Berkshire Botanical Garden to host 84thannual Harvest Festival
Stockbridge — Berkshire Botanical Garden will host its 84th annual Harvest Festival Saturday, Oct. 6, and Sunday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Continuous family entertainment; a giant tag sale; an expanded plant sale; a farmers’ market’ and free workshops on cheese-making, cider-making, beekeeping and traditions of the harvest are scheduled. Children’s activities will include hay rides, pony rides, a pumpkin toss, a haunted house and a hay maze. A silent auction preview party will take place Friday, Oct. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. in BBG’s Center House, with the auction running through 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6. Live entertainment will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday with Andy Kelly’s Jazz Ambassadors and continuing with with the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School’s puppet wagon show, the Church Ladies, Tom Ricardi’s birds of prey, the Sunday Strummers ukulele ensemble, the Puppet Brigade, and Jack Waldheim. On Sunday, entertainment will also begin at 11 a.m. with the Berkshire Ramblers followed by the GBRSS puppet wagon show, Moonshine Holler, juggler Bryson Lang, David Grover, 8 Foot River and the Lucky Five. New this year is an exhibition of scarecrows throughout the festival created by sculptor Michael Melle of Plainfield; performances by the South County Aerialists; a live Saturday broadcast by WSBS; and Harvey the mini pig, who will entertain with a variety of tricks.
Admission is $7 for adults and free for children ages 12 and under. Harvest Festival wristbands can be pre-purchased at BBG’s Visitor Center through Friday, Oct. 5. Dogs, with the exception of service dogs, are not permitted at the festival. For more information, contact Berkshire Botanical Garden at (413) 298-3926 or info@berkshirebotanical.org.
–E.E.
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First Fridays Artswalk to feature more than 50 artists
Pittsfield — The Oct. 5 First Fridays Artswalk will encompass over a dozen art shows featuring more than 50 regional and student artists in Pittsfield’s Upstreet Cultural District from 5 to 8 p.m. The Artswalk will kick off with opening receptions and artists present throughout, plus a free guided walking tour beginning at 5 p.m. at the BRTA Intermodal Center.
The Berkshire Alzheimer’s Partnership will present the Alzheimer’s Association’s “Memories in the Making” art show and reception, featuring 40 to 50 watercolor paintings created by Berkshire County residents with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia at the Ralph Froio Senior Center, 330 North St. The reception will include wine, soft drinks, hors d’oeuvres and live music by Steve Smith.
The Lichtenstein Center for the Arts will host “Showing Up: for Our Communities, Our Neighborhoods and Our Selves,” a juried art show organized by the Berkshire Art Association. “Showing Up” is expressed and explored by 32 artists from the Northeast via the media of painting, drawing, sculpture and photography with wide-ranging interpretations of the theme. The exhibit will be on view through Friday, Nov. 16.
Marguerite Bride will show “Your Castle in Watercolor,” a collection of house portraits, at Steven Valenti’s Clothing for Men, 157 North Street, Wednesday, Oct. 3, through Saturday. Oct. 27; and Mike Carty, Scott Taylor and Terry Wise will exhibit “Red Orange Yellow, Green Blue Violet” at Dottie’s Coffee Lounge Friday, Oct. 5, through Monday, Dec. 31. Both shows will have receptions during Artswalk.
NUarts Studios and Gallery will host its last open studios event of the season with a behind-the-scenes look into the working lives of more than 20 artists and an invitation to make art with the artists in their studios. A welcome reception for new NUarts member artist Ilene Richard, a painter and children’s-book illustrator, will be held in Studio 6. Richard will feature large colorful figurative paintings at NUarts and Mary’s Carrot Cake.
New shows from local artists will also be displayed at the Marketplace Café, the Funky Phoenix, Berkshire Paint and Sip, Downtown Pittsfield, Inc., the Kinderhook Group Real Estate, the Brothership Building and Berkshire Medical Center. For more information, contact Downtown Pittsfield Inc. at (413) 443-6501.
–E.E.
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Thursday Morning Club to present house tour
Great Barrington — The Thursday Morning Club will present its second annual house tour Saturday, Oct. 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour will include five houses that span the architectural spectrum from the early 19th to the 21st century with manicured gardens, broad views and interesting interiors. Two of the houses have been featured in the New York Times and Berkshire Magazine.
Tickets are $20. Proceeds will benefit the Thursday Morning Club’s scholarship fund, which grants scholarships of $500–$1,000 to students from Mount Everett and Monument Mountain regional high schools. Tickets are available from Barnbrook Realty’s Great Barrington office at 271 Main St. or by contacting the Thursday Morning Club at P.O. Box 422, Great Barrington, MA 01230.
–E.E.
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Berkshire Museum to screen ‘The Lost Forests of New England’
Pittsfield — Berkshire Museum’s Little Cinema will screen the documentary film “The Lost Forests of New England” Friday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.
This 2018 film features footage of rare ancient forests, some of which are located in the Berkshires. Leading experts and drone videography help tell the story of what the forests were before European settlement, what changes have taken place, and what the remnant old-growth stands look like today.
Filmmaker Ray Asselin will introduce the film and join a post-film discussion that will include Native Tree Society co-founder and author Bob Leverett; Joan Maloof, professor emeritus of biological sciences and environmental studies and founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network; and William Moomaw, professor emeritus of international environmental policy at the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and founder of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy. The discussion will feature the latest science on forest ecosystems with a focus on how letting forests grow can slow climate change. The panel will also offer ideas for public policies that can save money, support rural economic development and help the forests thrive in the future.
Tickets are $7.50 for the general public and $5 for Berkshire Museum members. For tickets and more information, contact the Berkshire Museum at (413) 443-7171.
–E.E.
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Grafton Peace Pagoda to hold 25th anniversary ceremony
Petersburg, N.Y. — The Grafton Peace Pagoda will hold a ceremony to celebrate its 25thanniversary Saturday, Oct. 6, at 11 a.m. The Buddhist ceremony will include interfaith prayers for peace; a keynote speech by Martha Hennesey of Kings Bay Plowshares; a commemoration of the one-year memorial of American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis Banks by his daughter Tashina Banks Rama; Japanese taiko drumming; and a potluck community meal after the ceremony. Attendees are advised to bring warm clothes and a blanket, and to arrive early to allow enough time for parking and walking to the ceremony site. For more information, call the Grafton Peace Pagoda at (518) 658-9301.
–E.E.
