Since taking over as president and CEO of Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield four years ago, Ellen Spear has become a regional mover and shaker, a visionary who helped establish the Berkshire Creative Economy Council. “The challenge is how to transform our cultural and artistic wealth into something richer, more diverse and more sustainable than a turnstile operation," she has said. "We need to create products and develop services that can be exported to the global markets." Meanwhile, Spear (who was previously executive director of the USS Constitution Museum in Boston, and a vice president at the American Textile History Museum in Lowell) has overseen the revamping of the cafe and menu at Hancock Shaker Village and encouraged diverse programming such as "Shaker Shalom," a two-part collaboraton with Congregation Knesset Israel of Pittsfield. The first part is a free panel discussion, "Common Ground Betweeen Shakers and Jews" at Knesset Israel on Sunday, May 31, at 4 PM. The second part is a gala joint fundraiser at the village on Sunday, June 28: "Shaker Shalom: A Celebration of Shared Traditions in Song, Cooking, and Community,” with music and food (tickets: $150 - $1,000.). As hard as she works, it's clear from her answers to RI's 20 Questions that she values her leisure time and takes full advantage of our region's resources.
1. Where do you go when you crave solitude? My back yard in Pittsfield. Our house borders on conservation land near the Canoe Meadows Audubon preserve (right), so I like to sit on the deck with something to read. It’s quiet—too far away to hear the phone—with only the sounds of birds or peepers. 2. Where do you go when you crave buzz? I’ve never understood the allure of buzz. I prefer history. 3. What's your favorite library and/or bookstore?I love The Bookstore in Lenox. As far as libraries, my favorite remains the Concord Public Library in Concord, MA. Their special collections include a great deal of Thoreauviana and other great manuscripts by the Transcendentalists
4. What's your favorite way to spend a Friday night? Either dinner at the Lenox Club (left) with family and friends or home cooking for family and friends. 5. What's your favorite way to spend a Sunday morning? At a yoga class at Rhythms in Lenox, followed by a long, luxurious read of The New York Times. My weekdays are all very different and hectic, which is fine, but I get out of sorts if my Sunday mornings are interrupted. 6. What's you favorite place for bargain hunting? I love the Brimfield Fair, but there aren’t many bargains these days. 7. What do you buy for yourself when you need a treat and want to splurge? Shoes. Definitely shoes. I inherited the disease from my mother who has an entire closet full of shoes, all in their boxes, lined up by color. 8. What's your favorite one-hour drive from your house?Bash Bish Falls. It reminds me of taking car trips with my family when I was a kid. They would take us to “experience nature” and we’d go to places like Bash Bish to walk in the woods, have a picnic and then my sister and I would play silly car games in the back seat on the way home.
9. Where's your favorite place to hear live music? Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood (right.) There is an intimacy there that is thrilling and I like the warm sound. We sat very close to Elliot Carter during his 100th birthday concert. It was great to watch him enjoy his own music. 10. What's your favorite historical site? Do you have to ask? 11. Where do you shop for clothes? I like a lot of different places, but I find myself always stopping in to Evivva in Lenox. I’m not crazy about shopping so I like to shop without the aide of salespeople. 12. What's your favorite hardware store? Carr Hardware in Pittsfield. They have a service standard that should be the envy of all of us. 13. Who do you trust to recommend wines? Anyone at Nejaimes and my friend Herb from Newburyport, who seems to be able to find amazing buys on Italian wines.
14. Where's your favorite place for breakfast? Usually my dining room table, but I like Dotties and On A Roll in Pittsfield, and Caffe Pomo d’Oro (left) in West Stockbridge. 15. What do you always do with out of town guests?Go to farmers' markets to gather whatever is in season then cook a big meal at home, take them to Hancock Shaker Village, of course, and then we rotate among the great cultural and musical things to do—Tanglewood, the Norman Rockwell, The Clark, the Pillow, BTF . . . I could go on. 16. What newspapers, blogs or websites do you read every day?I read the Eagle, the New York Times daily (I love paper papers…) then I check in on the Wall Street Journal website, Facebook, Twitter (though I still don’t get it), and the National Trust’s blog, and a few other historic preservation blogs and sites. 17. How many Facebook friends do you have? How many them have you actually met? A bit over a couple of hundred. Taking out the institutional "friends," I’ve met all of them.
18. What's your favorite theatre? The Mahaiwe (left) is a gorgeous setting. I have really enjoyed the Metropolitan Operas there. 19. Who are your local heroes? There are so many. After four plus years in the Berkshires it is still so gratifying to be part of a community of people who have the collaboration gene. There are so many people working on really important initiatives that will not only improve our community, but will blaze national trails. 20. What five things are you most looking forward to do this summer?
There is so much going on. It’s always a challenge to have the time to do it all. I’m looking forward to some of the Tanglewood opera performances, hiking sections of the Appalachian Trail (which we try to do each summer), finally creating a kitchen herb garden in an area of my yard, trying to get to all the new exhibits and performances my colleagues are mounting, and of course experiencing the new audio tour at Hancock Shaker Village.
