Housatonic — The “Water Rites” exhibit on display at the Center for Peace through Culture, 137 Front Street in Housatonic, uses art to explore issues around water.
The exhibit opened on Saturday, May 3, and continues until the end of the month.
Berkshire County is no stranger to issues around water. As local media has widely reported over the years, Housatonic residents have had to deal with numerous problems with water utility company Housatonic Water Works (HWW), including its various water quality issues. Moreover, between 1932 and 1977, General Electric released polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Housatonic River from its manufacturing site in Pittsfield.
Much of the art on display in the exhibit reflects these ongoing issues with water quality in Berkshire County.
Berkshire County-based artist Camille Roos, who curated the exhibit, said she was inspired to create the exhibit based on both her own experiences and experiences of her friends with the Housatonic River and HWW. “I heard from a friend of mine who is a father of an adolescent girl living in Housatonic,” Roos told The Berkshire Edge. “I heard from him that he had to bathe at Berkshire South Regional Community Center and find water elsewhere. I also heard from other residents similar experiences in dealing with HWW water.”
Roos said that she lived along the Housatonic River in Stockbridge for 10 years. “I loved that river, but there were a lot of signs along it that you couldn’t swim in it, and you couldn’t fish from it,” Roos said. “I have been a wilderness guide at various points in my life, and the fact that the Housatonic River was always off limits, that is something that has always brought me grief.”
Roos said that she curated an art exhibit about water issues because “art is an immediate access point to issues that sometimes are too overwhelming to put words to or to find a solution to.” “I find that beauty and creativity can carve a path through uncharted terrain that not much else can,” Roos said. “When we come together through beauty, we come together also in hope of connection, and faith for a better tomorrow.”
The exhibit includes the work of 34 artists, many from Berkshire County. “I wanted to get as many voices in the room as possible,” Roos said. “This way we can get many perspectives in order to tell a story that shows and displays people’s love for water and how meaningful it is to all of us. I think that we take water, and life, for granted in a lot of ways. Water is such a source and origin of life, and sometimes that is overlooked.”
North Adams-based artist Gloria Calderon Saenz’s work “Water Stories” is based on the microscopic life in the Housatonic River. “I have a passion for nature, and I grew up in a family of scientists,” Saenz said. “I really wanted to make a composition to reflect the mystery of water. It’s a little symbolic of the unconscious, including the things that we don’t see and don’t know. There is a mystery when it comes to the depths of the water.”
Lennox-based artist Nicole Rose, who grew up in Pittsfield, has her painting “Hill 78” on display in the exhibit. Hill 78 is a toxic and uncapped landfill near the Housatonic River and Allendale Elementary School. Rose explained that her painting addresses environmental injustice through the lens of personal and community history. “I started this painting by dancing on the canvas as I stood in front of the Hill 78 site,” Rose said. “The concept here is that I’m tracing my movement on the canvas while tracing the movements of GE and what they have left behind. To me, what GE did is a terrible story of corporate greed. Hopefully, as what happened continues to come to light, our community will be able to have more of a voice on what happens next when it comes to the cleanup of the river.”
For more information about the exhibit, visit the Center for Peace through Culture’s website.
