Arabesques at the Clark Art Institute traces the influence of a curving line that feels as though it moves freely across the page, from Islamic art to 19th-century Europe.
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Nationally awardwinning architects and designers set to create cultural center
Nationally recognized architects and designers Mario Gooden, Mabel Wilson and Walter Hood are working to re-imagine the Clinton Church in Great Barrington as a cultural center celebrating African American history.
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Contra dance is alive and growing in the Berkshires
The tradition of contra dancing stretches from coast to coast and back more than 400 years. A caller teaches a series of simple moves, and dancers join in to live music with a beat and a quick melody.
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Michael Rakowitz invokes a lost hall from the palace of Nimrud at WCMA
At the Williams College Museum of Art, Internationally acclaimed artist Michael Rakowitz has re-imagined a hall in the palace of Nimrud, built c. 1350 BCE in the historic Assyrian city on the Tigris river.
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Spirits of the past — Tracing the Jenks family through 400 years (By the Way column)
Last week I stood on a hill where one of my ancestors stood 230 years ago. Christmas is supposed to be a time for ghosts. Between the old year and the new year, we have a few days out of time. Maybe that’s why so many Christmas stories commune with spirits. […]
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The Foundry gathers independent and generous souls in West Stockbridge
In its first year, the Foundry has become the kind of place where musicians from Pittsfield High School may play informally on the patio, or a cast of New York and local actors may share a potluck and talk late.
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The Berkshires welcome winter solstice with firelight and evergreens (BTW column)
We have almost reached the longest night of the year, and for hundreds of years people have taken time for it around the world, and in the Berkshires too.
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Shakespeare & Company finds depth and humor in Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a love story and a story of life and death, and Shakespeare & Company in Lenox will perform a staged reading for the holidays of Kate Hamill’s adaptation.
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Come out and meet the elves — By the Way column
In workshops smelling of new wood, many artists are whittling and sanding and wedging clay and cleaning paint brushes. Artists will open their studios this month and gather at winter holiday festivals.
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How to bring home a living Christmas tree — By the Way column
I was looking out from a field across from the Pleasant Valley Tree Farm, up above Bennington, Vt. I had decided I’d like a Christmas tree this year.
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