December First Fridays Artswalk
Pittsfield — The First Fridays Artswalk on Friday, Dec. 2, from 5 to 8 p.m. will encompass 15 art shows featuring more than two dozen accomplished regional artists in Pittsfield’s bustling Upstreet Cultural District. 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. Holiday carolers featuring the cast of the Town Players of Pittsfield’s “Christmastime in the City” will entertain in various venues from 5 to 7 p.m. The evening will culminate in a free after-walk party featuring a performance by Brian Mindlin and guests from 8 to 10 p.m. at the Whitney Center for the Arts.
The Berkshire Museum’s BerkshireNow Gallery will host “CATA Art on Tour,” an exhibit featuring work by artists from Community Access to the Arts, through February 2017. The Whitney Center for the Arts will present “Fourth Annual Whimsy,” featuring art by Cecilia Barrett Stevens, Anna Brahms, Linda Graves, Tom McGill, RJ Rosegarten, and Debra Simonetta through January 2017. Forty wreaths created by regional artists, 10 of which will be auctioned live at 6:30 p.m. to raise money for Berkshire food pantries, will be on display at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts. NUarts will host a holiday art sale with work by Joan Ciolfi, Kathy Gideon, Ellen Joffe-Halpern, Stacey Healy, Karen S. Jacobs, Sophie Lane, Martha Peskin, Sam Ponder, Sally Tiska Rice, Marney Schorr and Claudia Shuster. A local vendor event will take place at Crawford Square from 5 to 8 p.m. and will include B-Mile Baskets, Bo Bears, Mary Kay, Thirty-One Gifts, Vintage Clothing, Tastefully Simple, Stella and Dot, and Rodan & Fields.
Third Berkshire District State Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier will hold a holiday celebration at Downtown Pittsfield Inc. to support Berkshire Community Action Council’s annual children’s warm clothing drive with music, local student artwork, and the opportunity to pick a mitten from the “the Giving Tree” which identifies the name of a child in need. New shows from local artists will also be displayed at RJ Stohr Diamonds & Fine Jewelry, Steven Valenti’s Clothing for Men, Hotel on North, Dottie’s Coffee Lounge, the Marketplace Café, Bagels Too, Berkshire Paint and Sip, the BOOM Room, and the Kinderhook Group Real Estate.
For more information on First Fridays Artswalk, call Downtown Pittsfield Inc. at (413) 443-6501.
–E.E.
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CEWM to present ‘The Passion of Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck’
Great Barrington — Close Encounters With Music (CEWM) will present “The Passion of Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck” on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 6 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.
Pianist Roman Rabinovich and violinists Diana Cohen, Sarah McElravy and Julian Rachlin will make palpable the impassioned desire of composers Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck, who, along with all of Paris, were in love with Augusta Holmès, a student at the Conservatoire who went on to become a pivotal figure in the artistic circles of fin-de-siècle Paris. The program will include Saint-Saëns’ Violin Sonata No. 1 and the Franck Piano Quintet.
Tickets are $25–$45. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the Mahaiwe box office at (413) 528-0100.
–E.E.
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BIFF to screen ‘SEED: The Untold Story’
Great Barrington — The Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) will sponsor a screening of “SEED: The Untold Story” at the Triplex Cinema on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m.
In the last century, 94 percent of seed varieties have disappeared. As chemical companies control the majority of seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a battle to defend the future of food. The documentary film “SEED: The Untold Story” follows passionate seed keepers protecting a 12,000 year-old food legacy and features Vandana Shiva, Jane Goodall, Andrew Kimbrell, Winona Laduke and Raj Patel.
Tickets are $15 for BIFF REEL Friends and $20 for the general public. A wine and cheese reception will begin at 6 p.m. and the film will be followed by a panel discussion with Ted Dobson of Equinox Farm and Lawrence Davis-Hollander, a botanist and the founder and former director of the Eastern Native Seed Conservancy.
–E.E.
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Club Helsinki Hudson to welcome piano prodigy Joey Alexander
Hudson, N.Y. — On Friday, Dec. 2, Club Helsinki Hudson will present the Joey Alexander Trio at 8 p.m.
Thirteen-year-old jazz pianist Joey Alexander has already played New York City’s Apollo Theater and stunned the crowd at the Newport Jazz Festival after finishing up a residency at New York City’s Jazz Standard nightclub. He’s been the subject of a lengthy profile in the New York Times, and has been featured by NPR, the Boston Globe, and Westchester Magazine. His debut album, “My Favorite Things,” was nominated for Best Instrumental Jazz Album in the 2016 Grammy Awards. He’s even performed at the White House.
Born in Denpassar, Bali, in 2003, Alexander first encountered a piano at the age of six, and was immediately able to pick out the melody of Thelonious Monk’s “Well, You Needn’t” and other jazz standards from his father’s record collection. Despite no formal jazz education, Alexander rose quickly in the Indonesian jazz scene and beyond. In 2013 he was featured at jazz festivals in both Jakarta and Copenhagen, and won the international improvisation contest in Odessa, Ukraine, besting more than 200 adult contestants.
For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the club at (518) 828-4800.
–E.E.
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CoA to hold holiday party
Egremont — The Egremont and Mt. Washington Councils on Aging (CoA) will hold hosting their annual holiday party on Sunday, Dec. 4, at 2 p.m. at the Egremont Village Inn. The event is free and open to all ages and will feature face painting for children, a cash bar for the adults, and award-winning journalist, radio host and writer John Hockenberry, who will speak on what makes a good story and then offer up a holiday-themed tale. Those who are interested in attending are asked to RSVP by Thursday, Dec. 1, to (413) 528-0182 x17 or wbrinker@egremont-ma.gov.
–E.E.
