Have a glass of wine in the courtyard and listen to the river. Walk through an exhibit of hand-turned wooden bowls or empowering embroidery. Inside, you may hear the Del Sol Quartet from San Fransisco performing new compositions from their Angel Island Project, telling the stories of Chinese newcomers to America who were held, sometimes for years, at the immigration station in the San Francisco Bay and inscribed poetry into the walls there.

The Foundry in West Stockbridge is a new center for performing and visual arts, with a flexible gallery space and a black box theater for staged readings and open mics. It was built in 1994 as a glass-blowing studio, says owner and founder Amy Brentano, and she has converted it to house many kinds of creative expression.

It has become the new home of Bazaar Productions and the Berkshire Fringe Festival, which has brought new theater to the Berkshires from across the country for many years. And visiting performers come year-round.

In warm weather the West Stockbridge farmers market meets outside, and on winter evenings you might stop in for a radical sewing workshop or a cabaret, or an Australian blues singer …

Where to Find it

phone: 413-232-5222
website: View Venue Website
The Del Sol String Quartet will play the Foundry in November. Image courtesy of the artists.Berkshire woodworker David Haust shows hand-turned bowls at the Foundry.