artberkshires

artberkshires An ongoing collaborative project connecting contemporary art and design in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and beyond.

PROJECT: Save The Art

On July 12, 2017, the Berkshire Museum announced that it would be selling the 40 works of art from their collection to fund their endowment, capital improvements, and to pay down existing debt. Since this announcement numerous community members, museum professionals, and national professional organizations have asked that this sale be paused and alternate approaches consider

ed. As of the most recent reports, the museum has declined to do so. WHY ART BERKSHIRES: Those of us involved with ArtBerkshires are members of a community related to the Berkshire creative economy. We are members of the audiences for exhibitions, performances and educational programs. We also create, build, program, present, research, educate and preserve the visual art of our time. We connect to others who have done the same throughout history, now preserved in museums and institutions throughout the Berkshires. Like our predecessors, we hope to leave a permanent, legacy collection in the public trust that represents our period. We imagined that would be housed at the Berkshire Museum where their mission embraced art and objects from regional collections, produced by artists who lived and practiced in the region and connected to artists of prior generations ... or another institution that replaces them. FOUNDED BY: Sienna Patti, Sienna Gallery and SG Projects and Leslie Ferrin, Ferrin Contemporary and Project Art bring 45 years of combined experience in the art world. Together they launched ArtBerkshires in 2010 with a pilot project, 20/21 Modern Style and Studio Craft, followed by Decadence and Decay and COVET. Projects sprung from ideas generated while stuck in airports during travel to art fairs and conferences outside the Berkshires. They share a genuine passion for the area they live in , the crazy art business they love and the creative programming that gets artists to produce great art. While the Berkshires is their base of operations, both galleries represent internationally known artists from throughout the world and present them at art fairs and museum venues in cities wherever it takes them - New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Miami and increasingly overseas. While the artworld is global, the beautiful Berkshires is where the cultural tourist likes to travel. Leslie Ferrin has 30 years experience from directing her gallery in various regional locations from Northampton , to Lenox and now Pittsfield . 'While the internet and fairs perform an important part of the marketing for our business, the central location of the Berkshires in the summer means that our clients will visit from outside the area to enjoy the mix of cultural venues in the this beautiful natural setting'. Sienna Patti, a native of the area, has chosen to raise her young family here and for the past 12 years has used the Berkshires as a base camp for an international business. We are fortunate to have a wonderful audience here, local and transient, interested and excited by new ideas, creativity, and industry.

12/15/2017
FOR MORE ON SAVE THE ART - SAVE THE MUSEUM GO TO THE PUBLIC PAGE ON FACEBOOKhttps://www.facebook.com/savetheartsavethemu...
12/03/2017

FOR MORE ON SAVE THE ART - SAVE THE MUSEUM GO TO THE PUBLIC PAGE ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/savetheartsavethemuseum/

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

See the list below for contacts, where to send your letters and who to call.

Attorney General Maura Healey
The Non-Profit Organizations/ Public Charities Division
Office of the Attorney General
One Ashburton Place
Boston MA 02108
Phone: (617) 963-2101
E-Mail: [email protected]
Fax: (617) 727-2920

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS - you can send the same one to all newpapers - you need to sign your name, city and provide a contact.

Boston Globe
[email protected]
[email protected]

Berkshire Eagle
[email protected]

Berkshire Edge
[email protected]

Daily Hampshire Gazette
[email protected]

Albany Times Union
[email protected]

RADIO

WAMC
Listener comment 800.695.9170
email [email protected]
Roundtable show inquiries [email protected]

NEPR
Call 413.735.6600
email [email protected]

LIGHT UP SWITCHBOARDS - IF YOU ARE YOU A RESIDENT OF PITTSFIELD OR BERKSHIRE COUNTY? OR ... if you live outside the district and enjoy visiting the Berkshire Museum, please consider making a phone call today. You can follow with an email, ask for a meeting but most important, make personal contact today and in the future, any time there is news that they should be made aware of.

Linda M. Tyer
Mayors Office
(413) 499-9321
[email protected]

Contact Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier
District Office:
33 Dunham Mall
Pittsfield, MA 01201
(413) 442-4300
[email protected]

Contact Senator Adam Hinds
100 North Street
Suite 410
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Phone: (413)344-4561 or (413)768-2373
[email protected]

Contact Representative Smitty Pignatelli
Lenox Town Hall
PO Box 2228
Lenox, MA 01240
Phone: 413-637-0631
[email protected]

DONATE TO LEGAL FUND - show your support https://www.gofundme.com/savetheartsavethemuseum - we are still collecting funds to support the two private litigants and costs involved. A portion of this fund is dedicated to public information efforts.

SIGN CHANGE.ORG PETITION - send a message to the AG and museum - https://www.change.org/p/berkshire-museum-stop-the-sale-of-…

STOP THE SALE - many of you have heard about the Berkshire Museum and their plan to sell important American paintings. P...
08/19/2017

STOP THE SALE - many of you have heard about the Berkshire Museum and their plan to sell important American paintings. Please sign this petition at Change.org. We need your support to help convince the Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, to put an injunction on the sale and give the community time to reconsider the decision and find other options so the art remains in the The Berkshires. When you sign this petition, your message will be sent to the museum director, Van Shields and others who need to hear the overwhelming support for saving the art. Please sign and share.

Berkshire Museum: Stop the sale of 40 works of art held in public trust by the Berkshire Museum

MASS MoCA - photos from the opening of Filthy Lucre, Darren Waterson's interpretation of Whistler's Peacock Room
07/27/2014

MASS MoCA - photos from the opening of Filthy Lucre, Darren Waterson's interpretation of Whistler's Peacock Room

MASS MoCA - photos from the opening of Filthy Lucre, Darren Waterson's interpretation of Whistler's Peacock Room

Saturday, March 29, 2014, 5pm-7pm
Performance by Filthy Lucre soundscape composers, BETTY
Saturday, March 22, 8pm

Artist Talk
Thursday, August 7, 6pm

Panel Discussion presented in partnership with The Mount
Thursday, August 28, 6pm

"Painter Darren Waterston's installation Filthy Lucre -- the centerpiece of Uncertain Beauty -- is a contemporary re-imagining of James McNeill Whistler's 1876 decorative masterpiece Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room. Waterston became fascinated with The Peacock Room both for its unrivaled union of painting and architecture and for its dramatic story of patronage and artistic ego.

The original -- the dining room of the London home of shipping magnate Frederick Leyland -- was designed to showcase Leyland's collection of Asian ceramics, with Whistler's painting La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine (1863-64) featured over the mantel. Asked to consult on the color scheme for the room, Whistler took bold -- if not egregious -- liberties while Leyland and his architect were away and in a fit of enthusiasm painted the entire room -- executing his now famous peacocks over the expensive Italian leather wall panels. The collector refused to pay the artist and banned him from his house; Whistler, in response, painted an unflattering caricature of his patron titled The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor). Conflating the words frilly and filthy, Whistler made a jab at Leyland's own "peacocking" as well as his miserliness."

http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=847

The media loves the Berkshires
07/19/2014

The media loves the Berkshires

Home to two major new shows, the Massachusetts museum is a must-visit for summer.

The Clark - great review of the new buildings and summer exhibitions.
07/11/2014

The Clark - great review of the new buildings and summer exhibitions.

The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., has fashioned an expanded and renovated campus into a welcoming, comfortable place for looking at art.

FRIDAY at the Albany International Airport, April 11 - 5:30 - 7:30 - a reception for the exhibition "Body Language" - t...
04/11/2014

FRIDAY at the Albany International Airport, April 11 - 5:30 - 7:30 - a reception for the exhibition "Body Language" - this exhibition, a group show, features four heads by Sergei Isupov. The art program is led by Sharon Bates and leads the field in airport art programs with her curated exhibitions featuring regional visual artists. In displays throughout the terminals, she also organizes a changing program that highlights regional cultural venues and their current programming. It is a great way to greet people and if you get stuck, taking a tour is a way to pass time to inform our visitors and traveling residents about all that makes it obvious why we live here.

The Albany International Airport: Exhibitions | The Albany International Airport Gallery, a dedicated 2500 square foot space, has become a destination for more than 300,000 visitors annually and one of the premier exhibition venues in the Capital Region, Southern Vermont and Western Massachusetts.
..

OPENING SATURDAY March 29th
03/29/2014

OPENING SATURDAY March 29th

MASS MoCA Presents: Darren Waterston: Uncertain Beauty in our Galleries on On view through January 2015

Last seen at MASS MoCA - now at Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC
02/15/2014

Last seen at MASS MoCA - now at Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC

After a long journey, two huge phoenixes by the Chinese artist Xu Bing have risen above the nave of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

BRK - BOS - last seen at Sienna Patti Contemporary now at MassArt Bakalar & Paine Galleries
01/30/2014

BRK - BOS - last seen at Sienna Patti Contemporary now at MassArt Bakalar & Paine Galleries

Lauren Fensterstock’s “Colorless Field (Marsh)” sprawls over the gallery floor, all made of cut black paper, charcoal, and Plexiglas. Thousands of long blades of paper grass surround a still, reflective pool of Plexi; the charcoal dust and pebbles fill in as earth. It’s flourishing but scorched blac...

BRK - NYC - last seen at MASS MoCA soon to be onview at Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC - thanks Joyce Bernstein f...
01/30/2014

BRK - NYC - last seen at MASS MoCA soon to be onview at Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC - thanks Joyce Bernstein for sharing this link.

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Anselm Kiefer is now on view which is just one more reason to head to North Adams, Massachusetts and MASS MoCA before Xu...
10/16/2013

Anselm Kiefer is now on view which is just one more reason to head to North Adams, Massachusetts and MASS MoCA before Xu Bing's Phoenix comes down.

An ambitious collaboration between a collecting couple, an artist and a museum director has produced a massive new pavilion at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, designed specifically for three monumental works by Anselm Kiefer.

Address

1040 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA
01247

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