Community

Community

It's Finally Show Time at the Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield

Richard Stanley knows first hand how a movie theater can be a tipping point for a community. After all, fourteen years ago, he opened The Triplex, a brand new independent movie house in Great Barrington. By all accounts, The Triplex was the catalyst for Great Barrington's metamorphosis, attracting

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Community

Christmas Arrives Early at the Berkshire Museum

The 106-year-old Berkshire Museum not only preserves paintings, photographs, antiquities, and other artifacts that depict our region's natural and cultural history; it also safeguards the spirit of traditional New England Christmas. The 25th annual Festival of Trees (through January 3) is an antidote to shopping mall

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Community

Live & Let's Give: Shopping for A Good Cause

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,

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Community

Stealing Beauty: The Olana Viewshed Tour

You don't have to be erudite or sophisticated to be moved by a beautiful vista.  It's one form of beauty that everyone agrees upon.  Yet the notion of protecting a view that's comprised largely of private property, is new. On Saturday, October 24, The

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Community

The Pastures: A Spa for Wellness Down on the Farm

A "spa day" does not mean what it once did for Bridget Ford Hughes.  A massage therapist who worked at Canyon Ranch for many years and travelled the globe as part of fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger's entourage (which is how she ended up massaging Mick Jagger

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Community

An Alternative Harvest Festival in Millerton

The miracle of Millerton's gentrification is that it happened without art galleries, which are frequently crucial to a small town's revival. (The Hanback Gallery, formerly of Lenox, opened on South Center Street only this August.)  Nevertheless, Millerton is crawling with artists and collectors so instead of

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Community

Holy Smoke! The Berkshire Hosemen's Calendar

Photographer Sarah Edwards has an eye for hunky guys. Last year, she photographed the Treemen Calendar (which included a picture of her boyfriend, Cord Kenyon, aka Mr. January), which raised $25,000 for the daughter of an arborist named Rafe Kozaka who died in a logging accident in 2008. This

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Community

Columbus Weekend Harvest Festival Hopping

Crisp apples, bright orange pumpkins, pressed cider, home baked pies, sugary cider donuts, and live bluegrass: if you can't find a harvest festival near you this weekend, you must be hiding under your bed.  Throughout the region cities, villages, and historic sites are sponsoring all manner of festivities,

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Community

Rooms With A View: Bascom Lodge Reopens on Mount Greylock

There's nowhere better to take in the fall foliage than a mountaintop with panoramic views, and once again, after a couple of years of work that kept the road to the summit closed, you can drive to the top of Mt. Greylock, which is the highest peak in

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Community

Walkway Over the Hudson Officially Opens

This weekend marks the opening celebration of the Walkway over the Hudson, a 1.28-mile "linear park" for pedestrians, the longest walkway bridge in the world.   The occasion is the culmination of nearly two decades of effort on the part of visionary community activists, led by board

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Community

Excursions: Hancock Shaker Village Holds a Country Fair

Lots of towns in our region have Country Fairs to celebrate the harvest, and they are all charming and valuable in their way.  But for ambience—sheer aesthetic perfection—it's impossible to beat the Country Fair at Hancock Shaker Village.  The agricultural demonstrations, the wagon rides, the farmers&

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Community

Two Chatham Alpaca Farms Host Open Days

On September 26 and 27, Spruce Ridge Farm of Old Chatham and Chatham Alpacas of Chatham Center invite the public to visit their farms, meet their alpacas, and learn more about these inquisitive, charming animals.   Alpaca breeders from across the United States and Canada will be open this weekend as

By Editor