DreamArt Classes

Dreams can sometimes be hard to grasp. Occurring in the subconscious, most images that appear in a dream require much thought and interpretation before they can even be fully understood. Some dreams are beautiful and presents the dreamer with images that they could possibly never imagine during a conscious state. Other dreams maybe frightening but may help to create a much-needed awareness. With so much happening during someone’s slumber, it could be extremely difficult to articulate any of the thoughts, emotions, or images that were perceived.

Kellie Meisl is a dream specialist. In fact, she offers classes that assist people in articulating their dreams through what she likes to call, “DreamArt.” Meisl is an artist and a teacher who uses shamanic practices to understand dreams more clearly. By creating art derived from dreams, a further understanding can be made.

Kellie Meisl takes control of the subconscious and provides instruction for bringing artistic dreams to life. By instructing people in her methods of identifying and dissecting dreams, beautiful art can be made. Her uses of Dream Theme and Dream Reflection helps to allow people to not only comprehend their dreams but also to articulate it to others.

Sessions are as follows:

Session 1~ Working With Our Dreams: Guidelines & Dream Reflections, Dream Journaling, Identifying Our Dream Themes & Mapping Our Dreams

Session 2~ Honoring Our Dreams: Dream Reflections, Learning to Revisit our Dreams, Learning to Place Dream Intentions

Session 3~ Creating Our Dreams: Dream Scribble Exercise, Dream Art Project

Session 4~ Acting Our Dreams: Dream Sculpting, Understanding Our Dream Metaphors

Session 5~ Sharing Our Dreams: Paired Intuitive Sharing, Working With Our Dream Guides

Session 6~ Our Personal Dream Journey: Creating a Personal Dream Spiral Line, Holding a Dream Ritual

Session 7~ Growing Our Dreams: Planting a Dream Seed, Growing a Community Dream

Session 8~ Manifesting Our Dreams: Making a Plan for our Dreams to Take Flight, Healing With Spiritual Light, Wrapping Each Other In a Dream

Class
May 6 – June 24
Wednesdays @ 6pm

Prices
$15 per class
$100 for all 8 weeks

Classes are held at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, 28 Renne Avenue

Contact Kellie at 413-329-4021 or, kellie.meisl@gmail.com with any questions you have or if you are interested in taking a class.

For more information about Kellie Meisl and her methods, click here.

Call to Artists! Public Art Exhibition in Downtown Pittsfield

Submissions are being accepted for the 2009-2010 Artscape Exhibition in downtown Pittsfield! Pittsfield is the largest city in culturally rich Berkshire County in western Massachusetts, attracting several million visitors and second home owners each year.Artscape is an annual outdoor exhibition of public art. Each piece selected will be displayed in downtown Pittsfield for one year and will receive a $1,000 honorarium. Artscape is open to all artists, nationally and internationally. We look forward to receiving YOUR submission!

The deadline to enter a submission is June 30, 2009.

For more information visit:
http://www.pittsfield.com/subpage.asp?ID=412

Youth Alive on to Perform on BET

Strength. Power. Precision. Speed. Style. These are the words that come to mind when someone hears the name “Youth Alive.” It’s almost hard to believe that such a recognizable and successful team is composed of such a young cast. Since 1996, The Youth Alive Step Team has been family to many teenagers and younger children of the Pittsfield community. Founded by Akilah Edgerton and directed by her mother, Shirley Edgerton, this step team has helped further develop Pittsfield as a community. Currently in its 13th year of operations, Youth Alive has made a name for itself by performing at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, Williams College, MCLA, the State House in Boston, and at Coney Island in New York City. As the team continues to impress at each performance, opportunity presents itself once more.

Spreading their energy and good spirits, Youth Alive will soon be taking another trip to New York City to perform at BET’s 106 & Park. They are scheduled to perform on June 24th at the Wild Out Wednesdays competition where two teams from across the U.S. battle it out for recognition. However, that’s not the only thing that Youth Alive is looking to accomplish by heading into to this televised encounter. In fact, this city’s very own step team has dreams of representing Pittsfield on a grand scale in order to broadcast to all of America what Pittsfield has to offer.

Youth Alive is requesting that everyone be a part of this breakthrough event and tune into BET on Wednesday, June 24th from 6pm to 8pm. Support those who represent us and vote!

Follow the links below to view some of Youth Alive's performances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW-HeGy0hSE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc1IPVYxckk

BAA Fellowship Show 2009

Every month, the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts presents a new show to the Pittsfield community that everyone could enjoy. This month is no different— The Berkshire Art Association Fellowship Show is an annual exhibit that recognizes college-level achievement in art. This show gives students the chance to showcase their talents and earn cash awards. This year, the BAA awarded eleven students with the opportunity to put their work on display here at the Lichtenstein.

The BAA Fellowship Show could best be described as vivid in color, bright, and imaginative. Each of the eleven students brings something completely different to the gallery. Along the beautiful white walls of the Lichtenstein, each painting, photo, textile, and sculpture pops right off of the wall forcing viewers to take notice without being so visually overpowering. Indeed, the exhibit is aesthetically pleasing and stimulates the eye quite possibly more than any other exhibit has within the past four months.

The art throughout the show varies on so many different levels. With eleven participating artists come eleven different art styles. Pieces vary in shape, size, color, and overall appearance. Quickly glancing at the wall, there are deep and vivid hues of red, blues, and greens. To mention only one piece would not do the exhibit as a whole justice because each painting, photo, textile, and sculpture work as a whole to create an overall feel of aesthetic pleasure. This show is definitely something that every art enthusiast should personally experience.


This year’s featured artists are listed below:

Beverly Acha, Williams College
Medium: encaustic and monoprints

Claire Briguglio, Macalester College
Medium: silkscreen

Nicole Campanale, Tyler School of Art
Medium: textiles

Merritt Fletcher, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Medium: painting

Elena Gil-Chang, Williams College
Medium: prints and painting

Maya Lama, Williams College
Medium: painting

Beth Links, Williams College
Medium: textile sculpture

Silvia Juliana Mantilla Ortiz, Williams College
Medium: digital and mixed media

Omar Mendez, Williams College
Medium: painting

Kristen Parker, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Medium: photography

Sofia Torres, Williams College
Medium: digital photography


April 18 - May 16 | 12noon-5pm | Wednesdays - Saturdays | Lichtenstein Center for the Arts | 28 Renne Avenue | 499-9348

Cultural Pittsfield Television!

Written by MCLA student B-HIP intern, Jamal Ahamad

The City of Pittsfield is the central hub of culture for the Berkshire County. With a plethora of galleries, restaurants, and other venues in its downtown area, this city really does deserve massive recognition. With the establishment of the Office of Cultural Development, the City of Pittsfield has seen nothing but bustling activity and continues to do so under the benevolent diligence of its director, Megan Whilden. Her innovativeness has brought upon such great new features to Pittsfield including The Cultural Pittsfield Newsletter, the Jazz Festival, and Third Thursdays. Now, to add on to those elements of success, Whilden and her staff of dedicated Pittsfield residents have started their very own television show. With the assistances of Pittsfield Community Television (PCTV), the Office of Cultural Development releases Cultural Pittsfield Television (CPTV).

“CPTV on PCTV,” as it is referred to amongst the staff of the Cultural Development team, is the manifestation of the almost overwhelming Pittsfield occurrences. This new television show is designed to inform members of the Pittsfield community and Berkshire County of the vast amount of events and happenings throughout Pittsfield. As a result, CPTV acts as a correspondent to the Cultural Pittsfield This Week. Both are designed to inform, however the major difference here and beneficial aspect of each is the ability to attract and reach different audiences while having the ability to cover different yet related material.

The staff of the Office of Cultural Development along with committed volunteers from the Pittsfield community comes together to form the operating staff of CPTV. Each member fulfills an important role and plays a crucial part in producing the show. The show is made up of Producer, Megan Whilden; Director, Ryan Weightman; Co-hosts, Mary Domenichelli and Javier Dominguez; and current cameraman, Jamal Ahamad. Each show follows a basic structure in which there is welcoming commentary from the Co-hosts followed by a prerecorded video segment complete with voiceovers, afterwards the Co-hosts will make a brief commentary and then interview a featured guests, subsequent to that interview, another video segment will play followed by updates and closing commentary.

CPTV is scheduled to premiere on Friday, April 17 at 3pm. Following the premier, the show will air Friday nights at 6pm, Saturday nights at 7pm, and Sundays at both noon and 7pm. For more information, visit www.pittsfieldtv.org and click on CityLink Show Search at the bottom of the page and look for Cultural Pittsfield TV.

Stay up to date with Pittsfield by tuning into CPTV on PCTV!

Berkshire Fools Festival 2009

The Berkshire Fool's Festival marked the 33^rd anniversary of the Greasepaint Treaty of 1976, signed in Pittsfield, which marked the end of the Clown Wars, the catastrophic conflict between clowns and mimes that began in the 1960s.

The Fools Festival brought together artists, organizations and businesses in a multi-media, multi-venue, always surprising celebration with more than a dozen exciting events that took place from April 1-5. The festival included theatre, music, art exhibitions and activities that were engaging for all ages.

To start off the festival, the Office of Cultural Development pulled a city-wide prank on the citizens of Pittsfield by releasing a Cultural Pittsfield This Week newsletter that was presented as the very last. The newsletter stated:

"Pittsfield's Office of Cultural Development has been diligent in informing citizens about the many fun Pittsfield events that occur every day via Cultural Pittsfield This Week. Unfortunately, the ever-increasing number of cultural activities has led to the newsletter's downfall. City Hall's IT department has informed us that we have overwhelmed available memory space on the shared server. There is no longer room to store the dozens of new events and activities happening each week in Pittsfield. Therefore Cultural Pittsfield This Week will no longer be published until further notice. "

Surprisingly, no one noticed the little note at the bottom of the newsletter informing readers that all of this was a joke and performed in the good spirit of April Fools. The city went into a frenzy. The Office of Cultural Development received both very concerned and angry phone calls, e-mails, and in one case, a disgruntle letter to the Mayor! Even the IT Department down at City Hall took this joke to heart. Indeed, the staff of the Office of Cultural Development has something to be proud of; a successful city-wide prank is definitely something that is hard to accomplish.

As for the actual festival, many members of the Pittsfield community enjoyed themselves despite the rain by attending various events. Throughout the five day event, there were special gallery exhibits, lectures, plays, and parties. With events like these, every day in Pittsfield must be a good day!