Austen Riggs Center to renovate buildings via a MassDevelopment bond
Stockbridge — The Austen Riggs Center has announced that it has been issued a $3.5 million tax-exempt bond from MassDevelopment in order to renovate and improve two historic buildings on Main Street that it uses as patient residences. The renovations at the Elms building will include replacing windows and doors; partially demolishing and reconstructing interior space; replacing the roof; and installing new HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems. The renovations at the Inn building will include installing air conditioning; upgrading electrical, communications and fire alarm systems; and adding new furniture, fixtures and equipment.
MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During fiscal year 2017, MassDevelopment financed or managed 377 projects generating investment of more than $4.3 billion in the Massachusetts economy. The projects are projected to create about 9,488 jobs and build or rehabilitate 1,863 residential units.
–E.E.
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LABspace art gallery gets new leadership
Hillsdale, N.Y. — Artists and curators Julie Torres and Ellen Letcher will take over the reins of LABspace from artist Susan Jennings, who founded the art gallery and directed it since 2014. Jennings will continue to occasionally curate and host gallery events.
Torres is a Hudson, New York-based artist, curator and organizer specializing in community-expanding collaborations with likeminded artists. Her goal to support and connect kindred thinkers and makers has inspired recent curatorial projects “True North,” “Taconic North,” “Art in America,” “Family Style” and “Do it Yourself.” Torres’ artwork and curatorial adventures and have been covered by the Huffington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Hyperallergic, Two Coats of Paint, Bushwick Daily, Gawker and Gothamist.
Now located in Hudson New York, Letcher was raised in Baltimore, studied in Florida, and lived and worked in New York City for 19 years. After a decade in magazine publishing, Letcher co-founded and co-directed Famous Accountants art gallery in Ridgewood, New York, in 2009, which enjoyed a two-year run. Three times in her career, Letcher’s studio was headquartered in a basement bunker. She now enjoys the spacious expanse of the Hudson Valley.
–E.E.
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Designer moves jewelry boutique from Berkshires to Columbia County
Chatham, N.Y. — Jewelry designer Joane Cornell, who operated Joane Cornell Fine Jewelry in Lenox, Massachusetts, from 2002-2017, has moved her jewelry boutique, now called GLINT, to Columbia County.
Cornell began working in the fine jewelry industry in 1979 at a jewelry equipment supply house, heading to New York City’s Diamond District in 1983 to utilize her knowledge and hone her skills. Cornell arrived in the Berkshires in 2002 and maintained her jewelry boutique in Lenox through 2017. Recognized for 16 years for her classical designs, Cornell recently developed an edgier, slightly organic line. Using all precious metals as well as precious and semi-precious stones that have been harvested through dealers of ethical business practices in international locations, Cornell also uses an array of South Sea and cultured pearls in her designs. She hand-forges most of her designs in her Berkshire County studio.
–E.E.
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Devyn Olds wins golf management scholarship
Lee — The PGA of America has awarded an $8,000 scholarship to Lee resident Devyn Olds under the PGA WORKS Golf Management University scholarship program for the 2018-19 academic school year. The scholarships are designed to improve the recruitment and retention of talented and driven individuals from diverse backgrounds pursuing PGA membership through PGA Golf Management University programs nationwide.
Olds is a member of the PGA Golf Management University Program class of 2020 at
Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. A recipient of the Francis Ouimet Scholarship, Deacon Palmer Scholarship, Stan Thirsk Scholarship and William Menard Scholarship, Olds has been named to Coastal Carolina University’s president’s list on three occasions. He was also inducted into both the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society and Beta Gamma Sigma International Business Honor Society.
Scholarship recipients were selected on the basis of academic record, demonstrated leadership and participation in school and community activities, honors and work experience, a statement of goals and aspirations, unusual personal or family circumstances, an outside appraisal, demonstrated active participation in the game of golf, and playing ability.
–E.E.
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Salisbury Bank to hold Community Day
Sheffield — Salisbury Bank will hold a free Community Day Saturday, May 26, from 9 a.m. to noon at its Sheffield location. Each participant may bring up to four boxes of paper (no binders) for shredding by Legal Shred personnel. All shredded paper will be recycled.
Participants are asked to consider contributing a donation of nonperishable food items including canned goods, cereal, macaroni and cheese, cake mix, peanut butter, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and tomato sauce. Household necessities such as paper towels, diapers, shampoo and soap are also appreciated. The donated items will be distributed among local food pantries.
For more information, call Salisbury Bank at (413) 229-5000.
–E.E.
