Editor’s Note: We had so much news this week that we decided to break Bits & Bytes into two parts. This is the second part.
The Lenox Garden Club presents Jane Godshalk at the Mount and Berkshire Botanical Garden
Lenox— On Wednesday, September 13th from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at The Mount and again from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Berkshire Botanical Garden, the Lenox Garden Club presents “Jane Godshalk: Floral Design Through The Ages”.
At The Mount on Plunkett Street in Lenox at 11 a.m, join Jane Godshalk, an internationally acclaimed floral designer and teacher, Artistic Judge for the Garden Club of America, and a Certified Evaluator for the American Institute of Floral Design for a presentation on historical designs and a demonstration of five contemporary interpretations. Using fresh flowers, greens, and unique containers, she will provide commentary as she shows us how to create arrangements with flair and style. The resulting arrangements will be raffled off to attendees. The cost to attend is $40 for the general public and $35 for members of The Mount, the Garden Club of America, and for groups of ten or more.
At the Berkshire Botanical Garden on West Stockbridge Road in Stockbridge at 2 p.m., join Jane offers an afternoon workshop for those who would enjoy a hands-on opportunity to create a horizontal table design to take home, guided by Jane. In keeping with emerging standards for floral design, this arrangement will be made with reusable materials and without the use of floral foam. The cost for this session is $100 and includes the container, foliage, and flowers.
Tickets and more information can be found online. For more information, email lenoxgcevents@gmail.com.
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The first ever ‘Dewey Hall Dahlia Festival and Contest’ to include workshops and a home grown dahlia bloom contest
Sheffield— On Sunday, September 17th from noon to 4 p.m. is the first ever Dewey Hall Dahlia Festival and Contest, including workshops and a home grown dahlia bloom contest.
Activities will include a prize for the best garden hat, a flower crown workshop, raffle prizes, and an auction for floral arrangements by Ariella Chezar. The event will be followed by a floral demonstration by Ariella Chezar on Friday, September 22nd from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The festival is on Sunday, September 17th from noon to 4 p.m. at Dewey Memorial Hall on Main Street in Sheffield. Sandwiches, salads, and flowery cocktails will be available for purchase. The festival is free to attend, but workshops are ticketed and you must register in advance. Registration and more information can be found online.
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‘Honoring Our Plant and Animal Teachers’, a writing workshop with Jennifer Browdy and Tes Reed
New Marlborough— On Friday, September 15th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., local author and professor Jennifer Browdy teams up with wilderness educator Tes Reed to offer a special daylong writing workshop, “Honoring Our Plant and Animal Teachers”.
Plants and animals, whether mythic, wild, domestic, or in the dream/spirit world, have much to teach us about living fully and well. For this day of generative writing, you’ll immerse yourself in the outdoors communing with Berkshire trees, ferns, fungi, as well as with the animals, birds and butterflies of the forest, seeking the kind of mythic communication that the natural world always offers to humans when we pay attention.
Through carefully designed writing prompts, guided visualization, group activities and plenty of quiet time for writing and meditation, you’ll explore your relationship with your plant and animal teachers, coming away refreshed and creatively enlivened.
Jennifer Browdy is a professor of literature and media arts at Bard College/Simon’s Rock and the online global Open Society University Network, focusing on purposeful memoir and media arts for social and environmental justice. Her award-winning books include a memoir, “What I Forgot…And Why I Remembered”, which tells the story of her midlife reconnection with the natural world she loved passionately as a child, and two writers’ guides, “Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future” and “The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir”.
Tes Reed grew up on an old colonial farm in the Berkshire village of New Marlborough. Raised to explore, learn from, and cherish the natural world, her love affair with the wild is still going strong after more than 50 years. Trained as a Citizen Tracker through Keeping Track in Vermont, Tes has trained and worked as a wilderness educator at Flying Deer Nature Center in East Chatham, N.Y., where she has co-directed the girls’ Rites of Passage program for the last 14 years. She offers nature-based wilderness programs to children and adults, and currently serves on the board of directors for the New Marlborough Land Trust.
The workshop is on Friday, September 15th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the beautiful forest around Tes Reed’s home at 138 Caulkins Cross Road in New Marlborough. The cost is $150. Register online. The rain date is September 18th.
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The Berkshire Museum presents an informal discussion hour with a Museum Educator about Egyptology and their resident Mummy – Pahat!
Pittsfield— On Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., the Berkshire Museum presents an informal discussion hour with a Museum Educator about Egyptology and their resident Mummy, Pahat!
Are you ready to learn the history of Pahat and his journey to the Berkshires?
The all-ages discussions are on Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Berkshire Museum on South Street in Pittsfield. They are included with the price of admission. More information can be found online.
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The Scoville Memorial Library presents an Advanced Poetry Writing Workshop with Sally Van Doren
Salisbury— On September 22nd from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., the Scoville Memorial Library presents an Advanced Poetry Writing Workshop with Sally Van Doren.
In this immersive writing experience, you will strive to expand and develop your poetic voice using in-class prompts and discussion. By writing new poems in this constructive setting, find out how others hear you and how you can best hear yourself.
An artist and prize-winning poet, Sally Van Doren is the author of four collections of poetry including “Sibilance,” forthcoming from LSU Press September 27, 2023. She has taught poetry at the 92nd Street Y, Washington University, and the St. Louis Public Schools. She holds a BA from Princeton University and an MFA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
The workshop is on September 22nd from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Oak Room at the Scoville Memorial Library on Main Street in Salisbury. Registration is required and priority is given to those who have participated previously. Register online. For first-time applicants, please submit one or two poems to scovilleadultprograms@biblio.org.
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Berkshire Pulse announces fall classes and programs for all ages
Housatonic— Berkshire Pulse announces fall classes and programs for all ages.
Berkshire Pulse is a dynamic dance and performing arts education center with youth, teen, and adult classes, in-school programs, community programs, residencies, and rentals. They offer a range of music, dance, and movement classes for all ages and levels. In-studio classes for youth, teens, and adults are offered six days a week with beginner through advanced levels in ballet, modern, choreography, musical theater, tap, African, dance for boys, flamenco, jazz, hip hop, acting, drumming, and more.
Berkshire Pulse has never turned away a student for an inability to pay. Tuition Assistance is available for all regular classes, including an ongoing 100% discount for Performing Arts Program Enrollments and Community Classes to families with a valid Massachusetts EBT, WIC, or ConnectorCare card. Berkshire Pulse brings people of all ages together to learn new skills, express themselves, connect, have fun, and lead healthier lives. Learn more online, by calling 413-274-6624 or by emailing berkshire.pulse@gmail.com.
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Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training is offering a six-session, online class titled ‘Linklater Voice: The Progression II‘
Lenox— Beginning Tuesday, September 19th, Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training is offering a six-session, online class titled Linklater Voice: The Progression II.
Using the techniques set forth in Kristin Linklater’s practical approach to voice training from her book “Freeing the Natural Voice”, participants explore the potential of voice as an actor or public speaker by creating connections between thoughts, body, and voice.This class reinforces the relaxation, and generous vibration, explored in the first half of the Progression, and investigates how the voice can be strengthened by isolating and then blending the different resonators, expanding breath capacity, and finding an easy and efficient articulation.
The class will be led by actor, teacher, and director Tom Giordano, a designated Linklater Voice teacher and Shakespeare & Company artist. As the class focuses on the second half of the Progression, some experience with Linklater Voice is recommended.
Classes are Tuesdays September 19th through October 24th from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuition is $250. Scholarships are available for BIPOC artists and discounts are also available for training alumni and members of acting unions and the Shakespeare Theatre Association. Applications and more information can be found online or by calling 413-637-1199, ext. 114.
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Taconic Music’s Strings for Kids announces fall lessons
Manchester/Dorset— Taconic Music’s Strings for Kids offers violin, viola, and cello instruction throughout the school year for children ages five through eighteen, from beginning and intermediate through advanced levels. Lesson begins the week of September 18th.
2023–24 faculty includes Deanna Baasch (violin), Vesela French (violin and viola), Joana Genova (violin), Heather Münch (violin), François Sécordel, (violin), Ariel Rudiakov (viola), and Jared Shapiro (cello).
More information can be found online, by calling 802- 362-7162, or by emailing directors@taconicmusic.org.
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Berkshire Music School announces fall 2023 classes and lessons
Pittsfield— The Berkshire Music School is proud to announce expanded offerings for the 2023 Fall Semester.
The fall 2023 community group classes include an adult ukulele jam on Thursdays at 12:30 p.m., an informal lunch-break ukulele jam (beginners are welcome and ukuleles are available for use); Magic Violins for ages three to six, a Suzuki program in which professional musicians are develop through nurturing and building each child’s character through the study of music; and Música y Movimiento for ages three to seven offering musical opportunities in a Spanish-speaking environment, in collaboration with Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc. Transportation assistance is available for Música y Movimiento by texting 413-345-2354.
Have you ever wanted to be a music producer or beat-maker? In a newly offered three-day youth electronic music workshop, youth ages 10 to 14 will get their hands on some of the music industry’s most cutting-edge technology to make the sounds that they love. They’ll experiment inside the DAW with Midi controllers, synthesizers, and drum machines to collaborate with their peers and create music.
BMS Community Group Classes are offered on a pay-what-you-can basis. Register online using suggested pricing or for pay-what-you-can pricing, email lgranda@berkshiremusicschool.org or call 413-442-1411.
BMS also offers private lessons in voice, all band and orchestral instruments, and theory/solfege. Private lessons may be arranged in 30, 45, or 60-minute intervals, and may be scheduled by contacting BMS at 413-442-1411 or by emailing smoderksi@berkshiremusicschool.org.
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OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College fall classes begin September 18th. Register now!
Pittsfield— OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College fall classes begin September 18th. Registration is now open.
There is a wide variety of classes to explore including:
“Survival Arabic for Tourism Layovers, Cruises, and Tours” with Christine Canning on Wednesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Have you always wanted to cruise or travel to Dubai, Egypt, or some other hot-spot where everyone speaks Arabic? This interactive and engaging course will teach you basic literacy for shopping, eating, asking for help, directions, and basic cultural norms in Islamic countries. This course is for novices with no Arabic knowledge seeking to empower themselves for a great time on holiday.
“The Operas of Giuseppe Verdi” with Harvey Weiss on Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., a survey of many of the operatic masterpieces of Giuseppe Verdi including Oberto, La Traviata, Un Ballo, and Aida.
“African Rooted Dance and Music” with Noel Staples Freeman onThursdays from 11:30 a.m. -to 1 p.m. The purpose of this course is to teach introductory African rooted dance techniques from the African Diaspora using steps that are easy to follow. This course will help you understand the fundamental movements and the communication between Drummer and Dancer. This course is designed for people of all skill levels.
“Truth, Beauty and Goodness” with Larry Goldberg on Fridays from 1:30 p.m. to 3p.m. Where is wisdom to be found? In this course, we will explore how various disciplines answer this question. What positives and negatives do they present? What can we learn from each?
We may not solve all the world’s problems, but we will have fun trying!
This is a small sampling of the courses offered this fall. Visit OLLI online to explore the full schedule and learn how to register for classes.
