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Business Briefs: Barr-Klarman arts initiative recipients; new Berkshire Immigrant Center board members; grants for Shakespeare & Company; Salisbury Bank promotes Goewey; YMCA award for Schmick

The Berkshire Immigrant Center welcomes Jenn Gomez, Helen Moon and Colin Ovitsky, all of Pittsfield, to its advisory board.

Local arts organizations to participate in Barr-Klarman Massachusetts Arts Initiative

Boston — The Barr Foundation has announced that Barrington Stage Company, Community Access to the Arts, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center and the Norman Rockwell Museumhave been selected to participate in the Barr-Klarman Massachusetts Arts Initiative.

A partnership between the Barr Foundation and the Klarman Family Foundation, the initiative is a $25 million, six-year investment in 29 arts and cultural organizations from across Massachusetts. Each participant in the initiative will receive multi-year, unrestricted operating grants. Additionally, through a grant to nonprofit consulting and research firm TDC, organizations will also receive customized training and technical assistance, and be eligible for supplemental funds for targeted research, capacity building, and/or pilot projects. Last week, the foundations made the first set of three-year grants under the new initiative.

In the next three years under the initiative and, BSC will receive $525,000; CATA will see $312,000; the Mahaiwe will gain $462,000; and NRM will take in $612,000.

–E.E.

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Berkshire Immigrant Center welcomes three to advisory board

Jenn Gomez. Photo courtesy Berkshire immigrant Center

Pittsfield — The Berkshire Immigrant Center welcomes Jenn Gomez, Helen Moon and Colin Ovitsky, all of Pittsfield, to its advisory board.

Gomez began her professional career in television news in Norfolk, Virginia. After two years as a news producer, she moved to Massachusetts to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA for the city of Pittsfield. She currently works in the marketing department of a school that serves young adults with autism and learning differences. She is a freelance videographer and marketing consultant, has previously served on the Artscape board, and is currently vice president of the Berkshire Art Association.

Helen Moon. Photo courtesy Berkshire Immigrant Center

Born in South Korea, Moon immigrated to the United States at the age of four and obtained her citizenship in 2001, two months after 9/11. Since then, she has been hyperaware of the rights and safety of immigrants and other marginalized groups. She considers moving to the Berkshires in 2008 one of the best decisions of her life. Moon currently works as a registered nurse in the critical care unit at Fairview Hospital, and as a visiting nurse for Porchlight VNA. She is also a Pittsfield City Councilor.

Colin Ovitsky. Photo courtesy Berkshire Immigrant Center

Ovitsky grew up in Berkshire County and is the administrative coordinator for the Williams College Center for Learning in Action. He was educated in the Pittsfield Public Schools and received his bachelor’s degree in entertainment management and production from UMass Amherst. He has worked in the music business in Boston and at Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice. Since returning to the Berkshires, Ovitsky has been a founder of the Berkshire Jewish Musicians Collective, and serves on the Knesset Israel board of directors of and the Four Freedoms Coalition’s executive committee. He is a 2018 recipient of the Berkshire Community College 40 Under Forty Award and finalist for the Berkshire Trendsetter Awards, as well as a husband and father of four children.

–E.E.

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Shakespeare & Company receives Mass Cultural Council grants

Lenox — Shakespeare & Company is the recent recipient of two education grants from the Mass Cultural Council. The Company was awarded $33,700 through MCC’s Cultural Investment Portfolio and $16,000 through MCC’s YouthReach for the nationally recognized Shakespeare in the Courts program.

The Shakespeare in the Courts program, organized in conjunction with the Berkshire Juvenile Court System, offers adolescent offenders and at-risk youth an opportunity to study, rehearse and perform Shakespeare as an alternative to more punitive consequences. Since 2001, Shakespeare & Company education artists have worked closely with juvenile court judges and the probation officers of Berkshire County to engage adolescent youth offenders and those in need of support and provide an alternative to traditional punitive measures. During this intensive and focused project, participants explore Shakespeare’s text and prepare their own performance piece as part of the terms of their probation.

–E.E. 

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Goewey promoted to regional branch manager

Amanda Goewey. Photo courtesy Salisbury Bank

Lakeville, Conn. — Salisbury Bank has announced the promotion of Amanda Goewey to vice president, Berkshire regional branch manager. In her new position, she will manage the banks Massachusetts branches in Sheffield, South Egremont and Great Barrington.

Goewey started her career with the bank in 2002 as a teller. From 2005 to 2007, she worked in the residential lending department as a loan coordinator. She returned to the bank in 2009 after a short leave and, in four years, was promoted to mortgage advisor. Goewey became assistant vice president, branch manager for the Sheffield and Egremont offices in March of 2014. Goewey resides in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, with her husband, Bill, and their daughters Ava and Olivia.

–E.E.

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Berkshire Money Management president receives award from Berkshire Family YMCA

President and COO Barbara Schmick with founder and CEO Allen Harris, both of Berkshire Money Management, at the ‘Changing Lives After 55’ award ceremony held Oct. 3 at Berkshire Hills Country Club in Pittsfield. Photo courtesy Berkshire Money Management

Dalton — Berkshire Money Management president and chief operating officer Barbara Schmick received the “Changing Lives After 55” award from the Berkshire Family YMCA. Schmick was recognized, alongside other community leaders—including Berkshire Community College president Ellen Kennedy; Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts history professor Frances Jones-Sneed; Women of Color Giving Circle founder Shirley Edgerton; Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, D-Lenox; and Berkshire Theatre Group CEO Kate Maguire—in a public ceremony held Oct. 3 at the Berkshire Hills Country Club. Schmick was honored for her longtime commitment to growing the local economy and “being a good steward of resources and talents.”

Prior to moving to the Berkshires in 2003, Schmick traveled the world working with Fortune 500 companies in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. She was also a partner in the Manhattan-based firm Philips Healthcare, where she managed all aspects of account services. She is a professional photographer who has shown her work at several exhibitions. Her photography has also appeared in several local publications. She is a mentor and role model to her female colleagues, who make up nearly half of the BMM team.

–E.E.

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