In 1894 the first book in the handwritten shelf list is Walt Whitman, poems like Leaves of Grass. In 1874, you might have been more likely to find Edmund Morris’ Ten Acres Enough.’ … When the Williamstown public library first opened to the town, it began with a collection of 100 agricultural books in a corner of H. Cole’s General Store.
Read articleLife in these hills goes back thousands of years in wide spirals of stories. Here we honor human stories, from the Mohican people who live and return here today to Elizabeth Freeman and W.E.B. DuBois, people who have come from many parts of the world to work here in the mills, and to live in the cities and the hills today, and many more.
WCMA maps the Unfinished Project of Liberation
From many perspectives, internationally acclaimed artists are looking closely at the roots of the nation’s ideas of freedom, and how they play out in the 21st century.
Read articleYiddish reveals a language of Global Culture
The Yiddish Book Center explores the vitality of an international living language as it transforms into ‘the first comprehensive museum of modern Yiddish culture in the world.’
Read articleBeatriz Cortez’ Portals open across time
Los Angeles artist Beatriz Cortez speaks to people across time in Portals at the Williams College Museum of Art, sharing resonances with Antigua and Guatemala and El Salvador.
Read articleMoving right along — Tony Sarg gives puppets an artist’s hands
Tony Sarg has come a long way to reach the Norman Rockwell Museum this summer. An artist and illustrator in Germany, London and New York, he influenced puppetry across America — even to the Muppets.
Read articleBeninois artist Georges Adéagbo invokes Abraham Lincoln
An internationally acclaimed artist crosses the Atlantic to open a site-specific work, ‘Create to Free Yourselves: Abraham Lincoln and the History of Freeing Slaves in America,’ a mosaic of ideas, stories, music and sculpture at Chesterwood.
Read articleHere be dragons … real ones #berkshireweekend
I met a dragon in the ruins at Ashintully. A live one — really. She’s a bearded dragon named Phoebe, and she came up with a young couple exploring the hills …
Read articleThe Ancient Beauty of the Hoosic and the Housatonic
Tricia De Souza’s North Adams podcast continues with an in-depth look at the life, history and future of the Hoosic River.
Listen to podcastIntroducing Podcast Series ‘Back in the Berkshires’
North Adams may be small, but it is strong. Listen to this podcast to learn about its prominence in World War II and its ongoing evolution.
Listen to podcast‘Imprinted’ honors BIPOC artists and histories and futures
Imprinted at the Norman Rockwell Museum honors contemporary BIPOC artists and considers representations of Black, Indigenous, people of color in America across 400 years.
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