This Month’s Featured Articles…

  As Thanksgiving fades, thoughts turn to Christmas, carol-singing, gift-giving, and general merriment. But for many it is a season of sadness and despair. Homelessness and hunger are prevalent in so many of our local towns. But Torrington, CT, has two organizations that are helping to bring cheer to those who need it most. Prime Time House Prime Time House, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, is a branch of Clubhouse International, a community-based membership organization designed to support people living with mental illness, offering [...]

Although it is naturally the darkest time of the year, color abounds in the holiday shopping season. Starting with Black Friday (when retailers get out of the red), stores rake in the green with fairy tales of white Christmases in their displays and soundtracks of Blue Christmas pumped through their speakers. Sparkly lights and tinsel dazzle shoppers into purchasing the latest technology, which lights up with flashing LEDs and pulsing blue panels. It’s a sensory overload, really. Pine-scented everything, an endless parade of sweets, and snuggly pullovers [...]

As we grudgingly move farther away from youth and toward the prosaic shelf of adulthood, so too does the feeling of the holiday season at times. What was once the happy mirth of familiar songs accompanied by the closeness of family now has the habit of feeling replaced by obstinate seasonal responsibilities. Often though, we gaze back over our collective shoulders, searching fondly for the nostalgic thread that links the innocent wonder of holidays past with our desire to once again be filled with kinship [...]

Feeling hungry for some culture? New knowledge? Diverse perspectives across multiple disciplines? Then head to the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA, where a veritable smorgasbord awaits. With something to entice even the pickiest culture vulture, there’s enough to sate your appetite without feeling stuffed and exhausted. From paper to posterity Since 1903, this cultural institution housed in a solidly attractive building that confidently says, “I’m a museum” has been living the vision of its founder, Zenas Crane. As the third-generation owner of Crane & Company [...]

It was an audacious idea from the very first whisper: create the largest indoor collaborative art project in the world that celebrates the life force of America. Sounds simple enough! The American Mural Project – a collaborative work of art that, when finished, will span 120 feet and be 48 feet high. It will be 10 feet deep in sections, housed in converted mill space in Winsted, CT, and the centerpiece of an educational project that would reach coast-to-coast. Overwhelming. When Ellen Griesedieck, a career [...]