A young man and a young woman stand on a river bank in Cameroon. They are barefoot in swim suits, arguing passionately about music. She wants to listen to songs like the Beatles in her own way, and play them with her own sound, and he wants to compose his […]
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Renoir touches the body with light at the Clark Art Institute
Pierre Auguste Renoir is known as a painter of optimism. His scenes brim with light and color. Adriatic blue water laps close enough to touch. Men and women sit at cafe tables, laughing under lime trees and lanterns. Couples waltz outdoors on warm nights. He is one of the founders […]
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Fall wildflowers come in with a flourish
Throughout the Northeast, nature rushes to display one last event of the growing season. The late summer and early autumn flourish of brilliant wildflowers on a September or October afternoon are worth an outing. To see it at its best, you’ll need to stroll through meadows and fields, although in […]
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‘Suffering from Realness’ at Mass MoCA
A woman stands in sunlight, and she looks out with a level, intelligent and sombre gaze at a world where a few generations ago she would have been enslaved. A soldier returns from duty in Afghanistan to face people who turn away on an American street. At Mass MoCA, 16 […]
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Honey on the roof: Clark Art Institute cultivates bees and meadows
The scent of honey and wood smoke is as thick as the warm, dense hum. The worker bees are active today. A few hot days have come after cool, wet weeks, and the wild primrose are blooming in the pastures. David Thayer gently lifts a small wood and mesh box to […]
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‘Selling Kabul’ shows courage at Williamstown Theatre Festival
A young man is sitting on a thick, warmly-colored rug and leaning against the couch that wraps around the room, trying to fix the router. He wants to check his email. He wants to distract himself, because his wife is in the hospital, in labor with his first child. He […]
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Internationally acclaimed artist Doug Aitken launches New Horizon
It will gleam like lake water and drift in a clear sky. In late July, the internationally acclaimed artist Doug Aitken will bring a new work to the Berkshires. And it will fly. New Horizon is an abstract sculpture and a moving stage — and a hot air balloon. By […]
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Berkshire labyrinths offer a quiet journey into a new future
A curve drawn in one movement becomes a pathway on a hillside. Walk slowly on a spring morning. The cherry trees are blooming. A woodpecker drums in the wood over the hill. The path turns with each step, toward the lake in the valley, toward the wooded slope above it. […]
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Rachel Barenblat and a circle of rabbis build a contemporary community
At the foot of Mount Greylock, a round building with a wall of windows looks out at the the stone path of a labyrinth in the grass. The center of the room is a sanctuary, and a woman stands taking in the light. She moves with poised self-command and an […]
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Holiday music warms the Berkshires in midwinter — BTW column
Winds in the reeds lift a clear tone in longing for home — a heartbeat Last year, on a snowy day, we heard a solo harp. Students sang a medieval carol and a modern one by Richard Wilbur, our former poet Laureate and former Berkshire voice in the hills, and […]
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