Bits & Bytes: Woofstock 2018; Zoid inauguration at Art Omi; TENET Vocal Artists at Music & More; Safe Sitter class for teens

Woofstock dog walk to support Berkshire Humane Society

Pittsfield — Berkshire Humane Society will hold Woofstock, its annual fundraising dog walk, Sunday, Sept. 9, at the First Street Common. New to the event this year is a 5K race timed by Berkshire Running Center. Day-of registration will begins at 9 a.m. with the race kicking off at 10 a.m. and the dog walk following at 11 a.m. Dogs are invited to join for both the 5K race and the dog walk.

In addition to free canine games for people and their dogs, Woofstock will include a craft fair, beer tent, food trucks, and live music by Acoustic Groove and Bottoms Up. Woofstock invites participants to raise money on behalf of BHS’ shelter animals and register to walk a loop around downtown with or without their dogs. Prizes are available for increasing levels of fundraising. Those who are unable to attend the event may participate virtually by signing up online, raising money and walking in their own time.

For a complete schedule of events as well as registration information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or contact Berkshire Humane Society at (413) 477-7878 x131.

–E.E.

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A rendering of Zoid, an architecture project by LevenBetts. Image courtesy LevenBetts and Art Omi

Art Omi to inaugurate Zoid

Ghent, N.Y. — On Saturday, Sept. 8, from 1 to 4 p.m., Art Omi will host an afternoon celebrating new and experimental architecture in and around the Hudson Valley region, featuring the inauguration of the LevenBetts project Zoid as well as a book signing with “Hudson Modern: Residential Landscapes” author David Sokol.

Zoid, the latest pavilion to be included in Art Omi’s Architecture Field 01, is an architect’s artwork: a shelter made of six equal repeated shapes that enclose an open courtyard. Both a stripped down shelter and a “proto-proto-type” for an affordable house, Zoid is designed to prioritize nature and the collective engagement with others. Affordability and habitability will be the ultimate goal of Zoid as both a shelter and as a house; as such the project intends to recast the material production of socially just living space.

David Leven and Stella Betts are architects and artists who together have made spaces for the display of art and have created work for arts exhibitions. They started their New York City-based award-winning architecture practice, LevenBetts, in 1997 and focus on art and design at all scales including urban design, public architecture, houses and housing, commercial workspaces, exhibitions, and furniture.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Art Omi at (518) 392-4747 or info@artomi.org.

–E.E.

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Music & More to present TENET Vocal Artists’ Jolle Greenleaf, Molly Quinn

Jolle Greenleaf, left, and Molly Quinn of TENET Vocal Artists. Photo courtesy New Marlborough Village Association

New Marlborough — The New Marlborough Village Association’s Music & More series will present sopranos Jolle Greenleaf and Molly Quinn of TENET Vocal Artists in “UNO + ONE: Italia Nostra” Saturday, Sept. 8., at 4:30 p.m. at the New Marlborough Meeting House, 154 Hartsville-New Marlborough Road. A reception with the artists will follow in the Meeting House Art Gallery.

New York City-based early music ensemble TENET Vocal Artists has won acclaim for innovative programming, virtuosic singing and command of repertoire that spans the Middle Ages to the present day. Renowned for their interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, TENET Vocal Artists’ soloists have been praised for their pristine voice-to-a-part singing. TENET Vocal Artists perform regularly at venues in and around New York City, and at festivals and prominent locations throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe. Greenleaf and Quinn are TENET’s featured sopranos. In the New Marlborough performance, they will collaborate with harpsichordist Jeffrey Grossman and theorbist Adam Cockerham. The repertoire of “UNO + ONE: Italia Nostra” focuses on the revolutionary breakthroughs in vocal style that were championed by Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries. A CD of the program was released in 2014 on Avie Records and was named “Album of the Week” by WQXR.

Tickets are $20 for members, $25 for nonmembers and free for youth under age 18. For tickets and more information, contact the New Marlborough Village Association at (413) 229-2785 or contact@newmarlborough.org.

–E.E.

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Fairview Hospital to hold Safe Sitter class for teens

Great Barrington — Fairview Hospital will hold a Safe Sitter course for young teens in grades 6 through 8 Saturday, Sept. 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the hospital’s ground floor conference room.

The course provides hands-on practice in lifesaving techniques to young teens who are home alone, watching younger siblings or babysitting so they will be equipped with the skills and confidence to act in the event of an emergency. They will learn basic first aid, infant and child choking rescue, and CPR. Students will also receive instruction on how a child’s age affects how to care for them, how to prevent problem behavior, and how to run their own babysitting businesses. Students who graduate from a Safe Sitter® course receive a completion card demonstrating that they know how to use their skills in situations they encounter.

The cost of the course is $50 and the registration deadline is Tuesday, Sept. 11. For more information or to register, call (413) 854-9729 x23.

–E.E.