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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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
