First Fridays Artswalk to showcase variety of media
Pittsfield — The March 2 First Fridays Artswalk will encompass almost a dozen art shows featuring over a dozen regional artists in Pittsfield’s Upstreet Cultural District. The event will kick off with opening receptions and artists present throughout, plus a free guided walking tour led by Artswalk co-founder Mary McGinnis beginning at 5 p.m. at the BRTA Intermodal Center.
The Lichtenstein Center for the Arts will host “Forty Shades of Green: Celebrating Ireland & Irish Culture,” which will feature contemporary and traditional artwork including photography, painting, sculpture and craft. Co-sponsored by Pittsfield’s Office of Cultural Development and the Pittsfield Irish Sister City Committee, the exhibit will enjoy a soft opening during the Artswalk as well as an opening reception Sunday, March 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. The Funky Phoenix will host a meet and greet with Scott R. McClintock of Skadamus Art, who will display new mixed-media table and wall sculpture made of salvaged wood, paint, textiles, construction debris and broken machinery. Downtown Pittsfield Inc. will feature artist Alexandria Gilbert’s “Joy In Bloom,” an exhibition of original botanical watercolors from Friday, March 2, to Friday, March 9. RJ Stohr Diamonds & Fine Jewelry will host the spirit-inspired fine art of Jeff Malderez for the month of March. The Gallery at Hotel on North will present “De/Reconstructed,” a series of watercolor collages by Stephanie Anderson for the month of March.
New shows from local artists will also be displayed at the Marketplace Café, Berkshire Paint and Sip, the Kinderhook Group Real Estate, Berkshire Museum and Berkshire Medical Center. For more information, contact Downtown Pittsfield Inc. at (413) 443-6501.
–E.E.
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Berkshire Waldorf High School teacher awarded NASA internship
Stockbridge — Berkshire Waldorf High School life science teacher Lee Magadini has been awarded a yearlong internship with the working with the Climate Change Research Initiative of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Magadini is one of four interns chosen from among thousands of applicants. As a CCRI intern, she will work directly with NASA scientists, lead research teams and develop STEM curricula. As an associate researcher at the NASA GISS and a STEM education expert, Magadini will integrate NASA education resources and content into her classroom while improving STEM education within her community.
As the primary life science teacher at Berkshire Waldorf High School for the past five years, Magadini has taught biology and earth science and led annual trips to study tide pool zoology on Maine’s Hermit Island. She holds a Master of Arts degree in high school life science education from New York University, and also teaches at the Secondary School for Field Research, a summer program partnered with Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
–E.E.
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IS183 presents ‘Colors for Peace’ art exhibit
Pittsfield — IS183 Art School of the Berkshires presents ‘I Colori Per La Pace (Colors for Peace),’ an exhibit on the subject of peace by over 500 Berkshire County elementary school artists, through Tuesday, March 13, at the Berkshire Athenaeum. Following the show, artwork will be sent to Italy to be displayed by the Colori Per La Pace association. A reception will be held Friday, March 2, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Colori Per La Pace collects drawings made by children all over the world and holds the largest international collection of child-made art. To date, more than 200 schools in over 80 countries on five continents have participated. The drawings are exhibited in the National Park of Peace in Sant’Anna di Stazzema and in traveling exhibitions in Italy and abroad.
For more information, contact IS183 at (413) 298-5252 x100.
–E.E.
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Historian Drew to discuss ‘East Rock Is Falling’
Monterey — The Bidwell House Museum will present “East Rock is Falling,” a talk by historian and Edge columnist Bernard A. Drew about his book of the same name, Saturday, March 3, at 10 a.m. at the Monterey Community Center.
Great Barrington’s East Rock was never in danger of falling despite a joshing Boston Post reporter’s sensational article in 1906. The town’s eastern hills do, however, brim with dozens of stories about such topics as geologist James Dwight Dana’s quartzite-schist discovery; George H. Kirchhoff’s prized Holstein Friesians; Jason Cooley’s faithful horse and Almira Cooley’s tasty baking; Henry F. Walling’s tripod signal tower for the area’s first topographic map; counterfeiter Gill Belcher’s secret cave; H.F. Keith’s proposed observation tower; John Devanny’s firestone quarry; Eugene E. Peirce’s Bung Hill triangulation point for town boundary surveys; G-Bar-S Ranch skiers; and Civilian Conservation Corps trailblazers.
Drew is a newspaper editor and columnist who has written reference books and Berkshire histories including books about Great Barrington, Monument Mountain, Lake Buel, Beartown, the Knox Trail, and the 18th– and 19th-century waterpowered industry in the Upper Housatonic River Valley. “East Rock is Falling” is the third volume in the author’s trilogy that includes “Faded Tracks on Monument Mountain” and “Bear Town Mountain.” Drew and his wife, Donna, live in Great Barrington.
The talk is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Bidwell House Museum at (413) 528-6888 or bidwellhouse@gmail.com.
–E.E.
