Berkshire County is home to five state-designated Cultural Districts —the Downtown Great Barrington Cultural District, the Lenox Cultural District, the North Adams Cultural District, the Upstreet Cultural District in Pittsfield, and the Williamstown Cultural District.
These Cultural Districts are coming together for ArtWeek Berkshires this September. The festival of events will celebrate the arts throughout the county. ArtWeek is currently seeking event applications for the festival, which highlights the county’s creative economy, cultural treasures, and artistic assets.
Zydalis Bauer Spoke with organizers Jen Glockner, Cassandra Sohn, and Lindsey Schmid to learn more about the festival.
Read the full transcript:
Zydalis Bauer, Connecting Point: Berkshire County is home to five state designated cultural districts: the Downtown Great Barringtong Cultural District, the Lenox Cultural District, the North Adams Cultural District, the Upstreet Cultural District in Pittsfield, and the Williamstown Cultural District.
These districts are coming together for ArtWeek Berkshires this September with a festival of events that will celebrate the arts throughout the county.
ArtWeek is currently seeking event applications for the festival, which highlights the county’s creative economy, cultural treasures, and artistic assets, and I spoke with festival organizers to learn more.
Jennifer Glockner, Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development: It was amazing that the state did this for a few years, and the Berkshires, in the collaborative spirit that the Berkshires have, said we want to continue this, even though the state is not continuing it. Because we now have five cultural districts, five designated cultural districts by the Mass Cultural Council, and that’s a lot in one county.
So, the cultural districts decided to take it upon themselves and say, “let’s do this.” Let’s continue to do this, just within our county without the state’s official event.
Zydalis Bauer: Why is it important for the five cultural districts to collaborate with each other?
Lindsey Schmid, 1Berkshire: I think the Berkshires, in general, being 30 towns and two cities with no centralized government, we really rely a lot on collaborations in order to move people around the county, get people to come into the county. And so, this was a great opportunity to really empower the creative economy to continue pushing their message.
And then also, not only shine a light on our major institutions, but even more so to shine a light on all the smaller artisans throughout the area.
Zydalis Bauer: The festival will be celebrating the creative arts through different events around the county from September 16th through the 26th.
What are some of those events that we can be expecting to see?
Cassandra Sohn, Sohn Fine Art: We’re really excited to be creating a county-wide open studio event, where any artist in the county, in the region, can participate.
And we’ve done the open studio events for ArtWeek several years, the Lenox Cultural District did participate in an open studio event that was based on Lenox galleries and Lenox artists. So, expanding it to the county is a really wonderful opportunity for people to visit the studios and get behind the scenes looks at the artists, the many, many, many incredible artists that live all over –live and and work all over Berkshire County.
In addition to that, there are a tremendous amount of other events that are going to be offered, including live performances and music and behind the scenes artist talks.
Lindsey Schmid: I have there’s a few sort of paper marbling demonstration going to be happening. Sculpture Now, which is happening at the Mount will be part of it. Up in North Adams, at Gallery 51, there’ll be an event called Hostile Terrain that’s focused on an undocumented migration project.
So, I think there’s going to be something for everyone.
Jennifer Glockner: In Pittsfield, we are doing a concert with the Whiskey Treaty Road Show called A Community Celebration on Friday, September 17th. And we are very excited we’re now going to be honoring essential workers at that concert. And anything involving the Whiskey Treaty Road Show is truly special.
We have opened studios in Pittsfield and Jesse Tobin McCauley is curating once again the Drive Walk Bike by City Art Show. Last year, they had more than 40 artists literally set up on their front lawn. And you can drive, walk, or bike by and see this. And so we’re super excited that that’s happening again.
That was kind of because of COVID, but it was such a success that they’re doing it again.
Zydalis Bauer: Now, Lindsey, you alluded to this a little bit earlier. The creative economy is a huge economic engine for Berkshire County, which holds many art-related festivals and events.
What makes ArtWeek Berkshires is different from other festivals that have taken place in the Berkshires? And how does it impact the creative economy directly?
Lindsey Schmid: I mean, I think it goes back to what Cassandra talked about earlier, the collaboration of it and bringing all of those cultural districts together. I think you’ll find lots of single entities do amazing work, or a single town will hold the festival.
But the fact the scope of this, it’s from tail to tip, you know, from Williamstown all the way down to Sheffield and Lee and Lenox and, you know, small hill towns and things really makes the difference, in regards to it just being a county, truly a county-wide collaboration.
Cassandra Sohn: Yeah, it’s really another step towards unifying the county for an overall creative vision for the creative economy so that we can share in promotion. And especially now, when we’re all really looking to get out and do things and be together.
Having said that, a lot of these events will be virtual. And if people want to submit an event and participate in ArtWeek, they can create an event that is in-person or virtual.
Zydalis Bauer: And that brings me to my next question, because applications to be part of the festival are still open.
Who do you encourage to apply and what are the ways that people can participate?
Jennifer Glockner: Everyone. Everyone should apply.
And this is, I think this is most important, there are organizations around the Berkshires that are already doing events from September 16th to the 26th. Those count. Please submit. Those are the easiest ones to use for this ArtWeek.
Submit those events, because they count. They’re already happening, but we just want to give you more promotion by listing them in the ArtWeek Berkshires listings.
Cassandra Sohn: One of the wonderful things about this event, is that it is all-inclusive. So, if you’re an arts organization in the Berkshires, you can participate. If you’re an artist without representation, you can participate. If you’re a gallery, you can participate. If you’re a restaurant.
We want the the event to be broad and have a diverse range of events. There is no fee to submit an application or to have an event. So, you just have to go to Berkshires.org website or any of the Cultural Districts websites to find the application form to submit your event for ArtWeek, which is September 16th to 26th.
