Our Harvest of Hope event
Pittsfield— On September 11, Manos Unidas Cooperative, Reformation Academy, and Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc. will host the fifth annual Our Harvest of Hope/ Nuestra Cosecha de Esperanza 2022 event. The family friendly event will be held from 1-6 p.m. at The Common Park, 100 First St. in Pittsfield.
The event will feature a variety of arts including community art-making/mural creation, puppet shows, face painting, local artisans and makers, and multicultural performances of music and dance. Additionally, popular education workshops will be held, and local community resources including clothing and fresh fruit and veggies will be available. Multicultural food trucks will also be present at the event.
This event seeks to build community through arts and food, and is centered on themes of cooperative economics, environmental sustainability, and social justice.
For more information, visit https://fb.me/e/2HXx4YSgs
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Lenox Library’s Distinguished Lecture Series
Lenox– The 16th season of Lenox Library’s Distinguished Lecture Series will begin on Sunday, September 11 at 4 p.m., when Carl Sprague will discuss his work as a designer for stage and film, including his work with famed film director Wes Anderson. This event will take place in the main reading room of the Library, located at 18 Main Street, Lenox.
Carl Sprague has worked in the art department of more than 30 films, which between them have a combined total of 29 Oscar nominations, including best picture winner 12 Years a Slave. He has worked with Martin Scorsese (The Age of Innocence), Steven Spielberg (Amistad), and David Fincher (The Social Network), but the most enduring collaboration has been with Wes Anderson. Sprague has been in the art department of three of Anderson’s best-reviewed films — The Grand Budapest Hotel (concept illustrator), 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom (assistant art director), and 2001’s cult classic The Royal Tenenbaums (art director, for which he was nominated for an Art Director’s Guild Award). He lives in Stockbridge and New York.
The Lenox Library’s Distinguished Lecture Series will continue as follows:
- October 23, 2022, Donald Morrison, “The New Gilded Age”
- November 20, 2022: Rebecca Sheir and Eric Shimelonis, Host and Composer of WBUR’s Circle Round
- January 29, 2023: Kendra T. Field, Historian-in-Residence, The Du Bois Freedom Center
- February 26, 2023: “The Hidden People of the Berkshires,” featuring the leaders of Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity; Construct; and Western Massachusetts Labor Action
- March 26, 2023, Janet Pumphrey and Al Harper, “Accused Murderers Deserve Lawyers, Too: A Lenox Law Couple Takes on the Task”
- April 23, 2023: Author Aimee Molloy
All lectures will take place at 4:00 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Please visit https://lenoxlib.org or the Library’s Facebook page for more information.
Now in its 16th season, the Distinguished Lecture Series is organized and hosted by Dr. Jeremy Yudkin. Dr. Yudkin is a resident of the Berkshires and Professor of Music and Co-Director of the Center for Beethoven Research at Boston University. Every summer at the Lenox Library he presents pre-concert lectures for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood season.
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Writers Table second annual fall celebration
Falls Village, Conn.– On Sunday, September 11 at 4 p.m., the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village, Connecticut will host the second annual Writers Table Fall Celebration Reading outdoors under the library’s tent. The Writers Table is a local group of professional writers who have been meeting regularly for over twenty years.
Readers this year include authors and actors Gloria Parker and Howard Platt, and playwright and columnist Lonnie Carter who will read from his writings published in the Lakeville Journal. This event is free and open to the public, donations welcome. For more information, visit HuntLibrary.org or call 860-824-7424. David M. Hunt Library, 63 Main Street, Falls Village, CT.
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“California Dreamin’” at The Sandisfield Arts Center
Sandisfield— A new exhibit at The Sandisfield Arts Center, California Dreamin’: A Retrospective of Art from 1990 to 2020, features a curated collection of works by Jaye Alison Moscariello. The exhibition will open on September 10 with a reception from 4 – 6 p.m.
Jaye Alison Moscariello is an artist-interpreter of her external surroundings, inner personal landscapes, worldly issues, environmental worries and political concerns. She creates work in response to whatever is most pressing to her. Moscariello uses varied media to make work relying upon her skills and talents in a wide variety of expressive forms.
Moscariello’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, has appeared in print, film, television, the internet and Off Off Broadway. One project, an artistic residential installation, was a popular destination on the Open House New York Tour for over a decade.
Moscariello currently resides in Sandisfield, Massachusetts.
The show runs through October 8 and can be viewed before other scheduled events, or by emailing gallery@sandifieldartscenter.org or calling (310) 970-4517 to arrange a viewing.
More of Jaye’s work can be viewed at jayesite.com
More information and events can be viewed at sandisfieldartscenter.org.
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Grammy-winning musician MISTER G to give free performance at The Mount
Lenox—The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home, will host a free dual-language concert and Storywalk at 11 a.m. on Sunday, September 11, featuring beloved children’s author and musician, MISTER G (Ben Gundersheimer).
The 2015 Latin Grammy award-winner for Best Children’s Album, MISTER G is a superstar in the world of family music. Called “a bilingual rockstar” by The Washington Post, and “irresistible” by People magazine, Mister G has received national critical acclaim and won three Parents’ Choice Gold Awards.
The concert and Storywalk on The Mount’s grounds (2 Plunkett Street, Lenox) will fuse music and storytelling based on MISTER G’s picture book Señorita Mariposa. Illustrated by Marcos Almada Rivero, the story chronicles the extraordinary migration of monarch butterflies from Canada to México, and aims to inspire the next generation of eco-activists and spark dialogue about global citizenship and environmental stewardship.
Patricia Pin, The Mount’s Director of Public Programming, shares, “We are excited to host MISTER G as part of a larger initiative to expand programming for kids who add vibrancy to the property with their curiosity and enthusiasm.”
Families are encouraged to bring a picnic to enjoy on the grounds before or after the concert. Kids’ snacks will also be available. Registration is not required to attend this free event. The concert will take place under a large outdoor tent, rain or shine.
Please see edithwharton.org for additional details and to learn more about MISTER G.
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MassDOT announces ninth annual Safe Streets Smart Trips high school video contest
Boston— The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is pleased to announce entries are now being accepted for the ninth annual statewide high school video contest: Safe Streets Smart Trips. The contest, which began in 2014, encourages high school students to showcase their understanding of roadway safety across all travel modes to try to decrease pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities. The contest serves as an initiative of the Massachusetts Strategic Highway Safety Plan to promote safe walking, bicycling, and driving behaviors within the Commonwealth.
“We look forward to seeing the videos created by high school students that will help raise awareness about how to stay safe when walking, bicycling, and driving,” said Transportation Secretary and CEO Jamey Tesler. “Each year, students from across the state have used humor, facts, and real-life incidents to underscore how all of us have to put safety first and do our part to reduce injuries and deaths on the roadways.”
The video contest, which is open to all Massachusetts public high school students, features a Freshman/Sophomore category and Junior/Senior category. Per contest guidelines, this year students are being asked to write and produce a 30-60 second video that focuses on interpreting the various signs and pavement markings that are on roadways and in school zones and explaining their meaning.
Grand prize, runner-up, and honorable mention videos in each category (Freshman/Sophomore and Junior/Senior) will be chosen by a MassDOT panel. Winning videos will be shown November 1 at MassDOT’s annual active transportation conference, Moving Together, where the creators will receive their prizes including $600 Amazon gift cards for the grand prize videos and $300 Amazon gift cards for the runner-up videos. Top videos may also be used in future safety campaigns.
Complete contest guidelines can be found at Mass.gov/roadway-safety-video. All applications are due by 11:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 9.
