Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Check out the Classes at the Lichtenstein Center For the Arts!


Interested in learning how to dance?
Then come and check out Mackenzie Buckley's Hip-Hop Dance class at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts!

Here are the rest of our classes and meetings, check them out!
If you're interested in scheduling your own, then please contact Max Moy-Borgen.

Last Chance to Sign-Up for Jim Horsford's Pottery Class


If you'd like to make things like this, then hurry up and enroll in Jim Horsford's Pottery Class.  Only available to High School Students in Pittsfield schools.

ONLY THREE SPOTS LEFT!

6 week class starts

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

2:45 PM - 4:45 PM

Wednesday's class is already full!

For more information please contact Jim Horsford at shorsford@roadrunner.com, or check out his website: or our Cultural Pittsfield Blog's previous article.

Halloween Extravaganza!

What's there to do in Pittsfield for Halloween for those of you a little too old to go trick-or-treating? Watch the video and find out!

Call for Artists: Pittsfield Parade

CALL FOR ARTISTS: Pittsfield Parade 2011

The Pittsfield 4th of July Parade Committee is looking for a local artist to create the annual parade poster.

The theme for 2011 is “Pittsfield - 250 Years, Past, Present & Future”

Please send Pittsfield Parade a sketch of your idea for the 2011 poster by November 1st 2010. Email it to them at pittsfieldparade@aol.com
The artist will be notified by December 1st 2010.

Finished poster must be in acrylics on 18” by 24” jessoed masonite, and must be submitted by March 1st, 2011.

There is a $500 award, and the poster becomes the property of the Pittsfield Parade Committee to use as a fundraiser.

Questions -- call 447-7763.

Call for Artists: Berkshire Carousel

CALL FOR ARTISTS: Berkshire Carousel

The Berkshire Carousel Art Committee (BCAC) would like to invite you to participate in an exciting local art project, the Berkshire Carousel. This volunteer project is the creation of the first wooden hand carved carousel in New England in almost 100 years. Over 130 volunteers have been involved in the carving and painting of carousel figures, fund raising and designing this wonderful work of art. Please see pictures on our website at http://www.berkshirecarousel.com/

BCAC would specifically like you to consider submitting a painting to actually be on the carousel itself in one of the rounding boards (outer panels) or center panels surrounding the operating mechanism. The art will depict the culture, beauty and/or history of the Berkshires.

Applications should be completed and submitted by November 22, 2010. Reviews and selections by BCAC will be completed in 2010 and artists will be asked to complete paintings by June 1, 2011.

Click here to read the guidelines for the rounding board and panels for Berkshire Carousel.


Please feel free to contact the director, Maria Caccaviello at 413-499-0342 if you have any questions.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

October 21 Third Thursday!

For the last Third Thursday of 2010, we're combining Halloween and the annual CityJazz Fest for an October double whammy.
There will be Halloween costume contests for both kids and adults -- kids costumes will be judged at Chapters Book Store at 6; the adult costume contest will take place at the Crowne Plaza at 7pm. Downtown Inc has organized trick-or-treating at several downtown businesses and a pumpkin painting at the corner of North Street and Maplewood Avenue. There will also be LED hula-hooping, new art exhibits including a 3D art show, a poetry slam -- plus tons of great jazz jamming all along North Street! We're packing this one full of surprises so come out and jazz up the streets!

Click here to download your own copy of the 3rd. Thursday performance schedule!




Check out Berkshire Bateria performing at the Lichtenstein Center For the Arts on 3rd Thursday.


Check out more footage of the Berkshire Bateria performing at the
Lichtenstein Center For the Arts on 3rd Thursday.


Berkshire Anime


If you like good food, good company and are interested in Japanese Anime or Manga -- come out to the Berkshire Anime Club meeting Saturday, October 23, from 2pm - 5pm @ the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts!

The Berkshire Anime & Manga Club is a Western Massachusetts group dedicated to locating, studying, reading and watching Japanese comics and animation. It's a fairly new club (formed in March of 2010) and they're recruiting! If you live in the Berkshire County area (or even if you don't) and you're an anime or manga fan, we invite you to join up and meet other like-minded fans.

Berkshire Anime's goals are to connect people who know what anime and manga are about, or want to learn more. The club was started to...
• Bring people together who are anime and manga fans
• Provide a place to screen anime on a bigger (and better) screen than a television or computer monitor
• Plan outside events, like convention trips, manga trades, etc.
• Expose members to the literature, language, and art of another culture. (Japanese)
• Discuss the technology and techniques of animation and film-making.

To find out more about Berkshire Anime -- go to http://www.berkshireanime.org/ or http://www.meetup.com/BerkshireAnime/

Friday, October 8, 2010

Our Super Fellow on TV!



Watch as Pittsfield city councilor John Krol interviews our newest Americorps Mass Fellow, Max Moy-Borgen!

CityJazz Festival

The 6th annual Pittsfield CityJazz Festival gets under way with our annual jazz crawl this weekend, Oct. 8-10. "Jazz About Town" features regionally based musicians appearing in 10 venues from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, coffee shops to barber shops, plus bars and restaurants. 

And, on Wednesday, Oct. 13, the remarkable pianist Warren Byrd appears with the Brazilian Jazz Trio in a free concert at the Berkshire Athenaeum, 7pm. The festival spans nearly two weeks, with headline weekend Oct. 15-16, and concluding with Third Thursday, our jazz-themed block party on Oct. 21.

OUT in the Berkshires



OUT in the Berkshires Gallery Exhibit
October 8 - November 6
Lichtenstein Center for the Arts
28 Renne Avenue

An exhibit featuring artists from the LGBT community, this exhibit kicks off a weekend full of LGBT-friendly events.


Artists featured in the Out in the Berkshires art show include abstract painter & printmaker Joe Goodwin, trans artists Autumn Doyle and justin adkins, mixed media artists Timothy Kushi and Donald Clark, photographers Susan Mikula, Bella Vendetta, the late Vaal London-Kane and Kit Restivo, sculptor Joseph Wheaton, painter Jaysin Eli, fiber artist Nathan Hanford, cartoonist Howard Cruse & more.

D-Cup Diatribes!

Sat 10/9/10 8pm • A: $35 B: $15 

The Cleavage Culture Explored...

A “Breastcentric” Comedy for All Ages, Shapes and Sizes, Men too!

Poignant, intimate, triumphant—this breast-conscious comedy examines the lives of 8 feisty females, and how each character internally struggles and externally compensates or copes with her relationship with her body… in a Cleavage Culture Society.

The D-Cup Diatribes is in partnership with The American Cancer Society raising funds for breast cancer awareness and breast cancer prevention. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month—stay tuned for D-Cups events, the Breast Cancer Walk and more. Bring a new bra (D and plus sizes) to the show and help Support... UPLIFT women in need. Bras will be distributed to womens shelters across the country and in your community. A hilarious, comedy night out for everyone!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Artscape: Call for Artists

ARTSCAPE
Public Art in Downtown Pittsfield
2010 Exhibition

Artscape is a volunteer-led committee in the city of Pittsfield that sponsors an annual outdoor juried exhibition of public art. Artscape’s mission is to enhance the downtown’s character and attract visitors by installing and promoting works of art in various outdoor locations throughout the downtown.

Artscape was also a lead organizer of the 2004 Sheeptacular public art project, as well as the 2006-2007 Art Of The Game public art project that brings art and baseball together in unexpected ways.
 
Call to Artists for Work
Public art can be monumental and powerful, or diminutive and subtle; it can be painted, assembled, constructed, synthesized or sculpted. Public art is any work created with the specific intent to be placed in a public space; they can be magnets for attention, raise questions, bend our perceptions of a space and place, and alter how we experience our cities.

With this spirit, Pittsfield’s Artscape invites artists to submit proposals for new work in the 2010-2011 exhibition season. Deadline for submission is October 31, 2010. Artists will receive a $1000 honorarium. For more information on how to apply please call 413-499-9348. Click HERE to download a copy of the Proposal Guidelines.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Artscape Art Walk This Saturday!



Thanks to Ed Bride for taking this short video of docent Craig Langlois leading a group of people on the Pittsfield Artscape Art Walk! You have two more chances to explore the great public art all over downtown Pittsfield -- don't miss out!

This Saturday -- October 9 (rain date October 10)
October 23 (rain date October 24)

All tours begin at 1 pm. The tours will start and end at the Pittsfield Visitors’ Center on South Street (Route 7) in Pittsfield, next to Ben and Jerry’s. Each tour will last approximately 90 minutes.
For more details or weather concerns, contact the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts at 413-499-9348.

Dreaming Hope


A workshop for breast cancer survivors and those dealing with breast cancer will be held on Saturday, October 16, 2010, from 1:00-5:30, at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, 28 Renne Avenue, in Pittsfield. Kellie Meisl will present Dreaming Hope, a free event made available by funds from the Think Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Art Show. The event is sponsored by the Breast Health Team of the Berkshires.

The participants of this workshop will have a chance to work with their dreams and create their own dream journal. There will be an abundance of sharing and a series of simple exercises designed to help participants to learn how to work with their dreams and draw meaning from them. No artistic experience is necessary. Participants should feel free to bring pillows, blankets, eye covers, drums, rattles and any personal objects they would like to place in the circle. A break and snack will be provided.

Seating is limited and pre-registration is required. To register, contact Kathy Hart, RN, the Women’s Imaging Center at BMC, (413) 395-7965 or go online to the Calendar section of the Berkshire Health Systems website, www.berkshirehealthsystems.org


Artist Kellie Meisl, who relies on dreams as a springboard for her work, has created most of her artwork over the past decade for community causes. She is an annual contributor to the Think Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Art Exhibit in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and has shown her work at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, where she teaches DreamArt classes in her native Berkshires. In 2009, she published her first book, "Dream Stories: Recovering the Inner Mystic," the cover of which features her first painting for Think Pink, entitled, “Hummingbird Medicine.” Kellie can be reached through her website:www.kelliemeisldreamart.com
You can read more about her newest piece, Awareness, here: http://www.mystorylives.blogspot.com/

Drumming with Aimee Gelinas

Caribbean & West African Hand Drum Class w/ Aimee Gelinas of Gaia Roots & Tamarack Hollow
Mondays 6pm
The Lichtenstein Center for the Arts
28 Renne Avenue, Pittsfield, MA



Experience Afro-Caribbean and West African hand drumming with cultural educator Aimee Gelinas M.Ed. Traditional instruments such as the Conga, Djembe, Djun Djun, Clave, Kata, Bell and Shekere provided for student use.  Class is for adults and mature teens.  All levels welcome.  Class is drop in and costs $10 each.  Please email aimee@gaiaroots.com or visitwww.tamarackhollow.com for more info.
*Please note: All dance &  Capoeria classes at the Lichtenstein Center have been cancelled until further notice