Community art sales are as common in our region as Subaru wagons and chamber-music concerts, so what makes the Live and Let's Give Sale this weekend at the Lichtensten Center for the Arts different? Of course, it's for the worthiest cause: Charley's Fund, the not-for-profit organization started by the Seckler family of Egremont to fund research for a cure for Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, the fatal disease that afflicts their son, Charley [photo left.] But it's also bringing together artists and craftspeople whose work you would normally find in galleries or big city boutiques, and organizer Michele O'Hana promises a chic shopping experience. "I'm basically going into the retail business for the weekend," she says. "We are not setting this up like a typical crafts fair. We are going to mix all the merchandise and create vignettes as if you were shopping at a really beautiful, high-style store."
O'Hana—a ceramicist who is part of the Berkshire/Columbia County Mommy Yoga Mafia that sends their children to Sinai Academy and Berkshire Country Day School—got the idea for the sale when she realized she wished she could donate more money to Charley's Fund. "I looked around my studio and saw all these porcelain pieces [photo right] that could be donated and sold." She started calling friends and neighbors who make beautiful things—paintings, photographs, candles, jewelry, bedding, furniture—to see if they would donate for a benefit sale. "Everyone I asked said 'yes'," she says, naming just a few of the 38 artists, craftspeople and companies who are participating such as Anki Spets of Area linens, Crispina Ffrench, Odessa's Herbals, Karen Crumley Keats, Joan Palano Ciolfi, Dai Ban, and O'Hana's husband, the photographer John Dolan. "It's a group of people whose work I really like," she says. Live and Let's Give for Charley's FundLichtenstein Center for The Arts 28 Renne Avenue, Pittsfield November 6; 4 - 9 p.m.Opening Reception & Cocktail Party; $25 November 7 & 8; 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.Free admission
