Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas
Stockbridge — On the first weekend of December each year, the town of Stockbridge celebrates Norman Rockwell’s painting “Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas” with activities that bring locals and visitors alike home for the holidays. This year’s celebration will take place Friday, Dec. 2, through Sunday, Dec. 4.
The weekend will include a self-guided holiday house tour, which will take place on Saturday and feature Berkshire cottages and private homes decorated for the holidays. The musical highlight of the weekend will take place on Saturday evening when more than 100 carolers will rejoice with songs of the season from the porch of the Red Lion Inn and then proceed through a luminous walkway to the First Congregational Church where Berkshire Lyric will perform.
Capping off the weekend on Sunday, the town will reenact the spirit Rockwell’s famous holiday scene. Roger the Jester will perform on one end of the street while horse-drawn rides and visits with Santa take place on the other end. Music will fill the air when a local high school choir performs in Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church and the Londontown Carolers sing on the front porch of the Red Lion Inn. Children can enjoy treats from the Pocket Lady and holiday art at Santa’s Workshop offered by the Norman Rockwell Museum. There will also be plenty of photo opportunities and a Christmas cafe from the Red Lion Inn.
For more information and a full schedule of events, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the Stockbridge Chamber of Commerce at (413) 298-5200.
–E.E.
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Oldtone Productions to hold benefit concert for Standing Rock
Sheffield — On Saturday, Dec. 3, from 7 to 11 p.m. at Dewey Hall, Oldtone Productions will hold a benefit concert to support Standing Rock Native American Reservation in North Dakota in its effort to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline that threatens Native sacred sites and the water supply for the Sioux Nation.
The Lucky 5, Easy Ridin’ Papas, Oxbow Road, Chris Neumann, and others will perform. Speakers will include Jeremy Stanton of the Meat Market, who recently fed Thanksgiving dinner to more than 2,000 people at Standing Rock, and spiritual peace activist and filmmaker Fidel Moreno, who is working on media outreach for the Oceti Sakowin Camp with a documentary titled “Standing Behind Standing Rock” and just returning from his second visit to the reservation.
Tickets are $20 cash only at the door and additional donations are encouraged. All funds raised will be sent to the Oceti Sakowin Camp. In addition to first aid and winter gear, funds raised from this event will go to purchase a satellite dish and additional bandwidth to allow for news to be broadcast from the camp.
–E.E.
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Illustrator Elwood H. Smith to speak at Lenox Library
Lenox — On Sunday, Dec. 4, at 4 p.m., the Lenox Library will present illustrator Elwood H. Smith in a talk titled “An Art Career Morphs into a Circus” as part of its Distinguished Lecture Series.
Smith is an award-winning, internationally known illustrator whose work has graced the pages and covers of TIME, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other publications. He studied art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Institute of Design at IIT in Chicago. After working as an advertising art director in Chicago, illustration brought him to New York in 1976, and his own comic style began to take form. In 2011, the Norman Rockwell Museum featured his work in the exhibition “Elwood’s World: The Art and Animations of Elwood H. Smith.” Smith has written children’s books and two musicals for children with his late wife, Maggie Pickard, who was also his creative partner and representative. He has illustrated numerous children’s books for major publishers and was writer and artist for his latest two books, “I’m Not a Pig in Underpants” and “How To Draw With Your Funny Bone,” both published by the Creative Company. He is also a songwriter who plays guitar and mandolin in his two bands, the Polecats and the Rusty Ramblers.
For more information, call the library at (413) 637-2630.
–E.E.
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Cantilena Chamber Choir to perform ‘World’s Best Christmas Carols’
Lenox — The Cantilena Chamber Choir will present the World’s Greatest Christmas Carols (according to the BBC) at Trinity Church on Sunday, Dec. 4, at 3p.m. with special guests the award-winning Taconic High School choir under the direction of Jessica Passetto.
On the program will be Tchaikovsky’s setting of “Crown of Roses” sung in Russian and favorite John Rutter settings of English carols such as “Here Is That Little Door” and “There Is a Flower.” Settings by Americans Stephen Paulus and Gregg Smith of “Gabriel’s Message and the Coventry Carol will be performed along with a carol sing-along.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, and free for children 12 and under. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or contact (518) 791-0185 or satbchoir@yahoo.com.
–E.E.
