Arts

Arts

Featured Creatures: The Old World Pet Portraits Of Carol Lew

By Amy Krzaik My cat, Oliver, believes himself to be the king of all he surveys (namely, the house and the front and back yards). And while the other pets beg to differ, he’s always quick to remind them of their subordinate positions. Although the smallest in size, Oliver

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Arts

One Unsilent, Firelit Night at the 1753 House

By Lisa Green The image of people gathered around a piano singing Christmas carols evokes a sense of nostalgia that the holidays allow us to indulge in. Every year, a variation of that tableau comes to life for real, at a holiday group sing at the 1753 House in Williamstown,

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Arts

Two Chamber Series Offer An Embarrassment Of Riches

Crescendo. Photo by Stephen Potter. By Jeremy D. Goodwin Tanglewood will always be the grand dame among classical music venues in the Rural Intelligence region, and that’s perfectly fine with us. But it’s in the more intimate venues — theaters, churches, museums — where chamber music fans can reliably find

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Arts

Seedy Stories: Peter C. Vermilyea's "Witches Of Litchfield County"

By Amy Krzanik Horror movies and haunted houses are all well and good for a Halloween fright-night, but sometimes the scariest thing of all is the disclaimer “based on a true story.” Yikes. In keeping with the spirit(s) of the season, local historian Peter C. Vermilyea will explore

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Arts

Ladies First: Grace Bonney Is In Great Company

Author photo by Christopher Sturman By Amy Krzanik Writer Grace Bonney, founder of the immensely popular long-running website Design*Sponge, gets right to the point in her new book, In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs. In the very first sentence

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Arts

Counting Down For The Pittsfield City Jazz Festival

Karrin Allyson and Scott Robinson. By Lisa Green The 12th annual Pittsfield City Jazz Festival, Oct. 7-16, proves that it takes a village to create — and sustain — a jazz festival. “We’re at a critical mass now,” says Ed Bride, festival chair and president of Berkshires Jazz, the nonprofit

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Arts

The Leaf Peepers Concert Series Plans A Bold 35th Season

By Amy Krzanik Composer Tonia Ko Borrowing its name from our region’s annual fall phenomenon, The Leaf Peeper Concert Series, presented each year by Clarion Concerts in Columbia County, will hold four unique performances at four different area venues every other Saturday from Sept. 10 to Oct. 22. The

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Arts

Oldtone Roots Music Festival Is A Fun New Frolic

Lauren Ambrose and Kip Beacco at 2015's festival By Amy Krzanik As the Duke Ellington song says, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,” and the Oldtone Roots Music Festival does got that swing, and that bluegrass, that old-time country, as

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Arts

It’s Un Bel Di As We Welcome The Berkshire Opera Festival

By Lisa Green Since the Berkshire Opera Company folded in 2008, opera productions have been conspicuously absent from the performing arts scene in the Berkshires. So when Jonathon Loy and Brian Garman, both accomplished opera directors and conductors, announced plans to form the Berkshire Opera Festival, it wasn’t only

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Arts

Chatham Dance Festival: Last Time In The Tent

By Amy Krzanik RIOULT Dance NY This August might be your last opportunity to see a Chatham Dance Festival performance in the tent at PS21. No, not because it’s closing up shop, but a key feature of it is changing forever. According to founder and board president Judy Grunberg,

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Arts

50 Years Later, "The Concerned Photographers" Still A Focus

MUSCLE BOY, Harlem, NY 1963 © Leonard Freed/Magnum By Shawn Hartley Hancock Ralph Brill, owner of the Brill Gallery in the Eclipse Mill Building in North Adams, Mass., calls it “probably the most important photography exhibit in 2016.” Leonard Freed’s Civil Rights Photographs of the 1960s, he says, are

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Arts

Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) Plays On

Leonard Bernstein at BUTI. Photos courtesy Boston University Tanglewood Institute. By Jeremy D. Goodwin One of Andrew Hitz’s fondest memories from his four summers at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) is the night he got in trouble. As a wide-eyed teenager soaking up all things musical, the

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