This Month’s Featured Articles…

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 [...]

There are towns tucked within our storied valley, with their quiet regality and pastoral charm, that have come to establish their own unique identity over the last half-century. From food of course, to wine, music, and most recently even beer. Both lifetime locals and entrepreneuring newcomers have worked to mold the characteristics of their hometowns that have come to define their spot on the map. As marked as the great Hudson River itself, towns like Hudson and Woodstock in NY, Stockbridge, MA, and Salisbury, CT, [...]