Rural Intelligence (Page 707)

Parties

A Garden Party at Chesterwood

There is no finer spot for a garden party than Chesterwood, the National Trust Historic Site in Stockbridge, which was the country home and studio of Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), the sculptor of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Memorial in Washington, DC, and The Minute Man, Concord,

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Parties

Pittsfield Gallery Crawl

Cultural correspondent Bess Hochstein reports: Sunshine heralded the first day of August, illuminating two new exhibitions at Pittsfield galleries. Leslie Ferrin opened two shows of ornately decorated porcelain sculpture. In Human Made Wild,Jason Walker explores the intersection of nature and culture in work that wavers between whimsical and disturbing.

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Food

AgriCulture: Talking Turkey, Part I

Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer, are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown. This week Peter writes: At the risk of sounding like those obnoxious retailers who begin with Christmas promotions before Halloween, I’d like to talk about turkeys. This is largely prompted by our having begun letting our

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Style

Two House Tours with a Focus on History

To get the most out of a historic house tour, it's crucial to use your imagination, to "be there" at every stage in the property's development. Same building, 100 years later, is never the same, even when it has been preserved in amber as

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Parties

Woodstock Nation Lives!

There was a redawning of the Age of Aquarius on Thursday, July 30 in Chatham, as a throng more than 1,000 strong, many wearing tie-dyed tees, poured into town to attend two screenings at the Crandell Theatre of Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee's latest film,

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Parties

Friends of the Fringe Come Together

The Berkshire Fringe Festival kicked off its fifth season on July 27 with an innovative performance at Bard College at Simon's Rock: five different pieces of theater, film and dance all set to the same six-and-a-half minute electronic soundscape by Peter Wise, one of the

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Style

A Garden Tour that Takes On The Bigger Picture

There are garden tours and then there is this, the Ancram Preservation Group's Working Landscapes 2009, a tour of eight properties that either are working farms or, if no longer actively working, retain a working-farm aesthetic. Though there are gardens on all of these properties, the plantings

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Parties

Berkshire Theatre Festival Celebrates at The Mount

The Berkshires' arts scene depends on volunteers and donations of every type, which was clear at the Berkshire Theatre Festival party at The Mount on July 26 that honored Betsey McKearnan and raised funds for BTF's education programs. She was serenaded by the cast of Candide and

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Community

The Mount Is A House of Mirth Once More

When Susan Wissler took over as executive director of The Mount last year, the Edith Wharton Estate & Gardens in Lenox was on the brink of foreclosure and we believed The Age of Innocence Was Over. Working tirelessly with board chairman Gordon Travers, Wissler has not only kept The Mount

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Parties

Openings: Pittsfield Contemporary Art Show

Cultural correspondent Bess Hochstein reports: It felt a little bit like Brooklyn in the Berkshires on Saturday, July 25, as Pittsfield Contemporary opened its second annual show of work by artists living and/or working in Pittsfield. The city’s art crowd, in all its hatted and tatted splendor, filled

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Arts

Dan's Diary: Lightning Strikes Williamstown Theatre Festival

What's going on with the stagehands at Williamstown Theatre Festival? At both True West and What Is the Cause of Thunder?, the stagehands, who are dressed like bellhops at chic boutique hotels, take a bow at the curtain call. The sets, lighting and sound for both productions are

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Parties

Olana's Colorful Festival of Chinese Music, Lanterns and Dance

Inspiration for the Olana Partnership's Seventh Annual Summer Party came from a Chinese bed that was amongst Hudson River School painter Frederic Church's vast collection of international treasures and still lives on Olana's second floor, a Forbidden City all its own that we all

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