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
Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Fête des Fleurs
Gardeners are among the most creative people around, which was evident at the Fête des Fleurs fundraiser at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge on Saturday, July 23. The lavishly decorated tent vied for attention with the hats many women wore to compete in a chapeau contest in which prizes were awarded in four categories: Out on a Limb, Birds of a Feather, Chiquita Banana and Hat Garden. Party chair Maria Nation (left with fellow BBG trustee Bob Hyland) was cool as a cucumber even though it was one of the hottest nights of the year.
Artist and garden designer Naomi Blumenthal with her husband, Ronald Blumenthal; BBG trustee Judie Owens with activist Mary Pat Akers.
Fashion consultant Barbara Friedman and baking entrepreneur Robert Dow; Katie Whalan with BBG executive director Molly Boxer.
Kaitlin Vickery and BIFF founder Kelley Vickery with Pine Cone Hill founder Annie Selke; Gail Shaw, Max Aflalo and BBG trustee Janet Laudenslager.
Branding and design consultants Kevin Sprague & Heather Pelle Rose of Studio Two; Kate Adams and Roberto Flores of Good Dogs Farm.
Stefanie Lew, Beau Buffier, Michael Beck & Joseph Cho.
Hilary Deely, who is co-producing the Made in the Berkshires Festival, with artist/designer Anne G. Fredericks; Pam Johnson & Jim Lamme.
Monterey Masonry’s Mark Mendel with architect Ritch Holben; screenwriter Holly Morse and psychologist Michael Lipson.
Arthur Schwartz with Annie Selke and architect Kristine Sprague.
Rachel & Adam Albright; Pauline Nash with Anthony Archer-Wills.
Petra Krauledat with Joanne Yurman; Laura Persily with BBG director of horticulture Dorthe Hviid.
Architect and furniture designer Robyn Sandberg with Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Elennor Alcorn and Michael Lipson; Jan Johnson and BBG trustee Wendy Linscott.
Gretchen Court, Maria Nation and Ellen Perry.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/26/11 at 10:49 AM • Permalink
Topiary Artist Pearl Fryar Raises Some Green at The Mount
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Lenox.
Among the many events included in the inaugural Lift Ev’ry Voice celebration of African-American arts and heritage, the appearance by topiary artist Pearl Fryar at The Mount must surely have been the most unexpected and highly anticipated. Fryar, a self-taught abstract sculptor whose medium is live plant material, creates forms beyond the bounds of traditional horticulture. In an event called Love, Peace, and Goodwill, Fryar talked about his art and presented two demonstrations of his work. When the early evening arrived, the artist joined a crowd on The Mount’s gracious terrace, sipping Prosecco and supping on canapés by Mezze, for a live auction, including two pairs of evergreens sculpted in his signature forms: circles and spirals. Pittsfield Cultural Development Director Megan Whilden (left, in photo above with Fryar) is now the proud owner of the spiral-cut pair. Ticket sales from the demonstrations benefit the Lift Ev’ry Voice festival, while proceeds from the auction will go toward the establishment of scholarships for Berkshire County youth. No doubt, Edith Wharton would have approved.
Lift Ev’ry Voice co-chairs Shirley Edgerton and Don Quinn Kelley flank Susan Wissler, executive director of The Mount; guest auctioneer Philip Kampe with Mitchell Speight.
Sam VanSant and Gwendolyn VanSant, executive director of Multicultural BRIDGE; Joshua and Pepsi Lee of Springfield.
Williams College’s Director of Dance Sandra Burton and social media consultant Eugenie Sills; Wuane Johnstone and Megan Whilden.
The Mount’s facilities director Ross Jolly and Joan Marie Jackson; tennis instructor Art Carrington with arts consultant Greer Smith of TRANSART.
Actor and playwright Nambi E. Kelley, who entertained the crowd with her a capella rendition of Lift Ev’ry Voice, with Marla Robertson; Orion magazine founder Marion Gilliam with garden maven Margot Paddock.
Pearl Fryar, center, surrounded by the winning bidders on his topiary sculptures, Megan Whilden and Don Quinn Kelley & Sandra Burton, plus festival co-chair Shirley Edgerton, in green.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 07/18/11 at 05:51 PM • Permalink
Berkshire Playwright’s Lab Benefit Features World Premiere One-Acts
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Great Barrington.
For the fourth-consecutive summer, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center is playing host to the Berkshire Playwright’s Lab (BPL), which presents free staged readings of new plays, performed by casts that usually include some high-wattage stars of stage and screen. In keeping with BPL’s relatively new tradition, the season kicked off last Friday, July 15, with an evening of new one-act plays, followed by a reception on the Mahaiwe stage, to benefit BPL. The party is always a great equalizer, giving audience members the chance to interact with actors, directors, playwrights, and the four founding directors of BPL: Joe Cacaci, Jim Frangione, Matthew Penn, and Bob Jaffe (in photo, with actor Peter Riegert, left).
Production/stage manager Valerie Carlson with actor Margot White; Jill Jaffe with BPL’s Joe Cacaci.
Actors Christohper Hirsch and James Murtaugh; actor Dan Lauria and the Mahaiwe’s general manager Karin Watkins.
Actors Amy Van Nostrand and Finnerty Steeves; actor Brian Murray and BPL advisory board member Helice Picheny.
BPL intern Colin Gold and advisory board member Steve Picheny; Adele Lee and playwright Alexis Perkins Parry.
Julia Hobart Trumbull, the Mahaiwe’s board chair Lola Jaffe, and visual effects legend Douglas Trumbull.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 07/18/11 at 01:27 PM • Permalink
Flocking to Ornamentum
Stefan Friedemann and Laura Lapachin, owners of the Hudson gallery Ornamentum, like to cross the line—not only between serious art and wearable jewelry but also between the conscious and unconscious mind. A recent controversial display of taxidermy rabbit heads, ears stuffed with jewels, was a provocative surrealist display worthy of Man Ray or Salvador Dali. In the current exhibition, A Series of Dreams, artist Dan Jocz’s (left) semi-conscious ruminations, many about his muse Marlene Dietrich, are the theme. On display were bracelets with cherries and lipstick-stained fag ends (presumably Marlene’s) molded from enameled copper; nickel and silver cube rings, and brightly colored symbols flocked with rayon dust fibers. According to RI‘s Scott Baldinger, the opening receptions was as casual and warm as the summer evening. So easygoing, in fact, that many of the partygoers were willing to get flocked themselves.
Barry Judd of the Hudson store Hedstrom and Judd and clothing designer Petria May; musician Carmine Covelli, Daniellle Trustscott Kaufman, and Andy Kaufman
Ornamentum intern Eui-Kyung Lee and Mary Little;Joanne Pagano Weber and Judith Abramovitch
Mr. Modernism and jewelry collector Mark McDonald with jewelry designer Sergey Jivetin; artists Robert Godfrey and George Hildrew
Jocie Sinauer and David Chicane, owners of the new store Red Chair on Hudson; journalist David Gargill, artist Laetitia Hussain and blogger/activist Sam Pratt
Event-list mistress Ellen Thurston, Ornamentum co-owner Laura Lapachin, and Hudson’s Samuel Pepys, blogger Carole Osterink ; Lapachin with husband/ Ornamentum co-owner Stefan Friedemann
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/17/11 at 06:52 PM • Permalink
Lift off in Lenox: Two Gallery Openings and a KiteFest
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports: Last Saturday in Lenox, there was something old, something new, and definitely something in the air. The annual show of new work by Lucy MacGillis, who was born in the Berkshires and lives and paints in Umbria, attracted a typically enthusiastic crowd at Hoadley Gallery. Just a block down Church Street, art jewelry connoisseur Sienna Patti opened the doors of her new Lenox gallery, SPQ Projects, with the exhibition Decadence & Disarray. As the dinner hour approached, supporters of IS183 Art School of the Berkshires headed to Stonover Farm, which hosted a benefit barbeque dinner. And as night fell, the scene heated up for the school’s Kitefest Dance Party in Stonover’s barn, in conjunction with the juried art show, Kite, in the Barn Gallery. A successful raffle of four stylized kites, made by the artist Michael Rousseau, helped elevate the mood. Gallerist Patti (in photo, with Bill Wright), relieved after hosting her own party, was among the high-spirited celebrants, several of whom attended all three events.
The capacity crowd at Hoadley Gallery spilled out onto the porch. Less than an hour into the reception, eight of MacGillis’ paintings had sold, and two more were put on reserve.
Artist Lucy MacGillis with her mother, Ingrid MacGillis; gallery owners Tom and Stephanie Hoadley.
Kristin O’Connell and The Boston Globe’s Donald MacGillis, father of the artist; Bates College student Hannah Wilkin and Pittsfield psychotherapist Christine Burbank.
Kripalu massage therapist Peggy Schjeldahl and Megha Nancy Buttenheim, a self-professed “Lucy collector;” MCLA’s Jonathan Secor and Ana Harkins of Kadmus Arts.
Sienna Patti (center) welcomes Joan and Jim Hunter to her new gallery, SPQ Projects.
1Berkshire CEO Stuart Chase and Bobbie Paley; Sienna Patti’s parents, Tom and Marilyn Patti.
Anita Curtin, Marianne Klimchuk, and Niki “Buffy” Giokas; Lillian Lennox Whitehead flanked by her daughters, Blake and Morgan Whitehead.
Studio Two’s Heather Rose with Malcolm and B.J. Salter; Studio Two marketeer Kevin Sprague with Claudia and Steven Perles.
Beth Sapery, gallerista Leslie Ferrin, and Rosita Sarnoff; photographer and gallery artist Bill Wright and Emporium proprietor Carrie Wright with their daughter Parker and photographer Jay Elling.
Attorneys David Schecker and Vicki Bonnington, whose broad-rimmed hat came in handy during the KiteFest BBQ; fiction writer Brendan Mathews, who teaches at Simon’s Rock, with Margaret Keller.
Tom Potter, Stonover Farm proprietor Tom Werman, BIFF boss Kelley Vickery, and BlueQ’s Seth Nash; Hancock Shaker Village’s Danielle Steinmann with artist Michael Rousseau.
Sylvia & Robert Schecker; realtors Nancy Kalodner and Anne Wallach flank Alan Wallach.
Jewelry designer Jill Schwartz of Elements with Caitlin Nash of BlueQ; Rebecca Weinman with IS183 Art School director Hope Sullivan.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 07/13/11 at 08:50 AM • Permalink
Tanglewood 2011 Opens With a Splash
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It was that kind of night. Just before hundreds of undaunted Boston Symphony Orchestra supporters, some local, many more, it seemed, from New York and Boston, descended on the grounds of Tanglewood to celebrate the opening of its 2011 season, it had rained. Fortunately, the weather held throughout the cocktail hour, but when the revelers left the beautiful tent after a fabulous Italian feast overseen by Boston star chef Lydia Shire, the ground was wet again. No matter, all remained clear for the walk over to the shed, then apparently, during the first half of the all-Italian music program, it rained like mad again. But, with what appeared to be at least 200 musicians onstage performing the first act of Bellini’s Norma, no one noticed. Such is the magic of Tanglewood.
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Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and Diane Patrick; Patrick Jang, center, fresh from his first year at the Charlotte N.C. School of Law, reuniting with Penny Pincus and Claudio Pincus, who sponsored his 2010 Tanglewood Music Center opera program fellowship.
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Gala co-chair Stuart Hirshfield, Susie Hirshfield, Mark Volpe, managing director of the BSO, chef Lydia Shire, gala co-chair Bruce Auerbach, and Robin Richman
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Ellen Cohen, Bob Schwartz, and gala committee member Phoebe Gidden; Judith Cook and Carol Scarafoni
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Cindy Curme, trustee Terry Stone, and gala committee member Ollie Curme; James McCormack and Marian Howley
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WAMC’s Alan Chartock and Roselle Chartock; Steve Erenburg, Renee Erenburg, Wendy Gordon, and Peter Gordon
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Carole Murko and Jim Finnerty; Michael Gaffin and Leslie Gaffin
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Alice Stephens, Sari Scheer, Penny Pincus, and Barbara Koz Paley; board of trustees co-chair Stephen Kay, Lis Tarlow, and Malcolm Salter
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Gala committee members Lew Steinberg, Margy Steinberg, and Rhonda Herrick; Barbara Koz Paley, Tony “Casablanca,” Kevin Sprague, and Kristine Sprague
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/09/11 at 08:21 AM • Permalink
Celebrating “Three Hotels” at Williamstown Theatre Festival
The spirit of the Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) is best expressed on its opening night: The entire audience is always invited to the post-performance party along with the scores of young apprentices who are spending their summer honing their theatre skills under the tutelage of Broadway veterans. On Thursday, June 30, the mood was giddy under the tents erected on the lawn of the 62 Center for Theatre and Dance where Mezze Catering served sparkling wine, beer and cupcakes following an exquisitely provocative revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s Three Hotels, the story of a former Peace Corps worker who loses his soul, along with his wife and son, by climbing the corporate ladder at a multinational company that pushes baby formula on women who don’t need it in the Third World. WTF is justifiably famous for its commitment to all the theatre arts, and the sets for Three Hotels were especially magnificent and watching the scene changes was sheer delight.
Three Hotels playwright Jon Robin Baitz and Sunder Ganglani; Three Hotels set designer Thomas Lynch with Jacob Mundell.
Assistant costume designer Christopher Metzger with Three Hotels star Maura Tierney.
Interns Lisa Szolovits, David Mendizabal & Anne Joy; Williamstown Film Festival’s Steve Lawson with Three Hotels star Steven Weber and WTF general manager Joe Finnegan.
Props intern Jeff Maloney, production intern Olivia Spears and box office staffer Sam Flinn; costumers Elizabeth Coffin, Grace Delahanty, Nicole Slavin & Rebecca Wallace.
Properties artisan Lawrence Moten and carpenter Kyle Pollitt.
Molly Kerns of Tsubo Massage and Janine Hetherington; Chip Chandler and WTF vice chair Michelle Moeller Chandler.
Actor Dylan Baker and his daughter Willa Baker with Joe Grifasi, who is directing Lewis’s Black’s One Slight Hitch on the Nikos Stage, July 6 - 17; WTF marketing consultant Carolann Patterson with Tracy Finnegan.
Veteran volunteer ushers Ethel Welch & Clara Dequaise enjoy free dessert from the ice cream truck parked on the lawn outside the 62 Center.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/03/11 at 09:49 AM • Permalink
Toasting Tapestry Health at Spice Dragon
Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield:
Reproductive health and family planning are serious issues, but the benefit party on Monday, June 27 to mark the 38th anniversary of Tapestry Health, the only organization to provide these services in Western Massachusetts at low or no cost, was cause for celebration. Smiling supporters generously bid on silent auction items while nibbling sushi, dumplings, and savory skewers fresh from the new kitchen team at Spice Dragon. The mysterious Silver Swimmers (in photo at left) made a splash, handing out colorful condoms. Hosts Larry Rosenthal and Joyce Bernstein underwrote the evening so that 100% of the proceeds go to Tapestry Health.
1Berkshire CEO Stuart Chase with Clare Coleman, president and CEO of National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association; Rosita Sarnoff and Beth Sapery.
Norman Rockwell Museum director Laurie Norton Moffat with gallerist Leslie Ferrin; location scout Jennet Cook, who won the evening’s raffle prize—a new iPad—with Pittsfield City Councillor Pete White.
Photographer Evan Soldinger with metalsmith Linda Kaye-Moses; artist Anne Pasko, founder of the Pittsfield Garden Tour, taking place July 16 & 17, with the evening’s co-host Joyce Bernstein and Pittsfield Cultural czarina Megan Whilden.
Tapestry Health interns Khalil Grell and Owanate Briggs, who are Amherst College students, with Tapestry founder and president Leslie Tarr Laurie.
Lenox Club president Jo Anne Magee with Kelly Wickliff; Sydelle Blatt and Betsey Selkowitz.
Katrina Mattson, who oversees Tapestry Health services in Berkshire County, and Vannessa Slaughter; Meryl Blackman with the evening’s co-host Larry Rosenthal.
Chin Lee and Sabrina Tan, who own the Malaysian restaurant Flavours; James and Mary Ann Archey.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 06/28/11 at 12:24 PM • Permalink
Follow the Fold: Barrington Stage Company’s 2011 Gala
The gym at St Joseph’s Central High School is where Barrington Stage Company always holds its season-opening gala, and it feels like a homecoming dance. It’s become a ritual for the audience to parade up North Street from the theatre to the school, and last Saturday night the rains held off for this promenade. The young cast members from the sensational production of Guys & Dolls mingled and dined side by side with the big-pocket donors—most notably the evening’s honorees Sydelle & Lee Blatt— who have supported Barrington Stage’s 17-year-long metamorphosis from a summer stock theater at a public high school in Sheffield to a year-round regional theater that has become a pillar of Pittsfield’s cultural community. And Dan Mathieu’s MAX Ultimate catered a meal that was visually exciting and delectably delicious, too.
Laura & Jeff Roudabush of Barrington Stage; Ian & Madeline Hooper who are both trustees of the Berkshire Botanical Garden.
Lyn & Bob Petricca; Jessie & Bernard Wolfson
Deane Halper of the Aglet Theatre Company and Clover Bell-Devaney; branding guru Kevin Sprague and architect Kristine Sprague.
WAMC’s Alan Chartock and MCLA’s Roselle Chartock; Terry & Art Wasser.
Since Guys & Dolls premiered in 1950, the gala invitation suggested dressing “fifties,” and one group of friends came in outfits from another period musical (Grease.)
Peggy Pharr Wilson, who plays General Cartwright in Guys & Dolls, with Alison Sneider; Guys & Dolls cast members Nicky Venditti and Sharona D’Ornellas.
Mary Jo Herman and her son Matthew Risch, who plays Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls, with Linda Brown.
Karen and Bob Youdelman, who is a Barrington Stage trustee; Barrington Stage artistic director Julianne Boyd with Daniel Marcus, who plays Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys & Dolls.
Ian Hooper, Barrington Stage board president Mary Ann Quinson, artist Bruno Quinson and Madeline Hooper.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/26/11 at 01:31 PM • Permalink
Spencertown Academy’s Twilight in the Garden
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On Friday, June 24, Madeline Hooper and Ian Hooper (left), turned up at the Spencertown Academy‘s Twilight in the Garden benefit well prepared. What they found, thanks to hosts Jerry Croghan and Louis Hedgecock’s spacious barn and adjacent tent, was a waterproof “garden” party in full swing, with sublime food, as always, by the Academy’s all-volunteer in-house caterers, Let’s Eat, and rocking entertainment by singer-songwriter Cathy Grier, aka “the New York City subway girl.” Friday night’s party was a prelude to Saturday’s lecture by Margaret Roach, of A Way to Garden fame, and the Academy’s 7th annual Hidden Gardens tour.
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Cathy Grier setting up; Academy board member Barbara Deisroth, pianist Michael Collier, who will be giving a concert at the Academy in the fall, and appraiser/auctioneer Rupert Fennell
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Lydia Kukoff and Kathy Peer; Academy president Nick Van Alstine, screenwriter John Orloff, and Lee Rose Emery
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Chuck Weinlein, Betsy Howard, and Shawn Hartley-Hancock; Ann Raimes, James Raimes, and Jack Krauskopf
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Greg Vogler and David Highfill; Karen Solem and Ruth Reichl
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Wayne Greene and Madaline Spark, Spencertown-based garden designer and contributing garden editor for Real Simple magazine; doppelgängers Allan Davidson and George Jahn
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Cindy Puccio, Steve Pearlman, Frank Heller, photographer Christian Steiner, who is creative director of the Tannery Pond Concerts, and Nansi Friedman
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Ingrid Greenfield and Byron Greenfield; Ranjini Pillay, Eleanor Oldham, and John Luckacovic
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Susan Nesbitt, Rich Nesbitt, and Gary Katz; Leslie Katz, Christine Callender, Alan Fishman, and Brad Barr
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Peter Bevacqua and Stephen King, whose garden was on the tour; Mara Estribou and Adam Hall
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Novelist Ann Darby and Academy director of education Mary Ann Lee; Margaret Garriques and Rod Fowler
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/25/11 at 05:01 AM • Permalink
Curtains Rise at Jacob’s Pillow: Everybody Dance Now!
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Becket
In a region rife with galas, there is perhaps none as widely anticipated as Jacob Pillow’s, which took place on Saturday, June 18. One might assume this is because the Pillow gala hews 100% true to the organization’s mission. Invariably, it begins with the unveiling of an exhibition of dance-related art in Blake’s Barn – in this case, a wide-ranging selection of photographs by Annie Leibovitz. It continues in the Ted Shawn Theatre, where the audience is presented with a taste of what the summer has in store. First up, students from The School at Jacob’s Pillow performed a feat of magic, flawlessly executing the world premiere of choreography by Stanton Welch that they began to learn just four days earleir. After welcoming the crowd, executive and artistic director Ella Baff presented the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award to choreographer Crystal Pite, who was visibly overcome with emotion by the honor. A smorgasbord of dance delights followed, including work by Mark Morris, David Neumann, honorary co-chair Benjamin Milllepied (Closer, a heart-achingly beautiful pas de deux performed by Ballet Genève), and Larry Keigwin (in photo above, with honorary co-chair Mercedes Ellington), whose 2008 piece Runaway electrified the audience and heightened anticipation of this week’s performance by Keigwin + Company. The cherry on top: a live piano solo by Philip Glass, who noted that while his music has accompanied scores of dances at the Pillow, he had never before played there. Appetites whetted (for both the summer schedule and food), the crowd heads into the tent for dinner and more dance, this time the participatory kind, propelled by the rhythms of Bev Rohlehr and the Colbys. This final phase may be the true reason everyone loves the Pillow gala; the dance floor, flooded with lithe and limber terpsichorean students and performers, proves irresistible, and ultimately, everyone gets in on the act.
Attorneys Vicki Bonnington and David Schecker in typical sartorial splendor; interns Laura Quinton and Katy Dammers.
Lift Ev’ry Voice festival co-chair Don Quinn Kelley with MASS MoCA’s managing director of performing arts, Sue Killam; Tina Petricca and Perri Petricca of Unistress with Nancy Ellis.
Weslyan University president Michael Roth and College of Letters professor Kari Weil; architect Kristine Sprague and branding and marketing consultant Kevin Sprague.
Don Cornuet and Olaperi Onipode; realtor Nancy Kalodner and executive recruiter Doug Shufelt.
Pillow Board member Sylvia Pope with her son, Albert Pope; the Mahaiwe’s Lola Jaffe with Williams College’s Sandra Burton.
New York City Ballet physical therapist Katy Keller with voiceover artist and bon vivant Colter Rule; Berkshire Mountain distiller Chris Weld and Berkshire International Film Festival founder Kelley Vickery.
Dance critic Deborah Jowitt with Murray Ralph, WAMC chief Alan Chartock and MCLA professor emeritus Roselle Chartock; Licia Conforti and Michael Conforti, who heads the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
Filmmaker Ben Hillman, producer Jeff Diamond, and Berkshire Film and Media Commission executive director Diane Pearlman; photographer David Dashiell, Chrissie Constable, production manager at The Colonial Theatre, and Pillow preservation director Norton Owen.
John Hoffee with actor, Pillow board member, and gala co-chair Hunter Kerr Runnette, Artisan House president Mickey Atehey, NYC psychologist Alice Piscotto, and Larry Condon.
Choreographer Crystal Pite of Kidd Pivot, performing July 6 - 10, accepts the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award from Ella Baff; Philip Glass plays Dreaming Awake, in his first Pillow performance. Photos by Cherylynn Tsushima, courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow.
Actress Hilary Deely, who is co-curating this fall’s Made in the Berkshires festival, with Pillow board member Wendy McCain; The Wharton Salon founder Catherine Taylor Williams with Amy Zuckerman.
Pillow head Ella Baff with Philippe Cohen, artistic director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and assistant director Vitorio Casarin; School at Jacob’s Pillow dance students Melissa Gelfin, Jong Suk Park, Claudilan dos Santos, and Joanna Schmidt.
Approximately 400 celebrants enjoyed dinner and dancing.
Legendary dancer Marge Champion, a Pillow director emeritus, heads to the dance floor with fellow hoofer and Broadway veteran Larry Fuller; Patricia Ellis with Pillow board chair Joan Hunter.
Beth Olsen, Sam Greer, and Nita Kuo; animator and illustrator Leo Quiles; Mikki Brown of Williamstown fashion spot The Browns, and art/craft jewelry gallerista Sienna Patti.
Colter Rule gets down on the dance floor with an interpretive improvisation, joined by a phalanx of Keigwin + Company dancers.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 06/21/11 at 05:16 PM • Permalink
Reflections on Melville Opens at Arrowhead
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: It may seem jarring to exhibit strikingly contemporary artwork in the rustic 1780s barn that houses the Berkshire Historical Society. It begins to make sense when you learn that the barn is part of Arrowhead, the Pittsfield farm where Herman Melville lived in the mid-1800s and penned many of his most famous works, and that the show is an exploration of how the Berkshire landscape influenced Melville’s writing. (Most notably, the view of Mount Greylock from the window of Melville’s study is widely believed to been the inspiration for his notorius white whale, Moby-Dick.) Reflections on Melville, which opened on Friday, June 17 and runs through October 9, is the result of a year-long collaboration between photographer Kay Canavino and abstract painter Arthur Yanoff, produced by gallerist Ralph Brill (left, with his daughter, cookie dough queen Loren Brill). A companion exhibit, focusing on Melville’s relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, opens at the Eclipse Mill Gallery on June 24 and runs through July 24.
Exhibition curator Samantha Pinckney, Scott Pinckney, and painter Arthur Yanoff; Patricia Lyga and photographer Kay Canavino.
Jacob Girardi and arts blogger Lesley Ann Beck; University of South Carolina J-school professor Bonnie Drewniany and Hallowell EMC general manager Donna Hallowell.
Berkshire Environmental Resource Center’s Caroline Scully and life coach Millie Calesky; AIER economic research fellow Polina Vlasenko and creative director Marcia Stamell.
MCLA students Shannon Costello, Ali Johnston, and Karolyne Symonds.
Pittsfield’s director of cultural development Megan Whilden with Berkshire Historial Society executive director Betsy Sherman; artists Cathy Wysicki and Joan Carney.
Artist Dan Mahoney with IS183 Art School director Hope Sullivan and Elke Mahoney; the Clark’s director of special projects Julie Chase and 1Berkshire CEO Stuart Chase.
Twin brothers Edward and Peter Fath, who are juniors in high school; energy and environmental strategy associate Micah Brill and University of Michigan student Wade Brill, whose father Ralph Brill produced the exhibition.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 06/20/11 at 02:07 PM • Permalink
Farm-to-Table Dinner at Hancock Shaker Village
Hancock Shaker Village is always lovely, but on a perfect summer evening, after the crowds have dispersed, it is a beyond idyllic. Thursday, June 16 was just such an evening, when friends of the HSV’s agriculture programs gathered for a special farm-to-table dinner produced by a team of the region’s top chefs, including Brian Alberg (left) of the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge. Before dinner, cocktails, featuring a special concoction, the Strawberry Smash (pureed strawberries, finely minced mint and champagne) devised by Michel Roller, chef at Savory Harvest Catering, operaters of the HSV cafe, were held in the in the Poultry House (where an exhibit of paintings by Scott Taylor of 44 historic Pittsfield buildings will be on display until July 31st, followed by a dinner in the exquisite Brick Dwelling.
Chefs James Burden of Mission Bar & Tapas, Jim Gop of Route 7 Grill and Joji Sumi of Mezze
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Peter Hansen, interim director of HSV and Steven Bedford, director of the UMass/HSV Historic Preservation MS program; Ruth Abram and Lauren Bedford
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The Berkshire Eagle photographer Ben Garver and 1Berkshire CEO Stuart Chase; Carole Murko and Lauren Zivyac, both of Heirloom Meals.
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Danielle Steinmann, associate director of interpretation at HSV, Eric Drury, and Sera Congi, a reporter for WBZ Boston; Edward Gillespie and Gina Hyams, a writer and freelance public relations consultant for HSV
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The Clark’s Julie Chase, photographer Lincoln Russell, and Nancy Fitzpatrick of the Red Lion Inn; Laurie Norton Moffatt, director and CEO of the Norman Rockwell Museum, and Todd Burdick director of interpretation at HSV.
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Mary Rentz and Elaine Doyle-Gillespie; Michael Salke, Tony “Casablanca”, and Joe Goodwin
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/20/11 at 07:35 AM • Permalink
Chesterwood Opens Its Annual Contemporary Scultpure Show
For the past 32 years, Chesterwood, the home and gardens of the American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850 -1931) in Stockbridge has hosted a contemporary sculptures show on its lush grounds. A property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Chesterwood’s centerpiece is the intact studio of French who’s most famous for his sculpture at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Undaunted by the rains last Friday, fans of Chesterwood came out to walk through the woods and see this year’s sculpture show (which includes Mary Ellen Scheri’s Commando, photo) and to meet many of the participating artists.
Mark & Carol Bosco Baumann of the Red Lion Inn; Sheila & Randy Thunfors, whose Stone House Properties recently opened an office in Chatham.
Helena Gudmundsdottir and Dr. Todd LePine.
Cookiehead’s Lisa Newman with the Red Lion Inn’s Nancy Fitzpatrick; musician Paul Green and RI advertising director Lisa Green.
Sarah Lacour and Valerie Balint.
Sculptor Kaete Brittin Shaw and Carmine Castaldo; sculptors Chris Smith and Clifford Blanchard.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/18/11 at 08:23 AM • Permalink
Party for Pissaro’s People Illuminates the Clark
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Williamstown: Camille Pissarro may have used his canvas to express his anarchist leanings— eschewing society portraiture to paint humble household staff at work, peasants laboring in the fields, and bustling marketplace scenes, in addition to his luminous landscapes— but the crowd that gathered at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Saturday, June 11 to preview Pissarro’s People was cut from (or at least wearing) finer cloth than the subjects depicted by the “dean of Impressionism.” After last year’s somewhat soggy Spanish soiree for the Picasso Looks at Degas exhibition, the Clark’s weather-wary director of special projects, Julie Chase, transformed the museum’s entry atrium and bookstore into a Provencale market, filled with flowers and French fare (Pâté de Campagne, Mousse de Volaille, quiches, crepes, frites, Pissaladière, assortments of cheese, fruit, and vegetables) prepared by in-house caterer Esteva and served from charming carts. Guests avidly toured the Pissarro show and the other galleries; those heading for Gallery 2 for an after-hours encounter with the famed Impressionist collection were surprised to find in its place a one-night-only dance hall with a jazz band, as well as the summer exhibition Spaces: Photographs by Candida Hofer and Thomas Struth. (The Clark’s Impressionist masterpieces are on their first-ever international tour.) The evening concluded at the Stone Hill Center, where three monumental works by the Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui (in photo, above, with Andree Carroon) are on view through October 16. Though the evening was chilly, the rain held off so that guests could enjoy desserts and Champagne along with the incomparable view from the Stone Hill Center terrace.
Kathy McNight, Joe Small, and Alice Small; Clark registrar Jenn Harr, curatorial coordinator Teresa O’Toole, and Annie Rybka;
Williamstown Art Conservation Center director Thomas Branchick, Mary Kontarasis, and Sheila Stone; Albany Law School professor Stephen Cooper, Southern Vermont College president Karen Gross, and 1Berkshire, Inc. CEO Stuart Chase.
Pissarro’s People curator Richard Brettell flanked by anthropology professor Caroline Brettell, Licia Conforti, and Jay Clarke.
Casablanca proprietor Tony Chojnowski with nonprofit marketing consultant Cathy Deely; Mary Busick, registrar for loans and exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum, with Richard Busick, and Clark associate registrar Monique LeBlanc.
Gallerista Leslie Ferrin flanked by art collectors Michael and Joan Salke; Elizabeth Weisman and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston curator ermerita Barbara Stern Shapiro with art historian and Pissarro scholar Claire Durand-Ruel, who worked with Richard Brettell on the exhibition.
Berkshire Creative director Helena Fruscio, MASS MoCA marketing and public relations director Katherine Myers, the Clark’s director of communications Vicki Saltzman, and Linda Conway; Clark docent Stephanie Johnson and director of collections management Mattie Kelley.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 06/14/11 at 12:54 PM • Permalink
Norman Rockwell Celebrates Opening of Ice Age to Digital Age
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Now through October 31, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, has put nostalgia on ice and is reaching back to prehistory for it’s summer exhibition, “Ice Age” To The Digital Age: The 3D Animation Art of Blue Sky Studios. Chris Wedge (far left) and Peter de Sève, who head the Greenwich, CT.-based animation studio that did the Ice Age movies, as well as the current hit Rio, have collaborated with the curators at the museum on an interactive installation that examines the development of each character and/or scene from sketch, through clay maquette, to full-blown 3-D animation. Throughout the season, NRM will offer related lectures and animation workshops. On Friday, June 10, supporters of the NRM gathered in the garden at Linwood to celebrate the opening of the exhibition and to meet the Blue Sky Studios team.
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Brian Corcoran and Elizabeth McCann; Ani Shaker, Bea Kiggen, Addie Kiggen, and Jamie Kiggen
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Rhee Kasky, Corry Kanzenberg, a curator at NRM, Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director and CEO of NRM, and Bill Cohn; Scarlet Patti-Marin and Alexander Marin
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Sienna Patti and Leo Quiles; NRM board chair Thomas Palling and Peter de Sève
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Tim McCann, Jr. and Catherine McCann; Victoria Adams and Perri Petricca
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Caity Delphia and Kipp Lynch; Chris Wedge and Christina Witoshkin, both with Blue Sky Studios.
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Dave Comalli and Terrie Comalli; Debbie Wojtaszek and Jim Wojtaszek
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Dick Gershon and Monique Gershon; Florence Minor and NRM Trustee Wendall Minor
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Howard Branston and Melanie Brandston; Hunter Runnette, Nancy Kalodner, and Lucy Holland, an NRM Trustee
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Jo Cogan and Nick Cogan; Norman Reich, Beverly Reich, and Randall Pete de Sève
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Nancy Fitzpatrick and Lincoln Russell; Corry Kanzenberg and Terry Smith, COO of NRM.
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Fashion highlights: Nancy Fitzpatrick‘s (above) vintage bottle-cap shoulder bag was a gift from her mother, and Phyllis Sandrew got her news-clips jacket at a flea market in Florida; with Alison Atlas.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/11/11 at 07:51 AM • Permalink
Chris Lehrecke Opens New Design Hub in Hudson
Furniture and lighting designer Chris Lehrecke christened his new store location at 415 Warren Street in Hudson with an elegant opening on Saturday, June 4. Lehrecke’s curated collection of design objects also includes jewelry by Gabriella Kiss, jewelry and objects by Ted Muehling, gilded objects by Maureen Fullam and hardware by ER Butler. With the doors thrown open to summer, Columbia County cognoscenti gathered at Lehrecke’s long handmade tables for wine and cheese. Chris Lehrecke commented that he will continue his operations in New York and Los Angeles, where he will spend most of his time, with the Hudson store in the capable hands of manager Julia Hilbrandt. Lehrecke also proudly introduced son August, who recently joined the family business.–Robyn Perry
Siobhan Barry Thomas and James Thomas; Gabrielle Kiss
August Lehrecke and Chris Lehrecke
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Posted by Robyn Perry on 06/08/11 at 05:29 PM • Permalink
BIFF’s Sixth Wraps in Style
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports: The sixth annual Berkshire International Film Festival set Great Barrington and Pittsfield reeling with four days of nearly nonstop screenings and almost as many parties, and Festival founder Kelley Vickery (right, with BIFF board chair Al Togut) seemed to be everywhere at once. Following the Opening Night festivities on Thursday, June 2, VIPs regrouped under the same tent on Friday for the Filmmakers’ Cocktail Party before the Pittsfield Opening Night party at the Beacon Cinema, where a sold-out audience gave a multitude of thumbs-up to the documentary Buck. The late-night crowd gathered at Fiori to celebrate Great Barrington filmmaker Alethea Root’s homecoming with her directorial debut, Part Time Fabulous, which won the Festival’s Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. Saturday evening’s tribute to visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull, which included an exclusive screening of Terrence Malick’s Palme D’Or-winning feature, Tree of Life, for which Trumbull served as visual effects consultant, was preceded by yet another party, this time at Allium. The Festival’s awards were unveiled Sunday morning; in addition to Part Time Fabulous, the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Crime After Crime by Yoav Potash, which also won the Juried Prize Award in that category, and seemed to generate the biggest buzz of the weekend. Michael Rymer’s feature Face to Face won in the Juried Narrative category, and Dustin Grella’s stop-motion animated short, Prayers for Peace, won Berkshire Bank’s “Next Great Filmmaker Award.” Throughout the Festival, local fimmakers were front and center, with more than a dozen movies made in the Berkshires or by Berkshire cast and crew on the roster, including films made at Hancock Shaker Village and Jacob’s Pillow, as well as a special appearance by noted film critic and scholar Kent Jones, who was awarded the Key to the City of Pittsfield, his hometown, by Mayor James Ruberto.
The Part Time Fabulous team: actor Jules Bruff, Great Barrington-born director Alethea Root, and producer Don Presley; Buck director Cindy Meehl with film editor Toby Shimin and Pam Miles.
From A Younger Man: producers and actors Pat Patterson and Summer Crockett Moore with Marsha Mercant; from A Novel Romance: producer Morris Levy, actor Steve Guttenberg, and director Allie Dvorin.
From Born Sweet: Academy Award-winning director Cynthia Wade and producer Matthew Syrett, who live in South Egremont with their daughters Haley and Genevieve Syrett; former head of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sid Ganis with actress and knitwear designer Karen Allen, from White Irish Drinkers.
Festival programmer Lillian Lennox, On the Ice producer Marc Londoner, and BIFF founder Kelley Vickery; Kinyarwanda producer Darren Dean and director Alrick Brown flank jury member Courtney Hunt.
Filmmaker, critic, and scholar Kent Jones (right) shows off his newly awarded Key to the City of Pittsfield to high school buddies Kate Baldwin, Red Lion Inn general manager Bruce Finn, and IS183 Art School registrar Amy Butterworth.
At Allium before the Tribute to Douglas Trumbull: Actor Stephen Vause and director/writer Marc Maurino, whose short All in the Game screened during the Festival; actor/PR whiz Elizabeth Aspenlieder of Shakespeare & Company with photographer Sean McLaughlin.
Berkshire Film and Media Commission executive director Diane Pearlman with Jeff Diamond and multimedia artist Jim Spieler; BIFF second-in-command Lauren Ferrin and Lauren Zivyak.
AmfAR vice president of public information AnnMari Shannahan with former Douglas Trumbull associates Arish Fyzee, creative director of Prana Studios, who travelled from Mumbai to speak at the tribute, and social media consultant Eugenie Sills.
Artist and Cafe Pomodoro proprietor Scott Edward Cole with screenwriter Channing Gibson; Julia Hobart Trumbull and multimedia artist Meryl Joseph.
Screenwriter Maria Nation, NBCUniversal executive vice president Patricia Fili-Krushel, and Ashley Falls farmer Roberto Flores; Sigrid McGoldrick and actor Hunter Kerr Runnettte.
At the Mahaiwe podium, visual effects master Douglas Trumbull, the BIFF honoree, said he was “completely undone” and fought back tears after tributes by his former colleagues, from left, Arish Fyzee, Richard Yuricich, Diane Pearlman, Eugenie Sills, and John Whalan.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 06/06/11 at 04:50 PM • Permalink
Close Encounters with a Latin Beat
For 20 years, Close Encounters with Music has, as it’s Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani says, mixed “music with ideas” in the Berkshires and beyond. Saturday night’s special anniversary performance, billed as Fiesta! A Latin Splash of Music and Dance, held at the magnificent Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, brought together disparate guest artists, as always, some meeting, rehearsing, and performing together for the first time. The obvious pleasure these artists take in each other’s virtuosity is rarely so evident at classical music performances and provides an added kick for the audience. On Saturday, after bows were taken, the musicians and friends of CEWM gathered at the Gateway Inn in Lenox to celebrate their milestone.
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Nurit Amdur and Marcie Imberman; pianist Michael Chertock and Ron Walter
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Amala Levine and Close Encounters’ Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani; percussionist Arti Dixson and Eric Levine
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Composer Jorge Martin, Neil Chrisman, and Bill Schimmel; Tana Thompson and Sara Griffen, president of the Olana Partnership.
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CEWM’s Marketing Director Pamela Dreyfus Smith and Rural Intelligence Ad Director Lisa Green; Parsons Dance’s Sarah Braverman, PS-21’s Judy Grunberg, and Miguel Quinones, also of Parsons Dance.
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Lorraine Abraham and Pat Fingeroth; Edward Sullivan and Clayton Kirking
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Jim Fingeroth, Roselle Chartock, and WAMC’s Alan Chartock; Jerome Yavarkovsky, Hannah Hanani, and Leslie Gold
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/06/11 at 05:26 AM • Permalink
A Riverfront Benefit for the Empire State Pride Agenda
Our Wandering Eye blogger, Carey Maloney, and his architect husband, Hermes Mallea, have been passionate supporters of many LGBT causes over the years, but the fight for marriage equality speaks very directly to them. When they decided to finally get married two years ago, they couldn’t have the ceremony at their home overlooking the Hudson River in Germantown, NY; they had to go to Connecticut as Maloney related in his post “Our Blogger Ties the Knot” (April 14, 2009.) On Saturday, June 4, they hung Empire State Pride Agenda banners on their front gates and welcomed more than 250 supporters of marriage equality in New York State for a fundraiser for the Empire State Pridge Agenda whose mission is to ensure equality and justice for LGBT New Yorkers and their families.
David Noble and Douglas Choo; Frazier Holloway, director of gardens at the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the Bronx, and Tim Legg.
Hosts Carey Maloney & Hermes Mallea of (M) Group.
Amy Breedlove and Sabine Rothman, the style director of House Beautiful; Edris and Toni Weeks.
Gary Hatten and Chris Drago; Josef Asteinza and Randy Borscheidt.
Charles D. Hewett Jr. and Charles Olbricht with artist Ramon Lascano, who currently has an exhibit at Paper Trail in Rhinebeck.
Hudson Pride executive director Martha Harvey and Jamie Trachtenberg, a psychotherapist who offers youth workshops with Hudson Pride; interior designer Darren Henault and Muffie Cunningham.
Empire State Pride Agenda co-chair Marla Hassner and G. Thompson; Hermes Mallea with New York PR honcho James LaForce.
Mark Wier, John Longman, Bill Ross (who is directing The Sound of Music at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck) and Dr. Michael A. Kalman.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/05/11 at 06:42 PM • Permalink
Opening Night of the 6th Berkshire International Film Festival
For the opening of the 6th annual Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) on June 2 in Great Barrington, the red carpet outside the Mahawie Performing Arts Center was donated by Dash & Albert, the Pittsfield textiles company owned by Annie Selke, and inside some 500 people gathered to see the documentary Page One: Inside The New York Times, which raised the provocative question of whether mainstream media like The New York Times can survive in the digital age. Before the screening, BIFF’s loyal patrons gathered under a tent behind Town Hall for an inventive buffet supper catered by Dan Mathieu’s Max Ultimate of Boston. Amazingly, the weather was cool and crisp, which, along with the open bar, put everyone in a very good mood for a full weekend of movies that continues through Sunday, June 5. Individual tickets to several films are still available online.
Vicki Bonnington & David Schecker; actor Peter Riegert with BIFF founder Kelley Vickery.
BIFF board member and branding guru Kevin Sprague and Mary Garnish; Red Lion Inn owner Nancy Fitzpatrick & Lincoln Russell.
Hunter Runnette and Dr. Mark Vanden Bosch; fashion designer Anne Johnston Albert, party consultant and stationer Valerie Maynard and architectural designer Tyler Weld.
Writers Holly Morse & Paige Orloff; Jack, Kaitlin & Andrew Vickery.
Steve Hebrock & Annie Selke of Pine Cone Hill; Berkshire Mountain Distillers’ Chris Weld & Brian Alberg of the Red Lion Inn.
Black Ice Entertainment’s John Whalan with film scholar Kent Jones and Diane Pearlman of the Berkshire Film & Media Commission, which is sponsoring Jones’ Saturday afternoon screening of A Letter to Elia at BIFF; Gussie & Peter Greer with Barbara Schulman.
Lauren & Michael Zivyak; IS 183’s Hope Sullivan with Alejandro de Onis, who is moderating a BIFF panel on human rights on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Writer Chan Gibson, painter Cynthia Wick, Sid Ganis & Kelley Vickery.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/03/11 at 08:57 AM • Permalink
Pittsfield Season Opens with a Double Header at Ferrin Gallery and Berkshire Museum
Cultural correspondent Bess Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: Downtown Pittsfield was the place to be on Saturday, May 28 for lovers of wine and art, as Leslie Ferrin (in photo, on the right) reopened her North Street gallery with The Pursuit of Porcelain, a show she called one of her best ever, preceding Berkshire Museum‘s biennial wine auction and dinner, with interim executive director Maria Mingalone (in photo, on the left) at the helm. The arts community viewed the Ferrin Gallery reopening as a homecoming of sorts, and came out in force to welcome Ferrin and her partner Donald Clark back to North Street. A quick stroll down the road, an elegantly dressed crowd was bidding up a storm in the Museum’s main galleries, which had been cleared to display one room full of rare wines and another brimming with dinners, vacations, tickets to various events, and other silent auction lots. The action moved to the auditorium, where auctioneer Charles Antin, wine specialist and associate V.P of Christie’s in New York, fielded enthusiastic bidding, fueled, in part, by Taittinger’s Champagne, which flowed freely throughout the event. All told, the evening, which included a choice of sumptuous dinners catered by Chef Michael Roller (in the Museum’s Crane Room) or Shelly Williams of Haven Cafe (onstage at The Colonial), raised close to $200,000 for the Museum’s educational programs.
Artist Julio Granda with Stuart Chase, CEO of 1Berkshire; Bill Wright, whose photographs of The Pursuit of Porcelain artists are included in the show, with Emporium entrepreneur Carrie Wright and their daughter Paige.
Gallerista Leslie Ferrin with artist Susan Mikula; Caitlin Nash and Mitch Nash of BlueQ.
Artists Michael Boroneic and Jeffrey Lipton, who has work in the show; Ferrin Gallery’s Donald Clark with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Artists Joe Wheaton and Dan Mahoney with Hope Sullivan of IS183 Art School of the Berkshires and Elke Mahoney.
Jen Hines and William Hines, Jr., managing director of Interprint, with Lori Mazzeo; Rachel Hirschey, a nurse in New York City, with her mother, Kathy Daury of Legacy Banks.
East coast sales manager Guillaume Suss with Constance Bichot and Wine Auction guest of Honor Alberic Bichot, head of the historic Maison Albert Bichot Burgundy negociant house and owner of 220 acres of vineyards in France; Museum board member Elizabeth “Buzz” McGraw with Claire Naylor-Pollart.
Realtor Nancy Kalodner with Doug Shufelt and gala co-chair Wendy Gordon; gala co-chairs Nancy Edman Feldman and Mike Chefetz.
Carol Scarafoni with Museum interim executive director Maria Mingalone; Courtney and Mike Addy.
Katherine Brambilla with auctioneer Charles Antin of Christie’s; Robin McGraw, in his signature kilt, with Dr. Bruce Zetter.
Barbara Schulman of Wheeler & Taylor with Jonathan Ball; gala wine committee chairman Jim Nejaime with Heidi Nejaime.
Free-flowing Taittinger’s fueled bubbly bidding during the live auction. Guest of Honor Alberic Bichot donated the lot that garnered the highest bidding: a VIP trip to Burgundy, including airfare, lodging, and an invitation to the exclusive Hospices de Beaune wine auction, vineyard and winery tours, plus a case and a half of exquisite Burgundian white and red wines.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 06/02/11 at 08:18 AM • Permalink
TriArts Gala at the Salisbury School Boathouse
TriArts in Sharon, CT, is rethinking how it defines “crowd pleaser.” A unique blend of professional designers, directors, musicians, Equity actors, non-Equity actors, and dedicated community performers and volunteers, TriArts built its reputation on reprising Broadway classics primarily from the Rodger & Hammerstein era. After this year’s opening production of 42nd Street, TriArts will present Rent, the landmark musical about AIDS, and Hairspray, the musical based on the John Waters film starring a man dressed as a woman. At last Saturday’s gala at the breathtaking Salisbury School boathouse, the guests were dazzled by the the summer preview performances as well as the stunning lakefront views.
Gala chairs Lola White, Alexandra Lange and Carol Kalikow; Elyse Harney Morris, Mimi Harney, Kathleen Devaney and Stephanie Roy.
Cast members from TriArts upcoming production of Rent: Jason Stanley (Mark Cohen), Jared Weiss (Rodger) and Kanda Good (Angel); TriArts executive director Alice Bemand with board chairman David K. Sims.
Sophie Leibowitz with her fiance Alfred Portale, the founder and executive chef of New York’s Gotham Bar and Grill; Janice Cronk and hardware store honcho Ed Herrington
Artistic directors John Simpkins and Michael Berkeley flank board vice president Mimi Estes.
Jim Montanari and Dan Dwyer of Johnnycake Books; Kennedy White House social secretary Nancy Tuckerman and Norman Kappler.
TriArts board member Susan Mieras and Dr. Peter Reyelt; Katie Sarno who will star in Hairspray this summer with her mother, Donna Moulison.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/01/11 at 04:35 PM • Permalink
Architecture for Art: Where Things Intersect
Architecture for Art, or A for A, a gallery that opened this past winter in Hillsdale, is, as its name implies, dedicated to exploring the nexus between two disciplines. Fittingly, for a concern that takes siting and points of convergence seriously, it is situated at an important crossroad for this region, where the artery that unites Dutchess and Columbia Counties (Route 22) intersects with the one that links Columbia and Berkshire (Route 23). Or as it’s irrepressible owner, Liane Torre describes her gallery’s location, “midway between Dia:Beacon and MASS MoCA.” The current show features Torre’s own geometric color field paintings; Egg City, the artwork of architect Andrew MacNair; and 9x9x99, a work by Guy Nouri, an artist with architectural inclinations, whose piece is as much about the way it occupies its space as about the paintings themselves. A for A even has its own publication, Splash.
Architect Steven Holl, Annette Gouderbauer, Joke MacNair; Phil Johnson, Karen Skelton, Paul Rocheleau, a photographer who will be showing at A for A in July, Elaine Rocheleau, and Michael Brod
Aaron Gluck and Bridget McLellan; Adam Reznikoff and Jonathon Russo
Andrew MacNair and Paul Buckhaust; Bart Gulley, Karen Skelton, Phil Johnson, and Craig Okerstrom-Lang
A for A architectural curator Grigori Fateyev and artist Guy Nouri; Gwen Uricchio and Sarah Miller
A for A owner Liane Torre and her son Michael Nouri; Rex Fowler and Bobbi Dickerman
Sally Helgesen and Nancy McClellan; Edward Tivnan and Joy Harris
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 05/29/11 at 06:51 PM • Permalink
The Mahaiwe Hits a High Note with Deborah Voigt
On Saturday, May 21, in Great Barrington, opera’s great dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt performed a rare intimate recital at the Mahaiwe Gala to benefit the theater’s year-round programming fund. Local opera lovers were thrilled to have Voigt all to themselves, having just seen her star turn as Brunnhilde in the the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” broadcast of Wagner’s Die Walkure the previous week. Accompanied by pianist Brian Zeger, she sang both songs from the classical canon and American standards, including a wicked rendition of Irving Berlin’s “I Love a Piano.” After the concert, patrons walked a red carpet set up from the Mahaiwe’s front steps to Castle Street Café next door, where they enjoyed a champagne reception with the artists
Jill and Bob Jaffe, a co-artistic director of Berkshire Playwrights Lab; Beryl Jolly, the executive director of the Mahaiwe; Deborah Voigt; Brian Zegerpianist and Voigt’s accompanist on Saturday; Lola Jaffe, founding president and chair of the Mahaiwe board of directors
Russ O’Connor, Darilyn Woods, a vice president of Salisbury Bank, the sponsor of the gala, and Margot Wood.
Horticulturist Valerie Locher with Don Buchwald; Roselle & Alan Chartock of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
Betsy Abelow with Barry & Marjorie Shapiro.
Photos by Michael Lavin Flower.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/27/11 at 05:37 PM • Permalink
Williamstown Theatre Festival Summer Preview in Lenox
Last Thursday in Lenox, the kids put on a show in the barn. But what kids! What a barn! With a new, effervescent artistic director, Jenny Gersten (left with general manager Joe Finnegan) the storied Williamstown Theatre Festival is trying to woo residents of southern Berkshire County (and adjacent counties, too) to make more frequent visits to Williamstown this summer. So WTF brought in six young actors (several WTF alums from last summer who’d recently made their Broadway debuts) to sing tunes from the previous and upcoming seasons. The hosts were Tom and Suky Werman, the owners of the sublimely enchanting Stonover Farm near Tanglewood, which has one of the most beautifully restored (and acoustically kind) barns in the Berkshires. And Mezze Catering provided the irresistible buffet of addictive, international “street food.”
Actors Hanna Shankman and Damon Daunno, who starred in WTF’s The Last Goodbye last summer; Emily Simoness and Jeff Cuttler.
Carol Haythorne and host Suky Werman of Stonover Farm; Tony Patterson of Jane Iredale Cosmetics with Mezze Catering’s Nancy Thomas who provided the international “street food” buffet, and Doug Schufelt.
Hilary Somers Deely, who is organizing this fall’s Made in the Berkshires arts festival for Berkshire Theatre Festival, and Cindy Elitzer; not-for-profit consultant Philip Deely and Reid White.
Lucy Holland & Charlie Schultz; WTF’s Stephen Kaus, Jenny Gersten & Eric Kerns
Gwenn Evitts and Dan Dwyer of Johnnycake Books in Salisbury; Mezze Catering’s Nadia Todres & Dan Hardy, who made a delicious assortment of tacos, empanadas, pork buns and Vietnamese sandwiches for the party.
The young actors performing in the Stonover Barn.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/25/11 at 07:39 AM • Permalink
Community Access to the Arts Spring Benefit
The Berkshires have become synonymous with “culture,” but it’s not just the world class museums, concerts and plays that define the county. It’s organizations like Community Access to the Arts (CATA), which was founded in 1993, to nurture and celebrate the creativity of people with disabilities through shared experiences in the visual and performing arts. Annually serving over 600 people with disabilities in 30 therapeutic, educational and community settings, CATA participants know how to put on a great show, which they did on May 14 at the Founders’ Theatre at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox. A standing-room only crowd cheered as CATA members put on an amusing and inspiring show called Going Places, which was followed by supper in a tent on the Shakespeare & Company campus.
Gala chair Robin Ban who owns Seeds in Great Barrington with Diane Pearlman of the Berkshire Film and Media Commission; Hope Goldsmith and CATA development director Liana Toscanini.
Peter, Gussie & Sam Greer; jewelry designer Stephanie Iverson, writer Paige Smith Orloff and Colin Mathews of readMedia.
CATA board member Nancy Kalodner with Annie Selke of Pine Cone Hill and CATA board member Liz Williams, who was one of the evening’s major underwriters.
Paul & Margaret Lindemaier of Berkshire Country Day School with Barbara Zheutlin of Berkshire Grown; Pie Contest in a Box creator Gina Hyams with lawyers Vicki Bonnington & David Schecker.
Maria Cleary of the Studio Day Spa with artist/designer Anne G. Fredericks; Judith Burke with food blogger Laurily Epstein.
Sculptor/jeweler Dai Ban, Jamie & Mary Pat Akers, and Marc Fasteau.
Museum consultant Rena Zurofsky with fundraising consultant Dave Barrett; Jonathan & Suzi Baum.
Interior designer Kevin Hart with Lucy Holland and Emmanuel Faccio.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/17/11 at 09:21 PM • Permalink
Martha Stewart Leads the Charge at Trade Secrets
There’s no one who shops as single-mindedly at Trade Secrets as Martha Stewart who paused briefly to answer her phone and chat with her one-time garden editor, Margaret Roach (left), the blogger (awaytogarden.com) and author of the memoir, And I Shall Have Some Peace There, which begins with Roach resigning from her high-level management job at Martha Stewart Omnimedia to tend to her own garden in Copake Falls, NY. Now in its eleventh year, Trade Secrets feels like a class reunion with the same vendors and shoppers returning every year, happy to see each other at the plant and antiques sale for Women’s Support Services, an agency that assists victims of domestic abuse in northwestern Connecticut and nearby Massachusetts and New York.
Serevan chef/owner Serge Madikians with lifestyle guru Carolyne Roehm; Johnnycake Books owner Dan Dwyer with interior designer Matthew Patrick Smyth.
Lion Rock Farm hosts Elaine & Eve La Roche.
Suzanne Cassano of Privet House; Richard Lambertson of Privet House.
NBCUniversal’s Pat Fili-Krushel and artist/interior designer Anne G. Fredericks.
Molly Boxer of Berkshire Botanical Garden and custom builder Lou Boxer; Vincent Incongilios and Donna Rafferty
Israel Fitch & Willy Blass of Battle Hill Forge; Kristen Foster of Kristen’s Kurtains
Fernanda Kellogg & Kirk Henckels who host the annual Fitch’s Corner Horse Trials in Millbrook every summer.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/15/11 at 06:28 PM • Permalink
Winnakee Land Trust’s High Society Bash
The Locusts on Hudson in Staatsburg, recently acquired by hotelier Andre Balasz, was the glamorous setting on Saturday, May 14, for a benefit for the Winnakee Land Trust, an organization dedicated to protecting open space and farmland in Northern Dutchess County. At present only available for private functions (this event was catered by The Artist’s Palate, in Poughkeepsie), the 70-acre property was once site of a 92-room Italianate mansion with a Chinese tower. This extravaganza had been built on 2000 acres by the grandfather of Helen Hungtington Hull (1893-1976) as a surprise for his wife, who is said to have fainted when she saw it. Hull, a musically-inclined philanthropist, was the ex-first wife of Vincent Astor, remarried to Lytle Hull, when she purchased the property from a maiden aunt, tore down the Victorian pile, and built this 1941 John Churchill-designed neo-baroque, relatively-homey alternative, below. Fortunately, on the property at some distance from this house, a remarkable grouping of c. 1872 barns remains intact, awaiting Balazs’ attention. At right, WLT supporters Michael Dupre and Angela Henry
Joe Croshier and Rosalind Ashford-Croshier; Jim Langan and Caroline Carey, editor and publisher respectively of The Hudson Valley News.
Gina Walker Fox and Debra Blalock; Edward Pruitt and Susan Pruitt
Dustin Chirico and Elisa Chirico; Dawn Morrison and Liz Mazzarella
Colleen Cruikshank, Gordon Cruikshank, and Marybeth Sweeney; Bill Jeffway and Chris Lee
Al Wilder, Aida Wilder, and Drayton Grant; Vera Kaplan and Joel Kaplan
Linda Stanley and Ward Stanley; Judy Fein, Andrea Alvin, and Cathy Gins
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 05/15/11 at 08:16 AM • Permalink
Construct Inc. Builds a Better Community
Monday is traditionally chef’s night off in most of the Berkshires, but many of the best cooks and most generous restaurateurs were serving delicious tastings last Monday to the throngs at the Mayfest fundraiser for Construct Inc., a not-for-profit organization that provides comprehensive housing, support and educational services to anyone in the Southern Berkshire region who has lost his or her home or who lacks financial resources to maintain safe, decent and affordable housing. Chaired by Jen Harvey-Montano (left with Nancy Kalodner), the party at Great Barrington’s Eisner Camp featured victuals from restaurants such as Castle Street Cafe, John Andrews, Red Lion Inn and Route 7 Grill.
Gabrielle Senza and Melissa McGarrity; designer Tyler Weld and Caffe Pomo d’Oro owner Scott Cole.
Bra & Girl retailers April Burch & Dan Alden; Catherine & Matthew Mandel.
Sculptor and jeweler Dai Ban and Seeds owner Robin Ban with Barbara Zheutlin of Berkshire Grown and Jonathan Hankin
Cia Elkin and Eugenie Sills; Marcia Soltes with Albert and Shirley Vorspan.
Construct board member Barbara Schulman with Michael Ballon of Castle Street Cafe; Judy & Marvin Lieberman of the Great Barrington Bagel Co.
Lucy Holland with Nancy Kalodner and Jonathan Ball.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/11/11 at 05:10 PM • Permalink
Hudson Opera House Feasts Again!
The Hudson Opera House is both impossible and easy to overlook. Impossible because its doors are always open, and something is always going on there. Easy, because most of what happens there is not for the sort of people who showed up on Saturday, April 30 at HOH’s annual Moveable Feast fundraiser. Last year, HOH presented 1125 programs, 80% of them free. In addition to hosting its fair share of headliners, HOH reaches deep into the community to draw out the early readers, arty kids, would-be artists and writers, both children and adults, and puts them together with experts who can teach them how to do something new or how to get better at something they already love doing. Until you’ve seen a bunch of high school girls in rehearsal tights with their dance shoes slung over the shoulders, saying a lingering good-bye in front of HOH in the late afternoon, you don’t know the real Hudson Opera House.
Jennifer Merschdorf, Brock Ganeles, Tom Froese, and Valerie Balint, all members of the HOH board.
Purcell Palmer, Gary Schiro, executive director of HOH, and Joan Davidson; Risha Meledandri and Judith Garten
Sarah Lipsky and Anne Conolly; Tom Swope, Timothy Van Dam, and Ron Wagner
Barbara Gaba, Walter Flemenbaum, and Judith Flamenbaum, wearing a necklace by Mark McDonald; Carol Nahon and Ken Ketay
Lili and Loo‘s Melinda Slover and Carla Sadoff; Hudson City Schools Superintendent Jack Howe and Patty Howe, who teaches Health
Donna Fingar, her niece Briana Fingar, and son Peter Fingar; Heyden Coleman, Oscar Rodriguez, and Anthony Lujack
Jason Jarushewsky, Karen Ramos, and Deborah Kinney; Keith Nuss, Michelle Saunders, and Ramzi Abufaraj
Lisa Dolan, Valerie Flood, and Barbara Sheffer; Maria Suttmeier Assistant Superintendant and Cathy Barrett, Occupational Therapist, both of the Hudson City Schools
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 05/04/11 at 07:04 AM • Permalink
BIFF’s Sixth Season Announced at Haven
Cultural corespondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Lenox: Cineastes and supporters gathered at Haven Cafe in Lenox on Thursday, April 28 to be among the first to hear the roster for the Sixth Annual Berkshire International Film Festival. Founder and executive director Kelley Vickery (left, with Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Molly Boxer) drew applause when she announced that the 2011 festival, fondly known as BIFF, will kick off on June 2 with the hit documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, followed by the June 3 Pittsfield opening night screening of the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary Buck, a portrait of real-life horse-whisperer Buck Brannaman. More than 70 features, documentaries, and shorts from 15 countries made the final cut, including about a dozen made by local filmmakers or featuring local cast, crew, or locations. BIFF also features the return of renowned film critic and historian Kent Jones to his hometown, Pittsfield, for the Beacon Cinema’s screening of A Letter to Elia, which he made with longtime collaborator with Martin Scorsese. His appearance, sponsored by Berkshire Film & Media Commission, includes a Q&A and discussion of the life and work of Elia Kazan, followed by a screening of Kazan’s 1960 film Wild River. In all, two dozen filmmakers will attend BIFF, which expands again this year to Simon’s Rock, and passholders will have the chance to rub shoulders with these auteurs at the festival’s plethora of parties. Vickery kept her audience in suspense as to the identity of the festival’s honoree, whose work will be celebrated at a tribute to be held at the Mahaiwe Theatre on Saturday, June 5.
Filmmaker John Whalan with actor and knitwear designer Karen Allen; Tyler Weld and BlueQ honcho Seth Nash.
Animated filmmaker Ben Hillman with party guru Amy Rudnick; BIFF’s Lauren Ferin and media maven Eugenie Sills.
Stonover Farm’s Suky Werman with screenwriter Channing Gibson and Diane Pearlman of the Berkshire Film & Media Commission; consultant Phil Deely and actor Hilary Somers Deely, co-curator of this fall’s Made in the Berkshires festival.
Heather Rose and Amanda Bettis, both of Studio 2; artist Cythia Wick and screenwriter John Orloff.
Beacon Cinema manager Adam Chait and Howard Marshall, assistant manager of The Triplex Cinema; art dealer Leslie Ferrin and graphic designer Mark Tomasi.
Book publicist David Carriere with caterer Kate Baldwin; attorneys Vicki Bonnington and David Schecker.
Dessert entrepreneur Lisa Newmann, architect Kristine Sprague, and BIFF programmer Lillian Lennox.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 05/03/11 at 09:22 AM • Permalink
Berkshire Botanical Garden Opens the Season on a High
Everyone was looking up at the Berkshire Botanical Garden as it opened it season with a reception for the exhibit Out on a Limb: Architects Take a Bough which was curated by Matt Larkin and Elizabeth Hamilton. The designers are Robyn Sandberg (left, in her bamboo-and-climbing-cord construction), Michael Trapp, Joseph Cho and Stefanie Lew of Binocular Design, Gray Davis and Will Meyer of Meyers Davis Studio, Mark Smith and Tim Smith of 9 Partners Design and James Odegaard. While some of the tree houses are close to the ground, some require climbing to fully experience, which makes this installation a great outing for the entire family.
BBG executive director Molly Boxer with Dawn & Chris Masiero of Guido’s Fresh Marketplace; BBG board vice chairman Madeline Hooper and communications manager Robin Parow.
Caffe Pomo d’Oro’s Scott Cole with Tim Lovett of Berkshire Property Agents; Orion magazine founder Marion Gilliam with Hilary Somers Deely.
The Lovavore Way’s Amy Cotler with architect Mark Smith who designed one of the treehouses; BBG trustee Googie Emmet with her son Criss Laidlaw of Williams College.
Roberto Flores & Maria Nation of Good Dogs Farm in Sheffield; Monterey Masonry’s Mark Mendel with Crazy Wife Farm’s Billie Best.
Pine Cone Hill founder Annie Selke with Elaine Grant of Black Barn Farm in Richmond and Berkshire International Film Festival founder Kelley Vickery.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/01/11 at 10:25 AM • Permalink
Hudson Dines Out for Life
Now in its seventh year, Dining Out for Life is the day in Hudson when lunch or dinner at participating restaurants means a minimum 25%-of-the-check donation to the The AIDS Council of Northeastern NY. Each restaurant has a Council-appointed “ambassador” to meet and greet, turning what normally would be a casual Thursday night out into one big party. Of course, they also serve who only sit and eat but the real heroes of the program are the restaurateurs. This year’s participants: Baba Louie’s, Mexican Radio, Ca’Mea, the Red Dot, (pm)Wine Bar, and MOD Cafe, a new restaurant across from the railway station. At left: the MOD Squad, bartenders Pat Baldwin, Rachel Myer (whose Peggy Lipton-esque dress is from Sideshow, with hair by Ken Jacobs of Casa Urbana, and make-up by John Jones IV, at Face, all in Hudson), and Joe Ridley. James Male, below, MOD’s ambassador, held a contest, a quiz of Mod Squad trivia. The winners: Kathy and Michael Ferrusi, who son Charlie Ferrusi made national headlines last year when he and a gay buddy, Timmy Howard, ran for and were overwhelmingly elected prom King & Queen at Hudson High.
Peter O’Hara and Robert Montgomery official greeters at Ca’Mea; Marty Davidson, of Claverack, at the bar at Ca’Mea enjoying his 7th consecutive Dining Out for Life. “I’ve been with them from the start,” he says.
Jeff Orendack, Phil Yeh, and ambassador Peter Frank at Baba Louie’s; Alana Hauptman, owner of the Red Dot, with ambassadors Stephen King, and Peter Bevacqua
Elizabeth Donahue, James Male, and Jessica Weiner; Greg Jiritano, Amy Gordon, MOD owner Mary DiStefano, and Mod owner Dana Wegener
James Male, Edward Tivnan, Phil Forman, Paul Hamann, Sr., Liz Hamann, their son Paul Hamann, Jr., Paula Forman, and Kitty Mackey.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/30/11 at 08:02 AM • Permalink
Carrie Haddad Celebrates Her 20th
A huge crowd, spilling onto the street, gathered on Saturday, April 23, to help Carrie Haddad celebrate the 20th anniversay of the Carrie Haddad Gallery. Twenty years ago when Haddad (left, with her Warren Street neighbor Mark Wasserbach of Mark’s Antiques) held her first art exhibition in Hudson, it was a different town. “It looked the same, but the shops were different,” she recalls. “We had a supermarket that delivered, and Rocky the Barber, and the Jersey Bakery.” Today, in their stead, we have businesses with hip names—Lick, Mix, TK, Gris, Swoon, Sweeps, DABA, Lili and Loo, Spotty Dog, Five & Diamond. Jersey? It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
Henry Haddad, Nick Hardy, artist David Paulson, who has been with Haddad nearly from the start, and whose paintings in the anniversary show hold a place of honor in the front gallery, and Yura Adams
Architect and photographer Arthur Baker, author of Wooden Churches: Columbia County Legacy and auctioneer Colin Stair; garden designer Peter Bevacqua and Stephen King
Meme Black and Bob Koffler; Andrea Bruce and Lucy Nathanson
Roseann Cane and Janet Kealy; Richard Egan and antiques dealer Todd Gribben
Phil Forman, Paula Forman, and Jane Ehrlich; artist Allyson Levy standing next to a piece of her exhibited work, and Scott Serrano, who has also shown at Carrie Haddad.
Paul Reed, who has a recording studio in Chatham, and Michael Crane; Fred Morris and blogger Scott Baldinger
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/24/11 at 07:04 AM • Permalink
Litchfield Jazz Festival Scholarship Party
The Litchfield Jazz Festival is more than an August weekend of great music on the campus of the bucolic Kent School. It is also the culmination of a four-week camp that offers intensive music education for some 550 students. The camp is a unique opportunity for students interested in jazz—the one truly American art form—to work with masters to keep this musical tradition alive for generations to come. Last Sunday, Carol & Bob Lenz hosted a fundraiser for the Litchfield Jazz Camp‘s scholarship program at their stunning home in South Kent, CT. After sipping Champagne and nibbling on tea sandwiches, guests sat down for performances by camp alumni, demonstrating in the most delightful way that giving to the scholarship fund is a very good investment.
Lauren Fiacco and Paulette Menniti-Pizzo of Doc’s Trattoria in Kent; vocalist Champian Fulton, who performed at the party, with her father, Stephen Fulton.
Susan & Jim Scott with hostess Carol Lenz, who is an avid supporter of the Connecticut Walk to End Alzheimer’s on May 7; Nathan Turner with Nancy & Gary Hassell.
Host and artist Bob Lenz with Litchfield Jazz Festival founder and executive director Vita West Muir.
Martha & Robert Bernstein; Stephanie Wargo and Bill Arnold.
Litchfield Jazz camp alumni Joe Miterko, who plays piano, and Zwelakhe Bell Le Pere, who plays bass; Nancy Wise & Jim Singleman.
Litchfield Jazz Camp alumni Joao Mota, who plays drums, with Yuta Tanaka, who plays bass, and Pete Zimmer, who plays drums.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/20/11 at 04:40 AM • Permalink
A Surreal Benefit for IS 183 Art School of the Berkshies
The Berkshires prides itself as having a strong creative economy, and there was double-digit creativity on parade at the IS 183 “Anime Hothouse” benefit on Saturday night in Lenox. It was clear proof once more that beneath the Yankee rectitude the Berkshires is an exciting, slightly eccentic place. Held at Elm Court, one of the great summer cottages, the party felt like a spring version of Halloween: the trick was figuring out what to wear and the treat was raising money for IS 183, the Stockbridge art school that offers classes for both adults and children.
Gwen Davis & Mark Ouillette; David Schechter & VIcki Bonnington in flower-drenched outfits made and designed by Bonnington.
Mary Nash & Lauren Zivyak were just two of several women dressed as anime-obsessed Japanese school girls; landscape designers Lainie Grant & Matt Larkin.
IS 183 executive director Hope Sullivan, party co-chair Lucy Holland, Diane & Deval Patrick, the first lady and governor of Massachusetts (“We underdressed!” he said), Annie Selke of Pine Cone Hill and Charlie Schulze, the co-chair
Jaime Kelly of Pine Cone Hill and Barbara Schulman of Wheeler & Taylor; BIFF’s Kelley Vickery and artist Cynthia Wick.
Dr. Mark Vanden Bosch, actress Hilary Somers Deely and Hunter Runnette.
Artist and designer Clifton Jaeger with Maud Gabriel; Sarah McNair with Angela Cardinale of Berkshire Farm & Table.
Jewelry designer Dai Ban and Robin Ban who owns Seeds in Great Barrington; designer Mary Garnish, Blue Q’s Seth Nash and Alan Bauman of CompuWorks.
Kate van Olst, Nancy Kalodner of Benchmark Real Estate, and the artist Walton Ford, who donated a work to the live auction.
Michele O’Hana who owns Local in Lenox; Brian Butterworth of the Red Lion Inn with David Rosenthal.
Annie Selke and artist Melissa Lillie; Carolann Patterson of Williamstown Theatre Festival with Reid White.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/10/11 at 10:10 AM • Permalink
Opening of Nari Ward: ‘Sub Mirage Lignum’ at MASS MoCA
MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA, opened two exhibitions last Saturday night. On the second floor of Building 4, Nari Ward made enormous installations for a show titled Sub Mirage Lignum, a hybrid zone made of mostly repurposed materials where the real and the imaginary are intermingled, forcing visitor to challenge the reality before them. Upstairs, two graduate students from the masters program at Williams College, Emily Leisz Carr and Oliver Wunsch (left with fellow Williams graduate student Lucie Steinberg), curated a show called Memery: Imitation, Memory and Internet Culture (through July 31) that features work made of words, pictures and videos found on the Internet.
Jason Wilcox and Sarah Hammond who works at The Clark; Charity & Ari Wijetunga
Artist Susan Crile, Nari Ward and artist Firelei Báez, who is one of Ward’s students.
Maya Mondlak & Nira Ward explore a gallery; MASS MoCA’s Katherine Myers with Jennifer Trainer Thompson (in a skirt by artist J. Morgan Puett who has shown at MASS MoCA) and Canadian curator Jeanie Riddle.
Artist Michael Boroniec with arts consultant Cathy Deely and Kate Morris, whose husband is the chairman of the MASS MoCA Board of Trustees.
Artist James Voorhies of the Bureau for Open Culture who will be opening a biergarten at MASS MoCA this summer with curator Denise Markonish and Nate Padavick.
Art advisor Kalika Farmer and Pip Deely; North Adams art dealer Kurt Kolok with Matthew Cooperman.
Artist Jeanet Ingalls with Pittsfield cultural commissioner Megan Whilden; art dealer Leslie Ferrin with Susan Cross.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/06/11 at 08:01 AM • Permalink
Dia:Beacon Sparkles in the Sunlight
DIA:Beacon normally specializes in exhibitions of large-scale pieces that are suited to its expansive, skylit galleries—all 240,000 square feet of them. But there is one current exhibition that bucks that venerable institution’s tendency to think big: Koo Jeong A’s Constellation Congress: A Reality Upgrade & End Alone, a sculpture consisting of 5,000 tiny rhinestones apparently scattered (actually, quite carefully angled) on a grassy 2-acre expanse of lawn that can be viewed by museum visitors only through the floor-to-ceiling windows in one of the galleries. When the light is right, that lawn sparkles plenty. At night or on a cloudy day, one must take it on faith that the piece even exists. Its uniquely ephemeral nature was the topic of exhibition curator Yasmil Raymond’s gallery talk on Saturday, April 2. (The installation continues through May 2.) Fortunately, the sun—and therefore the piece—shone. Afterward, suitably dazzled members, including Sangdok Baak, above with his daughter Jiah Baak, who informed RI that she is a princess, gathered for a reception in a gallery containing Gerhart Richter’s Six Gray Mirrors.
Kirsten Mosher, Kaija Korpijaakko, exhibition curator Yasmil Raymond, and Lee Balter; Melissa McGill, Aryeh Siegel and Irina Siegel
Katie Schnur and Jeanne Dreskin; Dia:Beacon public affairs associate Nicki Sebastian, Carin Jean White, Kathleen Anderson
Nell Tivnan and artist Bart Gulley; Hildegard Kron and Edward Tivnan
Cara Chan and Deniz Ozuygur; painters Colette Robbins and Micah Ganske
Kathy Introne and Gary Introne; Mabel Wilson, Chris Crolle, and Michael Cranfill of Studio Artists & Architects in Weston, CT.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/03/11 at 09:30 AM • Permalink
Vassar & New York Stage and Film Summer Preview
Twenty-seven years ago, Mark Linn-Baker and some other New York actors set up a summer program at Vassar that has blossomed into an annual festival where established and emerging theater artists collaborate on new productions in all stages of development. Though most of the professional actors come from New York or LA, it is the residents of Poughkeepsie and neighboring towns—especially the Hudson Valley Advisory Board—that make the Vassar & New York Stage and Film present Powerhouse Theater a dynamic, intellectually challenging venue for new dramatic works. The upcoming season includes a full-production of F2M, a play about a woman becoming a man written by actress Patricia Wettig (thirtysomething and Brothers & Sisters) that will feature her husband, Ken Olin (thirtysomething and Brothers & Sisters). There will also be a production of Poughkeepsie native Rob Handel‘s A Maze, and a special musical “reading” by singer/songwriter Dar Williams, who sang at the preview (see video below.) The party was a bit of a tease, because the full summer-schedule was not announced for it has not yet been finalized.
Vassar drama professors Chris Grabowski & Shona Tucker; New York Stage & Film artistic director Johanna Pfaelzer & Edward Cheetham, producing director of Powerhouse Theater.
Jerry Greenberg and Dana Effron, a member of the Hudson Valley Advisory Board; Joan Venable, whose parents both taught at Vassar, with Diana Salsberg.
Shirley and Bernard Handel, whose son Rob’s play A Maze will be performed this summer on the mainstage; composer David Forman, New York Stage and Film board chairman Mark Sagan (who has a house in Great Barrington) with Dr. Sheldon Werner, a member of the Hudson Valley Advisory Board.
Co-founder and producing director Mark Linn-Baker with Hudson Valley Advisory Board member Sarah Johnstone Levine.
Rhinebeck Savings Bank president Michael Quinn and Robert Levine; writer and activist Jay Blotcher and Andy Bell.
Phyliss Bressman and Corinne Fuimarello; Scott Bowen and Teressa Del Campo of the Millbrook Arts Group.
Vassar’s Tamar Thibodeau & Raymond Schwartz; Julie Ling, Alessia Alessandra de Borbón and Jaime Eduardo de Borbón of the La Herradura Polo Team.
Dar Williams, who lives in the Hudson Valley, sang for the guests. She will bring her family-friendly show, The Island Musical, to Vassar this summer.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 03/30/11 at 12:59 PM • Permalink
Hudson Pride Foundation Makes Big Plans for June
Last year, the newly formed Hudson Pride Foundation organized its first annual parade in less than six weeks. The organization has been making plans for this year’s pride festival ever since, and Peter Frank hosted a fundraiser at his beautiful Hudson house last weekend to recruit sponsors and sell early tickets for the weekend’s activities, including two Hudson River cruises on June 17; a parade and rally on June 18 followed by a dance party from 5 p.m. - 2 a.m. at Club Helsinki; and a Family Pride festival on Warren Street on June 19 beginning at noon.
Christopher Haupert and interior designer Michael J. Harris who own the ice cream parlor, Lick; Paula Forman with interior designer Todd Gribben, who owns Gris on Warren Street.
Party host Peter Frank with Hudson Pride executive director Martha Harvey.
Slowood furniture designer Jules Anderson with real estate broker and stylist James Male; Veronica Mangione and Jamie Trachtenberg, a psychotherapist who offers youth workshops with Hudson Pride.
Bobby Quidone and Sharon Graubard.
Illustrator Fabio Morelli and textile designer Douglas Bryce; Michael Belanger with jewelry designer and antiquarian Tom Swope.
Writers Scott Baldinger and Sam Pratt; Chatham real estate brokers Chuck & Rochelle Bartolo.
Christopher Haupert with Hudson Pride founder Rich Volo (aka Trixie Starr.)
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 03/22/11 at 06:05 PM • Permalink
Barrington Stage Celebrates the Playwright Mentoring Project
There’s more than meets the eye when you really pay attention to the cultural institutions that are the backbone of the Rural Intelligence region. They all offer educational programs to children who might not otherwise participate in the arts, which is why Barrington Stage Company is so proud of its ten-year-old Playwright Mentoring Project (PMP), an after-school program where at-risk high school students learn about cooperation and develop self-esteem through workshops with playwrights. Many of the donors who make such programs possible are part-time residents with full-fledged magnanimity such as Barrington Stage trustee Sheila Richman (above right with PMP founder Julianne Boyd), a part-time Berkshires resident from Port Washington, Long Island, who was honored at the gala along with Greylock Federal Credit Union. As the head of BSC’s Education Committee, the indefatigable Richman has raised money and awareness for a program that offers a brighter future to teens (mostly from North Adams and Pittsfield) who discover a world of possibilities and a sense of themselves through theater.
State Senator Ben Downing with BSC board president Mary Ann Quinson; real estate broker Barbara Schulman with BSC board members Jonathan Ball and Reba Evenchik.
Playwright Manuel Moreno with BSC director of education Hester Kamin.
Former BSC director of education and Pittsfield High School English teacher Cynthia Quinones with development director Michelle Clarkin; Mission Bar + Tapas owner and Word X Word founder Jim Benson with Berkshire Eagle reporter Jenn Smith.
Adam Richman and Yadey Yawand-Wossen; Arthur Salvadore and Annie Richman.
Kathy & Neil Crisman.
Dr. Norman Boyd and Stephanie Solar; BSC board vice president Richard Solar and retired publisher and artist Bruno Quinson.
Tracy Gardzina and her daughter Ellena Gardzina who is part of the Playwright Mentoring Project; PMP members Katelyn Snow and Jackie Kelly.
Former PMP participant and peer mentor Jerome Spratling with PMP director Frank La Frazia and Samantha Riiska, a PMP graduate who is now a student at Smith College.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 03/22/11 at 06:04 PM • Permalink
Berkshire Grown’s March Maple Dinner 2011
It’s the Berkshire food community’s version of March Madness: Berkshire Grown‘s five-course March Maple dinner that is held annually to showcase local food and chefs. Hosted this year by Gala Restaurant & Bar at the Orchards Hotel in Williamstown, the evening began with dazzling passed hors d’oeuvres from Wild Oats Market and The Williams Inn. Peter Platt of Old Inn on the Green set the pace with a sublime first course of maple glazed smoked salmon (left). It was followed by four more delectable courses by Nick Moulton of Mezze Bistro + Bar, Chris Bonniver of Gala, Brian Alberg of the Red Lion Inn, and Joshua Needleman of Chocolate Springs. The most talked-about dish was Bonniver’s creamy maple-and-bacon panna cotta that was surreptitiously spiked with pop rocks (a carbonated candy that fizzes as it dissolves in your mouth) which had people gasping in shock—and delight.
Mezze sous chef Nick Moulton, who prepared the second course (maple-cured bacon with a 60-minute Mighty Food Farm egg and Tobasi cheese foam on brioche) with Chocolate Springs founder Joshua Needleman who made the dessert (salted chocolate mousse cake with maple-glazed pecans and Sweet Brook Farm maple gelato); Williams College students and editors of the online magazine Gastronomic Gusto, Katie White & Thammika Songkaeo.
Host chef Chris Bonniver of Gala Restaurant & Bar who prepared the third course (coffee-crusted Waygu beef with smoked tomato and Ioka Farm Maple panna cotta studded with pop rocks) with Berkshire Grown executive director Barbara Zheutlin, and Gala sous chef Mike Kelly.
Sheffield corn farmers David Prouty & Bruce Howden; Berkshire Grown board members Julie Michaels and Jan Johnson with Barbara Zheutlin.
State senator Ben Downing with BG board member Tom Curtin and arts consultant Cathy Deely.
Photographer and real estate broker Jonathan Hankin with attorney Peter Cherneff; Lisa Cushman and Becky Gold.
Red Lion Inn executive chef Brian Alberg who prepared the fourth course (maple-cured Muscovy duck breast with maple-sherry dressed arugula and maple-roasted peanuts) and Red Lion innkeeper Michele Kotek.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 03/16/11 at 11:49 AM • Permalink
International Women’s Day Global Dance Gala
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: The dance floor was so lively and the crowd so enthusiastic that it was difficult to find anyone willing to stand still long enough for a photographer to snap a picture at the Global Dance Gala to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on Saturday, March 5, at Jae’s Spice. A benefit for Circle of Heath International (COHI), an organization that provides care to women and families in the wake of disasters, and the Elizabeth Freeman Center, a local resource for victims of domestic violence, the party was co-chaired by two indomitable women: Dr. Siobhan McNally, a pediatrician at Community Health Programs Neighborhood Health Clinic in Pittsfield, and Dr. Nina Molin, who practices at Canyon Ranch, the Ananda Health Center and Volunteers in Medicine. According to committee member Diane DeGiacomo, a partner at the law firm of Cain Hibbard & Myers, “The gala not only supported the work of the Elizabeth Freeman Center and Circle of Heath International, but celebrated the past achievements and future goals of women everywhere.”
Mary Nash with attorney Diane De Giacomo; Vicki Bonnington with artist and MCLA assistant professor Melanie Mowinski.
Cabaret artist Lisa Kantor and Berkshire Film & Media Commission executive director Diane Pearlman; Mitch & Caitlin Nash of Blue Q.
Pittsfield director of cultural development Megan Whilden with artist and entrepreneur Crispina ffrench; event co-chair Dr. Siobhan McNally with Leilani Johnson, executive director of Circle of Health International.
Accountant Yelena Shakhaleva, artist Jeanet Ingalls, Megan Whilden and Barrington Stage trustee Reba Evenchik.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 03/08/11 at 10:25 PM • Permalink
Boffo night at the Beacon for BIFF’s Academy Awards party
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: It’s much easier for Hollywood types to doll up for the Academy Awards in the warmth of Los Angeles, where down jackets and other wardrobe-busting winter layers are unnecessary, but a glittery crowd managed to shine quite well, thank you, at Berkshire International Film Festival’s live broadcast of the Oscars on Sunday, February 27 at the Beacon Cinema. After shedding their outerwear to stroll the red-carpeted lobby in style, guests ascended to the VIP party rooms and snacked on clever caterer Katie Baldwin’s award-themed delicacies, such as Soy Story sushi rolls, Black Prawn skewered shrimp, and The King’s Quiche, while sipping the evening’s signature cocktail, 127 Sours. There seemed to be only one contender for the Oscar host lookalike contest—an unrecognizable Molly Boxer in her best Anne Hathaway disguise—but guests did their best to act like Academy Award-nominees before heading into the screening rooms to watch the real players get their just desserts. And yes, there was popcorn, though for this evening it was truffled, of course.
Vicki Bonnington, resplendent in vintage Victor Costa with an Armani ostrich-feather shawl, and Steven Spielberg doppelganger David Schecker; Berkshire Botanical Executive Director Molly Boxer, vying for the Anne Hathaway lookalike prize, and realtor Barbara Schulman.
Andy Wismer with Berkshire Living’s Amanda Rae Busch and actor Aaron Thompson; Mahaiwe Harvest CSA farmer David Inglis and the Vault Gallery’s Stephanie Kouloganis.
Artist and critic Carol Diehl with artist and cafe proprietor Scott Edward Cole; location scout Jennet Cook and artist Diane Firtell.
Translator Mary Lou Bradley, Morgan Stanley financial advisor Jonathan Ball, and Berkshire Museum board member Stacey Gillis Weber; photographer Keith Emmerling and Cathy Deely.
BIFF founder Kelley Vickery and Jacqueline Togut; BIFF’s Lauren Ferin and Timothy LeBlanc of Lamar Advertising Company.
Photographer Lincoln Russell and Berkshire Creative chair Nancy Fitzpatrick; Rural Intelligence ad manager Lisa Green, with the Beacon’s general manager John Valente and Holly Valente.
Maggie Gervasi, Meghan Ryan, and Kaitlin Vickery; Michelena Mastrianni and Serene Mastrianni.
Chocolatier Joshua Needleman, Bernadette Lupo, and Margery Steinberg; cookie entrepreneur Lisa Newman, Dr. Jennifer Michaels, and Carol Haythorne.
Architect Kristine Sprague, interior designer Karen Beckwith, and photographer Scott Barrow; Stonover Farm innkeepers Suky Werman and Tom Werman flank Lauren Zivyak.
Yoga teacher Scot Vighi and Bridget Conry; lovebirds George Whaling and Carrie Saldo.
Psychologist Joanne Yurman and furniture designer Thomas Walsh; Zogics founder Paul LeBlanc with Canyon Ranch skincare therapist Lauren Pennell.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 02/28/11 at 10:08 PM • Permalink
Saturday Night Fever at Hunter Bee in Millerton
When Jonathan Bee (left with librarian Rita Delgado) and Kent Hunter opened their Hunter Bee antiques shop two-and-a-half years ago, they brought a much-appreciated party-boy spirit to Main Street in Millerton. They helped bring together merchants to create the Enjoy Millerton campaign. On Saturday night, they turned their store into a disco and invited their fellow merchants to dance amidst the folk art and ephemera to a local band called the Kyles.
Host Kent Hunter with Brigitte Harney; Alex Harney with Caitrin Rooney, who works at Nudel.
Musician and teacher Jonathan Grusauskas of Millerton’s Music Cellar and Mimi Harney who plays bass with the Kyles.
Artist Henry Klimowicz with his daughter, Ella Schmidt; Greg & Annie Bidou of Toymakers Cafe in Falls Village.
Florist Kamilla Najdek and EcoBuilders’ Donald Najdek; Bill McGinn and Christopher Baetz.
Kamilla
Oakhurst Diner owner John Panzer with Kristen Panzer who plays drums with the Kyles and Susan Scheele.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 02/22/11 at 05:16 PM • Permalink
Pittsfield’s South Street Heats Up
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports: While sports enthusiasts took their places on the couch to enjoy chips, dips, drinks and other pre-game Super Bowl shenanigans, artists and other community members stopped at 31 South Street to take a gander and shop at the new space shared by Storefront Artist Project and Emporium. The new location gives both entities a higher-visibility, higher-traffic vantage on Park Square, Pittsfield’s central thoroughfare, in a space that once served as a temporary shop for Berkshire Museum, conveniently located right next door. Not only does the move bring Storefront Artist Project back to its main street roots, with huge plate glass windows through which the community can look in on what’s happening in the Pittsfield art world; it also affords copious display space for Emporium’s delightful merchandise.
Pittsfield director of cultural development Megan Whilden and artist Jeanet Ingalls; filmmaker Erica Spizz and feng shui consultant Jeanette Maguire.
Artists Stephen Lussier and Eric Drury flank Lisa Parise; Jess Conzo and artist Diane Firtell.
Glass artist Colin Toomey, Emporium proprietress Carrie Wright, and hair stylist Tony Barnini; Berkshire Museum executive director Stuart Chase and Julie Chase of The Clark.
Berkshire Museum’s Natural Science Coordinator Scott LaGreca with his husband, Keith Babuszczak, assistant superintendant of the Pittsfield public schools; Berkshire Museum’s Maria Mingalone and Jeremy Goodwin.
Intellectual property lawyer and erstwhile pop star Paul Rapp with artist Michael Rousseau; Caity Delphia and Kevin Hillman, a French teacher at St. Joseph Central High School.
Timothy Kushi of the Moscow Ballet with Rebecca Weinmann and Pittsfield Contemporary’s Jay Elling.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 02/08/11 at 04:36 PM • Permalink
BIFF’s “White Irish Drinkers” Screening at the Mahaiwe
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Great Barrington: Don’t ever doubt that Berkshire cineastes are a hardy bunch; film fans braved perilously icy roads and slippery sidewalks to arrive at the The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Saturday, February 5 for Berkshire International Film Festival’s latest screening, a sneak preview of the indie film White Irish Drinkers. A good part of the allure was community member/Hollywood actress Karen Allen’s star turn in the film, which was written and directed by John Gray and produced by his wife, Melissa Jo Peltier, all of whom were on hand for a post-screening Q&A with the audience and a reception at Vault Studio, Vault Gallery’s Railroad Street location. After watching Allen’s deft performance in her first unglamorous role—a downtrodden mother and abused wife trying to keep her family together in 1970s Brooklyn—the audience was greatly relieved to see her back in her familiar fine form to celebrate the release of this film, which has garnered a warm reception on the festival circuit and will open in major markets next month.
Actress Hilary Somers Deely and management consultant Philip Deely; the Mahaiwe’s general manager Karin Watkins and Caffe Pomo d’Oro proprietor Scott Edward Cole.
Jerry Johnson and Berkshire Film and Media Commission executive director Diane Pearlman; The Women’s Times’ Eugenie Sills and the Mahaiwe’s executive director Beryl Jolly.
White Irish Drinkers cast and crew: producer Melissa Jo Peltier, actress Karen Allen, writer/director John Gray with BIFF founder Kelley Vickery.
Demarest Boney and Barbara Newman; Wheeler & Taylor’s Barbara Schulman and Seven Salon’s Mark Johnson.
Doug Shufelt, actress and Simon’s Rock professor Karen Beaumont and Benchmark Real Estate’s Nancy Kalodner; Cookiehead creator Lisa Newman, Seven Salon’s Maurice Peterson and Castle Street Café‘s Michael Ballon.
Berkshire Property Agents’ Tim Lovett with Sharon Gregory, VP of Corporate Development and Planning at Jane Iredale; David Schecker and Vicki Bonnington.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 02/08/11 at 02:02 PM • Permalink
Spencertown Revels: A Chinese New Year Celebration
The 37th annual Spencertown Revels, a mid-winter movable feast to benefit Spencertown Academy Arts Center, celebrated the Chinese New Year 4709, the year of the rabbit, on Saturday January 29. Academy member Ektoras Binikos, one of NYC’s most in-demand mixologists, created a special cocktail for the occasion, and the Academy’s outstanding volunteer catering crew, Let’s Eat, served up an astonishing array of dim sum hors d’oeuvres, which they were making fresh with guidance from Academy member Tung Chi Lee. Before everyone dispersed to dinner parties in homes throughout the area, Tom Lee took to the stage to describe artsVoyage, now in its sixth year, the Academy’s impressive arts-in-education program in the local public schools. At right: Jack Shear presenting an outstanding service award to Claire Verenazi, a founding member who is retiring from the board after nearly forty years.
Jason Reno, Kristin Reno, principal of the Chatham Elementary School, and Jim Scheriff; Rob Whitlock and Roby Whitlock
Board members Barbara Deisroth and Jack Shear; Eve Zatt and Edouard Vavel
Artist Holly Hughes, chef Dave Wurth, soon to open a new restaurant in Hillsdale, photographer Karen Halverson, and artist Linda Horn; Steve Ledoux, Julie Ledoux, and Felicia Anzel
Judy Albert and Stair Galleries auctioneer Rupert Fennell; Sandy Myers, Tom Lee, and Paul Shipman
Carsten Otto, DeWayne Powell, Sue Neale, and Henry Neale; Debbie Lans, George Jahn, and Kate Cohen
Steve Cohen and Sharon Grubin; Roselle Chartock and WAMC chief Alan Chartock
Board member Marian Krauskopf, writer Wesley Brown and playwright Liz Diggs; author Peter Biskind and Jerry Berger of Let’s Eat!
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 01/30/11 at 07:12 PM • Permalink
The M.C. Escher Opening at Berkshire Museum
Cultural correspondent Bess J. M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: With its latest exhibition, Berkshire Museum has struck a popular vein. A large, enthusiastic, multigenerational crowd (including Ken & Laurie Green of Museum Facsimiles, left) turned out on Saturday, January 22, for the opening of M.C. Escher: Seeing the Unseen. It turns out the mind-bending graphic artist (1898-1972) has nearly universal appeal; his melding of real-world science and mathematics with the fantastically impossible engages viewers of all ages. During the opening day festivities, parents were able to share with their kids a first-hand experience with Escher’s visual trickster genius. The de rigueur accessory of the evening (apart from a warm winter jacket) was one of the large magnifying glasses dispersed throughout the galleries that gave visitors a closer look at how Escher worked his magic. The exhibition remains on view through May 22.
Berkshire Museum executive director Stuart Chase with Arlene Schiff, executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires, and her husband, Gary Schiff of T.D. Wealth Management; Mary Nash, Dr. Nina Molin and laywer Diane DeGiacomo, who are planning a dance party benefit on March 5 to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Choreographer Stefanie Lynx Weber and Studio Two web developer Russ Miller; interior designers Karen Cedar and Marlena Leonard.
Stylist Tony Barnini with Rebecca Weinman; artists Michael Rousseau and Julio Granda.
Katherine Casey and Katryn Geane of Jacob’s Pillow with Barrington Stage Company’s in-house power couple, Laura & Jeff Roudabush
Megan Whilden and Storefront Artist Project vice president Colleen Quinn; Maddie Elling with her brother Jay Elling of Pittsfield Contemporary.
Keith Babuszczak, assistant superintendant of the Pittsfield public schools, with his husband, Berkshire Museum’s Natural Science Coordinator Scott LaGreca; BCC student Anna Mann with Dennis Bogaevski.
Rachel Beckwith, art librarian at Hampshire College, with Marianna Poutasse, an independent museum consultant; Hancock Shaker Village educator Danielle Steinmann and set designer Marsha Ginsberg, who created the environment for Habit an upcoming production at MASS MoCA.
Yoga and dance teacher Antoinette Simms with Makiyla, Kiva & Seth Levy .
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 01/26/11 at 11:47 AM • Permalink
‘Celebrating Pittsfield’ Photo Show Opens at the Lichtenstein
Cultural correspondent Bess J. M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: The city at the heart of the Berkshires kicked off its 250th anniversary with a juried photography show, Celebrating Pittsfield, at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts. Judging from the crowds at the opening reception on Friday, January 14, a good portion of Pittsfield’s population showed up for the celebration. Local photographers, ranging from amateurs to pros, captured the city’s best angles, with shots of glorious foliage, festive 3rd Thursdays, and Pittsfield’s renowned 4th of July Parade.
Photographers Kevin Sprague and David Ricci; photographer Scott Barrow and interior designer Karen Beckwith.
Joe Durwin with Jocelyn Lussier and her father, artist Stephen Lussier; Galen Greenwald with his father, Ygor Greenwald.
Barrington Stage Company trustee Reba Evenchik with artist Linda Kaye-Moses.
Yvette Agustin and James Eubanks; Andrea Nuciforo Jr. with his wife Elena Nuciforo, who has a photograph in the exhibit.
Artists Michael Boroneic, Diana Kinoy, and John Stritch; Brian Walak, Holly Walak and Mark Gamache, a design engineer for Pittsfield’s Hi-Tech Mold & Tool.
Artist Eric Drury and Hancock Shaker Village educator Danielle Steinmann.
Berkshire Museum’s Stuart Chase and The Clark’s Julie Chase; graphic designer Regina Burgio and her husband, Alex Carnevale.
Pittsfield director of cultural development Megan Whilden with her department’s Americorps volunteers Max Moy-Borgen and Jennibeth Gomez, who had the first piece to sell in the show.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 01/18/11 at 05:22 PM • Permalink
‘Henry Klimowicz: Constructs’ Opens at the Berkshire Museum
There were more than few a Berkshire Museum virgins from Columbia, Dutchess and Litchfield counties who came to Pittsfield on Saturday night to celebrate the opening of Henry Klimowicz: Constructs. The exhibit got a rave review from artist and blogger Grier Horner, who was awed by the 20-foot-wide sculpture hanging from the ceiling in the Crane Room. “Henry Klimowicz has made a heroic piece of art…It is both ethereal and commanding, spiritual and perhaps slightly ominous,” Horner wroter on his blog. “Like Rumpelstiltskin who spins straw into gold in the fairy tale, Klimowicz’s alchemy is spinning cardboard into art.”
Artist Henry Klimowicz and his wife Dr. Kristie Schmidt, a physician in Millerton; Berkshire Museum executive director Stuart Chase with artist Michael Boroniec.
Sky Farm’s Chris Regan with his ex-wife Maria Mingalone, who curated the Klimowicz exhibition; artists Harriette Joffe and Gabrielle Senza with salad maven Ted Dobson of Equinox Farms.
Event planner Amy Rudnick with her daughter Maizy Hillman; Marion West with her mother, Jennifer Dowley, president of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
Maya Rosenbaum with Tess Despres and her mother Connie Chin, general manager of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.
Bill Leicht of Urban Visions and Anne Carriere Leight; Marianne O’Hare and painter Donald Bracken
Artist James Meyer and Andrew Gates of Little Gates Wine Merchants in Millerton; graphic designer and artist Karen Skelton and author Philip Johnson, whose play The Unusual Adventures of Mr. Jib will be performed at Pittsfield’s New Stage Performing Arts Center on January 28.
Jonathan Bee & Kent Hunter of Millerton’s Hunter Bee.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 01/18/11 at 04:55 PM • Permalink
The 15 Most Memorable Parties of 2010
We go to a lot of parties, and what we remember most about any particular event is the sense of occasion—the feeling that you’ve had a one-night-only experience. Sometimes, it’s the location (Astor Courts, the Salisbury School boathouse or the old Great Barrington firehouse) or the weather (thunder & lighting or sparkling blue skies) or a celebrity guest (Rachel Maddow) that makes a party memorable. Certainly, there were dozens of great parties this year, and we apologize to those hosts, hostesses and party planners whose events are not on this list. If you want a comprehensive look at the year in review, click here to scan our Parties archive.
1. Berkshire Film & Media Commission Makes Movie Magic
Pittsfield’s Masonic Temple became a sound stage and the guests became stars.
2. Rhinebeck Farmers Market Dinner at Astor Courts
A harvest supper at the site of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
3. Word X Word Festival Party on the Roof
Pittsfield fulfills its promise as a hipster haven.
4. A Paeon to Industry at the Ferrin Gallery Dish and Dine
A stimulating, intimate evening with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow
5. Bagels & Art for All at Bard’s Hessel Museum
A free kiddish luncheon—mimosas and lox!—crossed with an art opening.
6. A Rioutous Night in the Reading Room at the Lenox Library
Karen Lee and the Sugar Shack Burlesque create a hullabaloo.
7. Radioactive Bodega: IS 183 Post-Apocolytpic Dance Party
A winter’s costume party like no other.
8. Now It’s Summer! Tanglewood Opening Night Gala 2010
Glorious weather and glorious music.
9. Good Dog Foundation Square Dance
A haute hoedown at Carolyne Roehm’s equestrian center.
10. Williamstown Theatre Festival Opening Night
Dinner in a dance studio and an all-male production of Sondheim’s “Forum.”
11. Berkshire Grown Throws the Ultimate Nosh-a-Thon
The quintessential locavore feast.
12. TriArts Gala at the Salisbury School Boat House
There’s no better scenery than the Twin Lakes.
13. Art for Animals Benefit Rocks Club Helsinki Hudson
The region’s newest party space is sui generis.
14. Opening Night of 5th Berkshire International Film Festival
The old Great Barrington fire house gets the red carpet treatment.
15. Hammertown Barn’s 25th Anniversary Celebration
Proof that commerce, community and cocktails go hand-in-hand.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 12/22/10 at 06:27 AM • Permalink
An Elegant Way to Shop Local in Lenox
On Saturday night, Michele O’Hana unveiled LOCAL, her sophisticated new shop in the Lenox Commons. A combination gallery, workshop, salon, and meeting place, it features handcrafted work by dozens of local artisans, including paintings, photographs, jewelry and ceramics. Some of the most beautiful objects are the ethereal porcelain pieces that O’Hana makes herself, and many guests snooped around her workspace with its kiln in the back of the the store. LOCAL (55 Pittsfield Road/Route 7; 413.553.3557) will be open seven days a week through Christmas Eve.
LOCAL founder Michele O’Hana of Ha’Penny Designs and her husband, the photographer John Dolan.
Meghan & Caitlin Harrsion of Mission Bar + Tapas, which catered the party; ceramist and jewelry designer Naomi Blumenthal and her husband, Ronald Blumenthal.
Claire Pollart and LOCAL’s Judy Merritt; Annette Kramek, who owns Ancient Language on North Street in Pittsfield, which specializes in yoga wear she designs, with Shelly Williams who owns Haven, the Lenox cafe.
Jewelry designer Stephanie Iverson, Tom Rich of Pittsfield Paul Rich & Sons, and Andrew McDonnell.
Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Robin Parow and Victor Gray; artist Rodney Alan Greenblat, who currently has a show at BCB Art in Hudson, and Deena Lebow.
Designer and house stager Allison Crane with brand and marketing consultant Kevin Sprague; photographer Scott Barrow with Craig Winkelman.
Screenwriter John Orloff and writer and Sister Project blogger Paige Smith Orloff.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 12/15/10 at 02:16 PM • Permalink
Storefront Artist Project 12 x 12 Auction
Since its founding in 2002 by the painter Maggie Mailer, the Storefront Artist Project (SAP) has been a cornerstone of Pittsfield’s reincarnation as a creative center, offering residencies and mentoring programs that support a diverse range of artistic endeavors. The annual 12 x 12 auction features 100 twelve-by-twelve inch works—paintings, drawings, photograph, sculpture, collage—by local artists. Guests pay $25 each for a chance to choose the work they want as their number is randomly picked. You don’t necessarily get your first or second choice of a piece of art, but nobody goes home empty-handed or unhappy, especially when your prizes are hand-wrapped by good-spirited volunteers like Chris O’Gara and Davinica Nemtzow (above.)
Pittsfield Contemporary’s Jay Elling and SAP board member Reba Evenchik; Rebecca Weinman and artist Eric Drury, who is currently an artist in residence at SAP.
Cultural Pittsfield’s Megan Whilden and photographer Sue Geller; SAP board vice president Colleen Quinn and SAP director Julia Dixon.
The Berkshire Museum’s Maria Mingalone with lawyer and WBCR community radio station president Paul Rapp and Berkshire Living‘s Mary Garnish
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 12/14/10 at 10:37 PM • Permalink
Berkshire Creatives Sparkle at the Crane Model Farm
The Berkshires is betting on artists and other creative types to keep the local economy growing by making sure there are plenty of opportunities to spark innovative creative collaborations. The annual Berkshire Creative holiday “Sparkle” party seemed especially glamorous this year for it was held at a venerable mansion that is part of the Crane & Co. stationery empire in Dalton, MA. In fact, Crane & Co. worked with Berkshire Creative last year on a “creative challenge” that invited local artists to design new stationery for the renowned company that traces its roots back to the colonial era. At the holiday party, Berkshire Creative co-chairman Kevin Sprague (left) enthusiastically wore a “Creativity Lives Here” sticker on the back of his head; the sticker was the evening’s badge of honor for it indicated that a guest was a dues-paying member of Berkshire Creative.
Animator Leo Quiles and Berkshire Living‘s Mary Garnish; Berkshire Film & Media Commission’s Diane Pearlman and The Women’s Times’ Eugenie Sills.
Studio Two’s Heather Pelle Rose with Crane & Co. scion and house stager Allison Crane; New England Film‘s John Whalan and Cultural Pittsfield’s Megan Whilden.
Jacob’s Pillow’s Jeff Roudabush and Barrington Stage Company’s Laura Roudabush.
Jamie & Jen Odegaard; Shakespeare & Company’s Enrico Spada & Allissa Wickham
Orion Magazine‘s managing editor Andrew Blechman, Susie Weeks, and music critic and Berkshire Museum communications director Jeremy Goodwin; real estate broker Nancy Kalodner, Lucy Holland and Malinka Jackson
Photographer Lincoln Russell with Berkshire Creative co-chairs Nancy Fitzpatrick of the Red Lion Inn and marketing guru Kevin Sprague.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 12/06/10 at 05:56 PM • Permalink
Holiday Cheer at Mills Mansion
By Kathryn Matthews
It felt like 1910 again. On December 3rd, guests, dressed in festive attire, gathered at Mills Mansion in Staatsburgh, NY, for its annual holiday party, hosted by The Friends of Mills Mansion (FOMM). Decked out in its Edwardian holiday finest through December 31st, the mansion—the late 19th century country home of financier Ogden Mills and his wife Ruth Livingston Mills (left)—boasts four Christmas trees, in the front Main Hall, oval room, Mrs. Mills’ sitting room and the library, and an elaborately decorated Gilded Age dining table. In addition to viewing Mrs. Mills’ recently repainted and gilded boudoir, party guests descended to the basement to tour a restoration-in-progress—the servants’ quarters and the just-opened Ogden Mills exhibit room, formerly a bedroom for bachelor guests. This month, the mansion is open Wednesday - Sunday from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; last tour at 4 p.m. ($5; $4 seniors). And, for the next three Sundays (December 12, 19 and 26) from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Mills Mansion offers kids, ages 6 - 12, a chance to play junior detective in a special Holiday Whodunit.
Playwright Clifford Hart; Bill Oris of JP Morgan Chase; Jeanne Murphy, General Counsel for Actimize Inc. in NYC; and Kyla Lange Hart, a principal of Toniq.com
Singer-songwriter Janice Grace (also the organist at Rhinebeck’s Dutch Reformed Church); Scott Brod of Morgan Stanley; FOMM board member Sharon Dixon Coughlan; and Gregory Campus
FOMM board member Mary Elizabeth Page and Jason Page, a managing partner at Park Page Associates; Isaac Ashworth and Eve Ashworth, of Ashworth Creative in Poughkeepsie; Hyde Park Planning Board Chairman and FOMM treasurer Michael Dupree and FOMM president Caroline M. Carey
Lynn Lobotsky and Susan Calfrancesco, co-owners of Wonderland Florists & Nursery in Rhinebeck flank Stephanie Harrison, a teacher at Mill Road Elementary School in Red Hook; Jennifer Hammoud, president of the Rhinebeck Science Foundation, IBM engineers Emily Kinsen and Alex Wei and Ali Hammoud, M.D., a cardiologist with Cardiology Consultants of the Hudson Valley
Poet Jane Garrick, Janice Grace, and Ted Rothstein , principal of TR Technologies; violinist Julie Berman, and Melodye Moore, recently retired as Mills Mansion site manager and founder of FOMM
Carol Gordon, COO of Rhinebeck Savings Bank, and filmmaker Sarah Johnston Levine; Voice actor Angela Henry and Bryan Henry
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 12/05/10 at 01:53 PM • Permalink
Berkshire Botanical Holiday Marketplace
Early shoppers on Friday evening, December 3, at the The Berkshire Botanical Garden‘s Holiday Marketplace did well even as they were doing good. A wide array of tempting mostly seasonal items, including wreaths, tabletop decorations, barely-sprouted bulbs in handsome containers, alpaca coats for humans and dogs, a Swedish advent pixie, and charming grosgrain ribbon by the yard had the cash registers ringing non-stop. The sale continues through the weekend from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 4 and from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 5.
Helen Davies, John Davies, Shirley Simmons, and Courtney Addy
Robyn Sandberg and Mark Mendel; BBG Trustees Skippy Nixon and Matt Larkin
BBG Treasurer Ellen Greendale, Executive Director Molly Boxer, and Office Manager Val Toenes; master wreath-maker Joan Comeau and Diana French in a fabulous Armani coat she got at the late, lamented U.S. Blueswear in Pittsfield
Co-chairs of the vendor committee Gail Shaw and Judie Owens, a BBG trustee; Ginger Schwartz and Lanie Grant
Lacy the supermodel in a Lollypups Petwear alpaca and pima cotton coat, $76.50; Loomis Creek nursery co-owner and BBG trustee Bob Hyland crowned by the box and winterberry wreath he designed
Peter Hansen and Hancock Shaker Village board chair Petra Krauledat; Dan Mathieu and Tom Potter
Ed Ivas, Elizabeth Olenbush, BBG trustee Cathy Clark, and Rob Williams
BBG Senior Gardener Jessica Savory and trustee Ingrid Taylor; Steve McCarthy with alpaca coats, socks, scarves made of yarn from his own Spruce Ridge Farm in Old Chatham
A bûche de Noël , $45, from Soma Catering; a boxwood table decoation.
Nancy Kolodner and Malinka Jackson; BBG trustee Elizabeth Hamilton and Peter Fasano
Real Gustavian owner Lani Summerville-Sternerup and her daughter Emma Sternerup with their Swedish advent pixies, $75; the wreaths, all donated, sell for $40 - $195
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 12/04/10 at 10:15 AM • Permalink
Lynn Davis and A. T. Mann Sign “Sacred Landscapes”
On Saturday, November 27, Hudson residents Lynn Davis, the renowned photographer, and A. T. (Tad) Mann, an architect, author and astrologer, signed copies of their recently published book, Sacred Landscapes: The Threshold Between Worlds, at a reception hosted by Timothy Dunleavy at his shop Rural Residence, on Warren Street in Hudson. The book is about the constructs of man and the accidents of nature that transcend the bounds of earth and reach toward the divine. For decades Davis has traveled the globe, capturing ethereal images of such places; Mann explains their history and the myths that naturally attach to them.
Author A. T. Mann and photographer Lynn Davis signing Sacred Landscapes
Sarah Mechling and Alan Hamilton; Monica Mechling, Robert Mechling and Rudy Wurlitzer (peeking).
Anthony Rago and Dusty Simi; host Timothy Dunleavy and Edward Tivnan
Josef Asteinza and Randy Bourscheidt; Mitchell Motsinger and John Friedman
Robin Palmer, Mary Milane, and Nicole Vidor; David Petrovsky and James Corbett
Peter Jung and Bill Stone; Tony Thompson and Lauren Foster
Sarah Mechling and Alan Hamilton; Jules Anderson and her brother Mark Anderson
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 11/28/10 at 04:20 PM • Permalink
Art for Animals Benefit Rocks Club Helsinki Hudson
Cultural Correspondent Bess J. M. Hochstein reports from Hudson: On the weekend before Thanksgiving, cats, dogs, and other animals found themselves with much to be grateful for, thanks to the efforts of Art for Animals. The NYC- and Columbia County-based organization, which draws on artists to support animal rescue groups and educate public school students about humane issues through art classes, held its Rock ‘n’ Roll Rescue More Than a Benefit Concert on Friday, November 19 at Club Helsinki Hudson. A stellar roster of celebrity chefs—including Bill Telepan of Telepan, Dévi’s Suvir Saran, Philip Hoffman of The New French, and an enthusiastic crew from the MoMA cafés (all from Manhattan) plus local food gurus Jeff Gimmel of Swoon Kitchenbar and cheesemonger Matt Rubiner—donated sumptuous delectables, heeding the call of famed food writer Ruth Reichl, an Art for Animals advisory board member, who organized an early evening cocktail party to kick off the event. After noshing, hob-nobbing with the animalitteratti (such as event chair Elizabeth Hess and advisory board member Susan Orlean), guests (such as Christine Dittmar and painter Brian Bumo, above left) filed downstairs for a performance by animal-loving songstresses Cathy Grier (aka NYC Subway Girl), Joy Askew, and headliner Laurie Anderson, who followed a solo keyboard set by her rat terrier, Lolabelle. Tom Davis, the lesser-known half of the Saturday Night Live comedy team Franken & Davis (the one who is not a U.S. senator), served as the evening’s MC, adding an element of humor to a heart-felt evening.
Comedian Tom Davis with author and editor Ruth Reichl; Marianne Courville of Hudson Wine Merchants and Sarah Gilbert of Hudson’s Cannonball Factory.
Elizabeth Hess, who organized Rock ‘n’ Roll Rescue with Helsinki co-owner Marc Schafler; Allan Davidson and Karen Halveson.
Inn at Hudson proprietor Dini Lamot (aka Musty Chiffon) and Michael Albin of Hudson Wine Merchants.
Chef Bill Telepan and pastry chef Larissa Rapahel; writers Suzanne Snider and Susan Orlean.
Great Barrington cheesemonger Matthew Rubiner and The Mount’s chairman of the board, Gordon Travers; Ketah Raut, Suvir Saran and Raju Sain of Dévi Restaurant.
Florist Wenonah Webster, who did the floral design for the event, with artists Dawn Breeze and Valerie Shaff.
Sharon & Eric Schafler; MC Roberts and artist Alexis England.
Strongtree Coffee Roasters Nora Edison &Chris Neumann with Patrick & Rita Birmingham of Mount Merino Manor.
Astrid & Patrick Jehanno of Le Gamin; art conservator Valerie Septembre, co-founder of Art for Animals, with Equine Advocates volunteer Tanell Bulan.
The performers take a bow: Cathy Grier, Ana Milosavljevic, Joy Askew, Laurie Anderson & Master of Ceremonies Tom Davis.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 11/23/10 at 01:51 PM • Permalink
Holiday Shopping Party at IS 183 Art School of the Berkshires
An ordinary holiday crafts fair can be full of things you don’t actually want to buy, but that wasn’t the case at IS 183 Art School of the Berkshires’ Color A World Scholarship Sale, which featured ceramics, leather goods, fine art, photography, jewelry and textiles by students and teachers at the school. Guests (including writer Paige Smith Orloff and Margaret Lindemaier, left) nibbled on canapés by Pronto Cooking School as the holiday shopping season officially began.
Jewelry designer Stephanie Iverson actress Stephanie Hedges; Pam Rich of Pittsfield’s Paul Rich & Sons with ceramist Michele O’Hana
Leslie Milton of the Tenement Museum, David Rosenthal and IS 183 board member Mary Garnish; Kay Castelle & Gary Stoller.
Artist Dan Mahoney & IS 183 director Hope Sullivan with their daughter Elke; Barry & Josephine Alessi Freedman
Anne Albert Johnston, designer Tyler Weld and Germain owner Elena Letteron
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 11/22/10 at 07:54 PM • Permalink
Williamstown Theatre Festival Welcomes Back Jenny Gersten
Dozens of Berkshires residents travelled to Manhattan on Monday night for the sold-out Williamstown Theatre Festival “Sing” Benefit in NYC. It was the first official party for new artistic director Jenny Gersten (left), who was WTF’s associate producer from 1996 - 2004. Wearing a dress with sparkling sleeves, she was surrounded by family, friends and WTF alumni, so the evening felt like a glamorous summer-camp reunion. After a Berkshire-grown dinner prepared by Mezze Catering of Williamstown, guests were treated to songs from recent shows at WTF: Western Country (last summer’s Fellowship Musical); The Last Goodbye (last summer’s rocking version of Romeo & Juliet); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (which is now on Broadway); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Jessica Stone’s innovative all-male version); Where’s Charley? (with Christopher Fitzgerald leading a sing-a-long of “Once in Love with Amy” to honor outgoing artistic director Nicholas Martin who staged the show with Fitzgerald in 2002.) And just like any proper camp reunion, the party made the guests nostalgic and longing for next summer.
Kelly Levy and Justin Waldman, who directed What is the Cause of Thunder? at WTF in 2009; agent Brian Davidson and WTF stalwart and Tony-winning actress Katie Finneran, who is pregnant with her first child.
Actresses Ariel Woodiwiss, who appeared in last summer’s production of Six Degrees of Separation, and Celina Carvajal, who was in The Last Goodbye.
Williamstown real estate agent Carolyn Umlauf, Brooklyn College professor Barbara Winslow, and WTF trustee Joan Hunter, who is also the chairman of Jacob’s Pillow; Molly Kerns of Tsubo Massage in Williamstown with Mezze Catering’s Nancy Thomas and Julia Bowen, executive director of the Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School.
Legendary dancer and WTF trustee emeritus Marge Champion and Fran Lapidus; Leslie Milton of the Tenement Museum and David Rosenthal, who are the parents of Emma Rosenthal who was in last summer’s production of Our Town.
Actor and director Dylan Baker, who’s spent 13 seasons at Williamstown, with WTF general manager Joe Finnegan and actress Becky Ann Baker, who’s spent 11 summers at Williamstown.
Public Theatre executive director Andrew Hamingson with Lola Jaffe, chairman of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center; Tom Carroll and Margo Bowden.
The kvelling parents of WTF’s new artistic director: Bernard Gersten, the executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater, and Cora Cahan, president of New 42nd Street.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 11/17/10 at 12:10 PM • Permalink
Opening of the Berkshire Museum’s Festival of Trees 2010
The Berkshire Museum felt like a department store on “Black Friday” as crowds poured into the Crane Room and adjacent galleries to ogle more than 200 one-of-a-kind Christmas trees created by local business, schools and not-for-profit organizations. This year’s “Storybook Forest” theme extended beyond just trees. There’s an exhibit called Storybook Magic featuring illustrations from children’s books, including pictures by Eric Carle and Tasha Tudor (of Wind in the Willows fame.) Also, the museum invited eight artists to let their imaginations run wild to create Contemporary Page Turners with oversized book pages that are displayed on stands throughout the galleries. The Crane Room felt like the lobby of a grand hotel with sofas and chairs (lent by Paul Rich & Sons) flanking the glowing fireplace. Afterwards, many partygoers headed up North Street to the opening of WAM Theatre‘s production of Sarah Ruhl’s The Melancholy Play directed by Kristen van Ginhoven at New Stage Performing Arts Center.
Robin McGraw and Berkshire Living‘s Mary Garnish; Pittsfield Mayor James Ruberto and Berkshire Museum director of interpretation Maria Mingalone.
Julia Erickson and artist Melanie Mowinski in front of one of the fabric panels she made for the exhibit.
Artist Nick Primo and Corry Kanzenberg, curator of the Norman Rockwell Archive; Berkshire Eagle reporter Jenn Smith with artist Eric Drury (click on his name to see a video) whose architectural Christmas tree is the centerpiece of the Crane Room.
Lauren Zivyak and her daughter, Chloe; writer and real estate agent Gladys Montgomery and Megan Whilden, Pittsfield’s director of cultural development.
Lisa Bouchard & Ed Hoe of the Kinderhook Group.
Andy Potter and Jeremy Goodwin, the Berkshire Museum’s director of communications; Jen Hines of Lance Vermeulen Real Estate and Bill Hines, managing director of Pittsfield-based Interprint.
Amanda Rae Busch of Berkshire Living with her mother, Anita Busch; Diana French in a hat by Carole Clark in the Woodland Style exhibit with yoga instructor Terry Roth Schaff.
Kevin Sprague of Studio Two, the branding and design firm, with Helena Fruscio, director of Berkshire Creative.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 11/15/10 at 10:13 AM • Permalink
Berkshire Film & Media Commission Makes Movie Magic
Cultural correspondent Bess J. M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: In the Berkshires, it often seems as if all the world’s a stage, but at the first annual Berkshire Film and Media Commission gala on Saturday, November 6, the Masonic Temple in Pittsfield was literally transformed into a soundstage as partygoers were given a script, a costume, a makeover (by pros such as Arthur Oliver, left) and a bit of time to get ready for their close-ups. Camera-shy guests had the option of working behind the scenes as part of the crew that directed, shot, and created green-screened scenes which were seamlessly spliced into vintage black and white footage, or they could just enjoy watching the frenetic filmmaking activity and bid on auction items while nibbling tasty tidbits by caterer Kate Baldwin. Whatever the role, it was a delicate act to navigate the room, which was filled with elaborate set-ups of lights, cameras, screens, and scaffolding—just as it was difficult to hear the live auction through periodic bullhorned announcements of “Quiet on the set!” Nevertheless, items such as a signed guitar from James Taylor and movie memorabilia signed by Karen Allen and Elizabeth Banks inspired dramatic bidding.
Porches & Red Lion Inn owner Nancy Fitzpatrick with Ventfort Hall’s Nannina Gilder; photographer Lincoln Russell with custom builder Lou Boxer.
Mark Hohlstein and Brad Fittz; filmmaker John Whalan, president of the board of Community Access to the Arts, who served as the executive producer for the evening’s film shoot, and Kate Whalan.
Sean Finnegan and his father, Joe Finnegan, the general manager of the Williamstown Theatre Festival and president of the Williamstown Film Festival, with Berkshire Film & Media Commission executive director Diane Pearlman and Kristen Johanson, a member of the Williamstown Theatre Festival board.
Matt Syrett, producer of the documentary Freeheld that was directed by his wife, Cynthia Wade, with Barbara Newman, a member of the BIFF Advisory Committee; actresses Stephanie Hedges and Elizabeth Aspenlieder of Shakespeare & Company with filmmaker Marc Maurino.
Arts consultant Catharine Deely, PR consultant Kimberly Rawson, and Studio Two’s Kevin Sprague; Nikki Carchedi of Stone House Properties with radiologist Britt Limes and Najwa Squailia.
Ballet teacher and jewelry designer Katie Burkle with actress and knitwear designer Karen Allen.
Brad & Ellen Spear, the president and CEO of Hancock Shaker Village; Cultural Pittsfield’s Megan Whilden with the Berkshire Museum’s Stuart Chase.
Actress Hilary Somers Deely with Karen Beaumont, a professor of theatre at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
Eliza Eldritch with her mother, Jill Eldritch; sisters Jenn & Rosalyn Frederick.
Sculptor Dai Ban, Berkshire Property Agents co-founder Tim Lovett, and Robin Ban, the owner of Seeds in Great Barrington; Shay Barnes, Joshua Needleman of Chocolate Springs, and Buffy King.
Filmmaker Karen Slade with Jessie Baez.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 11/10/10 at 12:53 PM • Permalink
The Art Garage Benefit at Kent’s Morrison Gallery
The Art Garage is one of those after-school programs that not only benefits kids but also brings together parents and non-parents, full-time residents and weekenders. An after-school program founded in 2004 and run by working artists in the northwest corner of Connecticut, it a 2,000 square foot art studio nestled behind the Housatonic Vallery Regional High School. It is open to all students, a place where professional and emerging artists come together to create art. On Saturday, November 6, at the magnificent Morrison Gallery in Kent, there was a reception for this year’s fundraising exhibition that includes work by world-renown artists such as Jasper Johns, Kiki Smith and Elizabeth Murray along with dozens of important local artists such as Joel Schapira and James Meyer, two of the Art Garage founders. The exhibition will be on view and for sale through Sunday November 14.
Artist Clifton Jaeger and his daugther Emma; artist Bernie Re and potter Joey Sage Jablonski, an Art Garage mentor.
Gallery owner and host Billy Morrison with photographers’ agent Mitchell Rosenbaum.
Inn at Kent Falls owner Ira Goldspiel with Pilates guru Howard Schissler; Sandy Dennis and Abbey Darer.
Art Garage co-founder and painter James Meyer, Wassaic Project co-founder Bowie Zunino and the Re Institute founder and sculptor Henry Kilmowicz.
Paul & Jill Choma of Gilded Moon Framing in Millerton; Tanya Waugh and artist Patty Mullins.
Real estate broker Mardee Cavallaro, interior designer Matthew Patrick Smyth, and Emily Soell.
Natalie Will and Lynn Curtis; artisan Peter Felske and Allen Cockerline of Whippoorwill Farm.
Dorothy Felske with her daughter Karin Wexler, a painter in the exhibit; artist Donna Rafferty & Vincent Inconiglios.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 11/08/10 at 12:43 PM • Permalink
A Close Encounter with Music at Blantyre
Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Lenox: As the daylight hours diminish with winter’s approach, the concept of an afternoon benefit becomes much more appealing than venturing out in the cold, dark night. It’s hard to think of a more perfect place to spend a chilly afternoon than Blantyre, the Gilded-Age mansion turned Relais et Chateaux resort, where Close Encounters with Music supporters were greeted by a roaring fire and treated to a sparkling chamber music recital, followed by an elegant luncheon on Sunday, October 31. There were no Halloween tricks among the many treats in store for guests, including the typically witty and illuminating opening remarks by artistic director Yehudi Hanani, who introduced his fellow performers— Venezuelan cellist Carmine Miranda and Ukrainian pianist Pavel Gintov (left)—and Close Encounters with Music’s first composer-in-residence, Jorge Martin, whose solo piece for cello, Recuerda, Hanani performed in the acoustically perfect music room, sandwiched between three preludes for piano by George Gershwin and Menotti’s Suite for Two Cellos and Piano.
Sarah Finn, president of the Catskill Mountain Foundation, and Peter Finn, co-CEO of Ruder Finn, the privately-owned New York public relations firm; Georgeanne & Jean Rousseau.
Yehuda & Hannah Hanani with Jorge Martin and Jungian analyst Beverly Zabriskie, a founding member of the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association.
Evan Hughes and Kathy Crisman; Dr. Robert Crowell, president of Eve’s Fund, with Mary Carswell, a member of the board of the MacDowell Colony.
Blantyre proprietor Ann Fitzpatrick Brown with her mother, Jane Fitzpatrick.
Artists Werner & Lise Pfeiffer; Marcie Setlow, president of Close Encounters With Music, CEWM board member Jerome Rosenberg, and composer Jorge Martin.
R.O. & Moisha Blechman with Judy Grunberg, president of the board of PS 21 in Chatham; Penny Pincus and Joshua Sherman.
Marcie Setlow, Carmine Miranda, Pavel Gintov, and Claudio Pincus, who’s on the Boston Symphony’s Board of Overseers.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 11/02/10 at 11:21 AM • Permalink
An Artful Night in Millerton
Everywhere you turned in Millerton on Saturday night, which hosted a town-wide “Fall for Art” party, you saw artists—from the sidewalk outside the Oakhurst Diner to the Gallery at the Moviehouse, which opened a three-month exhibition, “The Big Country,” curated by the organizers of the Wassaic Project. Carol and Bob Sadlon have worked hard to make their three-screen cinema a gathering place for the community and their ef