The Rural We: Elizabeth Nelson
The former Texan (by way of NYC) works to inspire others to love the Berkshires as much as she does.
There must be something about Elizabeth Nelson that makes employers say “We’ve created an entirely new job at our company. No one’s ever done it before. Wanna take a stab at it?” This would seem daunting to many people, but the multidisciplinary artist and marketing specialist is undeterred by these challenging and somewhat amorphous projects. The Texas native, former New York City resident and current Pittsfield homeowner has created and completely redesigned periodicals, helped launch a store, and is now 1Berkshire’s Senior Marketing Specialist, where she will revamp a website and help introduce the new Berkshire Flyer.
I’m from Ft. Worth, Texas originally, and I went to Texas Wesleyan University, where I studied theater with an emphasis on directing and had a job working in their theater department. I then spent five summers working in the theater company at the Chautauqua Institution. There I met some really cool New York City theater artists, which lured me to NYC where I did my graduate work at Sarah Lawrence. I met my husband at Chautauqua, and he was living in NYC at the time, but he is from Texas, too.
I ended up working at the SDC [the national labor union Stage Directors and Choreographers Society] in a job that had never existed before. I helped create a craft publication. Before that, there were none dedicated to the industry, so I’m really proud of that.
I ended up staying in the city for nine years. We loved the city, it’s a great place, but it’s a grind. We wanted to find a greener, slower way of life.
We moved here in January of 2016 when I got a graphic design job at Barrington Stage Company. I did a season with them, but I’ve always loved animals and I’d been pursuing animal welfare alongside my arts degree. One of the first things I did when we got here was look for places where I could volunteer. I met John Perreault and about a year later he told me Berkshire Humane Society had created a new position and asked if I would apply. I created that role, it had not existed, and I worked there for two and a half years.
Berkshire Humane Society is always going to be a very special place to me — not just because of its amazing mission, but that’s where we adopted our first dog, Harper Lee. Her mom was rescued from the parking lot of Walmart in North Adams when she was pregnant with 4 puppies. I got to watch them grow up until they were ready to be adopted. They were all named after women writers, and being a writer myself, I loved that. She’s a total snuggle puggle and we’re crazy about her. We even throw her birthday parties!
Coming to the Berkshires has been extremely generative for me, both as a professional and an artist. I wrote my latest play, “Colors Inside the Body,” during my first session with Berkshire Voices. I’ve taken on freelance marketing for a couple of new theater companies, which has been super fun and very informative. I have a yoga practice at Radiance, and we joined a CSA at Red Shirt Farm, which are both things I have always wanted to do. Recently, I started creating paper flowers for a three-dimensional painting I’ve been working on. And I’ve met so many new people and made a lot of new friends. Life has challenges, always, but I can only say good, positive things about our move here.
We just bought our first house this summer. It was crazy to suddenly have the realization that we wanted to stay here, I mean really stay here in the Berkshires. I adore my house so much! It’s a 1940s bungalow and it needs a lot of work, but I figure we’re going to be here for a while so we have time. Plus, the Housatonic River runs through our backyard, which is pretty much a dream. David and I love water and wildlife. We have so many song birds and waterfowl that visit regularly.
I’m really excited about helping market The Berkshire Flyer, which will start its seasonal pilot program in the summer of 2020. The goal is to encourage a younger demographic of visitor from NYC to discover the Berkshires. We want them to take the train and come experience everything our region has to offer. In the long term, we hope that the program will grow into a viable mode of accessible, year-round transportation.
