 8 - StockbridgeEnchanted evening with Norman Rockwell Museum |
A Fête for the Festival of Trees at the Berkshire Museum
Remember when every city, big and small, had at least one great department store with holiday windows and decorations that set the mood for the season? Alas, the great department stores are practically extinct, but the Berkshire Museum’s 24th annual Festival of Trees is like several city blocks of great decorations under one roof. The historic museum is chockablock with more than 200 individually decorated Christmas trees made by businesses and organizations ranging from the Austen Riggs Center and Brix Wine Bar to the Junior League of Berkshire County. With major sponsorship by Legacy Banks Foundation, the exhibition is not only proof of the creativity and charity that reigns in the Berkshires but also a reminder that you don’t have to go to a store to catch the Christmas spirit.
The Berkshire Museum’s Stuart Chase and Kimberly Rawson with the Tupperware Tree by Heather Levy.
Cassandra Lyon with her mother, Tonia Scalise, who’s own mother made trees in the early years of the festival; former WAMC reporter Carrie Saldo, who is the media coordinator for the Berkshire Visitors Bureau.
Museum benefactor Heather Dobbins tries out the Pedal-A-Watt bicycle that produces the energy to light several trees
Sue & Andy Kelly stand in front of a tree designed by their friend Jenny Hersch, founder of the Housatonic River Museum; the Berkshire Music School’s Jo Ann Losinger with MCLA art professor Melanie Mowinski
Pittsfield gallery owner Leslie Ferrin with her daughter Lucy Sloane; Reid Middle School teacher Brendan Dillon with Scott LaGreca, natural sciences coordinator for the Berkshire Museum.
Berkshire Museum director of education Maria Mingalone with Berkshire Bateria’s Tommy Flores
Writer Bess Hochstein and artist Scott Cole, who owns the estimable Caffe Pomo d’Oro in West Stockbridge; Steve & Linda Pierce of Legacy Banks.
Two of the many untraditional trees with a “green” theme at the museum. Berkshire Carousel‘s Horse Tree (left) by Don DeAngelus.
