What arts and performance live in the Berkshires? We are known for music, theater and museums— we have a rich creative life in the hills. National and international performers come to our stages, and classic and contemporary artists come to our museums and studios. They come to visit, and they live here.

Imagine a woman poised in the light. She is taut and ready to move. She could be a bather in a Renoir painting, or an actor playing the first Chinese woman to come to New York, or a bhangra dancer waiting for her cue. You can find all of them here.

Artists and revolutionary makers have come here for hundreds of years, because it’s close to people who care about their work, and it’s quiet and beautiful. And they have found these hills a good place to build a creative life. The first woman to win a Pulitzer prize for her novels wrote them here, and the first man to found a company of men dancers settled here on a mountaintop. The places they built here support artists today, and so do many like them.

And if you’re looking for a hike in the hills, or a good place for a country breakfast with eggs from the farm across the way — or a historic museum celebrating freedom — they’re here too.