Fall River artists inspired by Pittsfield

Another New England city is looking to Pittsfield for ideas on how to jumpstart downtown. Fall River Massachusetts is kicking off a program similar to Pitsfield's groundbreaking Storefront Artist Project to breathe life into empty storefronts. Click here to read the Fall River article. Five years ago downtown Pittsfield had over two dozen empty storefronts. Today, the number is less than ten, and most are on their way to becoming restaurants, bookshops and more...

This week in Pittsfield: Brooklyn bands, Broadway songs, Bollywood dancing...

Rather than post the whole Cultural Pittsfield This Week email newsletter, you can click here to see what's happening this weekend and beyond: Dottie's Coffee Lounge hosts bands from Brooklyn Friday & Saturday night, House of India sponsors the first Bollywood Nights dance part, Storefront Artist Project features a panel discussion on contemporary photography, and masteer production designer Carl Sprague, who has worked with photographer Gregory Crewdson, a slew of theatre and other perfromnig arts companies, and on films such as the Royal Tenenbaums, tells all in an artist talk series at the Berkshire Museum. Click here to read more!

Save the date for the annual College Fellowship Art Show

Below: Baseball, silver print by Laura Specker

The Berkshire Art Association (BAA), a non-profit membership group dedicated to supporting the visual arts and artists in Berkshire County, is once again sponsoring an annual college art student fellowship show at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in downtown Pittsfield.

Berkshire Art Association Fellowships have been awarded annually since the early 1970s to encourage young emerging artists in their choice of visual arts as a means of expression. Fellowships are open to any college student studying art who either grew up in Berkshire County or goes to college in Berkshire County.

This year the Association will award $5,000 in prizes to thirteen college art students at the opening reception of the juried BAA Fellowship Show. The reception is free and open to the public and will be held Friday, April 18^th, from 5pm to 7pm at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, located at 28 Renne Avenue, Pittsfield.

The selected artists include students at Williams College, Berkshire Community College, the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Artwork displayed in the annual show includes sculpture, monoprints, mixed media, oil and acrylic painting, drypoint etching, drawings, photography, silkscreen, collage and more.

Kate Casey, a senior printmaking major at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, will receive $1,500. She will exhibit five works that combine silkscreen and woodblock imaging with three-dimensional construction. Casey, a native of Great Barrington, has had her work chosen for two previous BAA shows.
Receiving $750 prizes are James Sweeney and Karina Godoy, both seniors at Williams College. A native of Greenfield, Sweeney uses photography of miniature constructions to create startling effects. Godoy explores a blank paper surface with pencil and ink, creating intricate, elegant line drawings that take on a life of their own. Godoy is from Tucson, Arizona.

Sydney Flint from Lenox will receive a $400 award. A sophomore printmaking major at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Sydney combines etching, drypoint and silkscreen with collage to make startling images that reflect her rural roots.
Four other students, all from Williams College, will receive also $400 prizes. Beverly Acha, a junior from Miami, Florida, creates vividly colored prints and mixed media impressions in various print forms. Eugene Korsunskiy, a senior from Brooklyn, New York, moves from concept to image in works that range from the Bible in three point type printed on a 16 foot paper to small drawings to sculpture. Silvia Julia Ortiz Mantilla, a junior from Edison, New Jersey, explores her own image in three, dreamlike solarized photographs. Emma Steinkraus, a sophomore, models strong images of women in two oil paintings and a drawing.

Honorable mentions will be given to five other students. Williamstown native Erin Gerrity, a junior at the Rhode Island School of Design, will show three paintings. Two Berkshire Community College sophomores were chosen. Briana Schnopp of Washington will exhibit two mixed media collages, and Cody Mitchell of Lee will show two landscape paintings. Williams College senior Laura Specker will exhibit two photographic prints, and Amanda Zaitchik, also a Williams College senior, will show two monoprints.

The BAA Fellowship Show will run from April 18 through May 17, 2008. The Lichtenstein Center for the Arts Gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday, Noon – 5 pm.