Even in a time of coronavirus, the Berkshires are a deeply creative place. Actors and dancers are creating new work. Artists are teaching workshops. Farmers markets are moving online. BTW has been gathering them in one virtual space.
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Lanesborough Arboretum gives shade on a summer day
Jim Neureuther and his wife, Donna, meet Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith in Lanesborough and invite him to view the town’s Arboretum at Laston Memorial Park, just up past The Old Forge on Route 7.
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Summer Camp 2020: A different kind of summer
Due to the pandemic, many camps have decided to close for the summer, leaving campers and staff to reimagine what this summer will look like.
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Song and Survival: Bernice and Mariah Lewis perform in national folk festival
Berkshire singer/songwriter Bernice Lewis has performed nationwide since she first came to the Kerrville Folk Festival four decades ago. This year, in Covid-19, she and her daughter Mariah have returned to festival — online.
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An anonymous artist creates a summer treasure hunt
It turns out the Berkshires has an stealth artist who creates gifts and leaves them quietly in public places — the Guerilla Bunny paints eggs by hand with dragons and phoenixes.
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Pitcher plants and wild bloom iris in Hawley Bog
Half a mile from the trailhead, the boardwalk heads into ferns almost as tall as I am, and I’ve only seen a place like this once or twice before. It’s been eight years since I came to Hawley Bog.
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MCLA calls for places where diverse voices can rise
Art can become a powerful tool for understanding, for MCLA’s new Institute for the Humanities, and MCLA has set out to create experiences and open spaces where diverse voices can share stories.
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Celestials from China change North Adams in 1870
The Celestials, a group of young men, came from China to North Adams in 1870 to work in a shoe factory, and Mass MoCA recalls their story. Imagine them looking out the train windows here for the first time.
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Parable of the Sower — science fiction feels current
Octavia Butler wrote The Parable of the Sower as a novel set in a world on the edge of collapse, in 2024, and Toshi Reagon has written an opera based on the book. I remember the nnight her music came here.
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MCLA and Berkshire museums bring energy in hard times
This spring, museums in the Berkshires are moving online. Cultural and creative places have faced abrupt disruption, and they are cutting back, but at the same time they are reaching out.
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Berkshire shops and locals rally in the pandemic
As the coronavirus pandemic has taken hold this spring, people across the Berkshires are finding ways to help — from a distiller making hand sanitizer to restaurants to farmers markets.
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How do we respond as Massachusetts starts to reopen?
The governor’s announcement this week allows some local places to begin to reopen, and it raises questions for all of us as. And as I talk with you about the community, it raises questions for me.
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Berkshire creative places are adapting to a virtual world
I’ve been talking with Berkshire creative places as they try to navigate in the physically distanced world coronavirus has created and reconnect online.
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