Cornelia Gilder to speak on historic Berkshire estates
Pittsfield — Historian and author Cornelia Brooke Gilder will give an illustrated talk entitled “Past Private Gateposts and Up Winding Drives: Historic Country Houses in the Berkshires” on Saturday, September 19 at 10:30 a.m. at Berkshire Community College. The talk is part of the Berkshire OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) 2015 Distinguished Speakers Series.
Architectural and social historian Gilder, co-author of Houses of the Berkshires and Hawthorne’s Lenox, will give a virtual tour of these storied “Gilded Age” places, telling about the big houses at the end of the driveways and the fascinating families who built them.
Tickets to the talk are $10 for OLLI members, $15 for non-members, and free to youth 17 and younger and Berkshire Community College students and staff. The talk will be held in the K-111 lecture hall in the Koussevitsky Arts Center at Berkshire Community College. For more information or to reserve tickets, call Berkshire OLLI at (413) 236-2190.
— E.E.
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Montessori School of the Berkshires 10th year celebration
Lenox Dale — The Montessori School of the Berkshires is kicking off its tenth year of educating childen with a celebration on Saturday, September 19 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The school will be welcoming back alumni, founding families, and staff, along with current families and community members who have helped to reach this milestone.
The Montessori School of the Berkshires was founded by husband and wife Todd Covert and Meagan Ledendecker in September 2006 in the former Lenox Commons shopping center with 26 students. The current facility includes 9,000 square feet on 40 acres with expanded toddler and adolescent education programs and new curriculae in drama, organic gardening, and Spanish language immersion.
For more information contact the school at (413) 637-3662.
— E.E.
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Williams College Social Change Series: ‘The Punk Singer’
Williamstown — A film series that focuses on social change will open on Wednesday, September 23, at Images Cinema with a showing of “The Punk Singer” at 7 p.m. The Social Change Film Series is being hosted by Williams College’s Davis Center and will feature a different film each month. Faculty will hold a discussion after each film.
“The Punk Singer” is a 2013 documentary film directed by Sini Anderson that follows feminist activist, punk zine writer, and lead singer of punk bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre Kathleen Hanna. Faculty discussing the film will be visiting assistant professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies Margaux Cowden and Laylah Ali, professor of art.
The series will also include “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” on Wednesday, October 7; “The Wanted 18” on Wednesday, November 11; and “Blood Fruit” on Wednesday, December 2.
–E.E.
