Arts and entertainment notes

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Thomas Torak's "Hubbard Squash." (Photo Courtesy of SVAC)
Open closes MANCHESTER, Vt. — The Southern Vermont Arts Center’s 48th National Fall Open, which was curated and judged by internationally recognized artist Janet Fish, will take its final bow in the center’s Yester House on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 3 p.m. The Juror’s Choice Awards (Thomas Torak’s painting, "Hubbard Squash," Terry Findeisen’s sculpture "Sisyphus' Task" and Richard Brown’s photograph "Approaching Storm"), selected by Fish from among approximately 200 juried pieces, will be on display through the close of the exhibition. Daily gallery admission for the open is $6 for adults and $3 for students. Members and children under 13 enter free. Information: 802-362-1405 or drop by the center, just off West Road, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5. Visit anytime at www.svac.org. Bidwell concert MONTEREY — Musicians P.G. Six and Pamela Wyn Shannon will perform "Wyrd Folk in an 18th Century Setting," at The Bidwell House Museum on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 3 p.m. P.G. Six is the musical persona of Pat Gubler. He plays folk-influenced original songs on guitar, Celtic harp and tin whistle and has opened for performers such as Bert Jansch, Michael Hurley and Robin Williamson. Gubler has two solo albums, "Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites" (2001) and "The Well of Memory" (2004). Shannon has performed, accompanied and recorded with traditional Irish musicians Solas, Kila, Lunasa, Whirligig and Cherish The Ladies. Her album “Nature's Bride” (2001) contains original Celtic-influenced compositions featuring a vocal style that ranges from lilting sensitivity to urgent callings. Shannon’s inventive modal guitar work has been described as "a tiny chamber orchestra working in unison at the end of her hands." Tickets are $8. Seating is limited. Information and registration: 528-6888 or www.bidwellhousemuseum.org. Glowing lecture PITTSFIELD — Naturalist Tom Tyning will lead his latest adventure at the Berkshire Museum, exploring the little known world of bioluminescence on Saturday, Oct. 23, at 1 p.m. Participants will journey through both terrestrial and marine environments to uncover the answer to the burning question, why do organisms "glow?” The lecture, “Light in Nature,” is the final event in the museum’s “Conversations on Light” series. Bioluminescence is the emission of light, produced from a chemical reaction, which originates within a living organism. Primarily a marine phenomenon, bioluminescence is the predominate source of light in the deep ocean. On land, it is most commonly seen as glowing fungus on foxfire wood or in luminous insects like fireflies. There are many purposes for bioluminescence in nature, including defense, offense and communication. During the lecture, participants will have a chance to view live examples of bioluminescence and learn what differs them from other forms of light. A field herpetologist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society for 24 years, Tyning is an assistant professor of environmental science at Berkshire Community College and an adjunct faculty member at Springfield College and Antioch New England Graduate School. He is the author of “A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles” for the Stokes Nature Guides series and for 25 years authored a weekly newspaper column about nature for the Springfield Union-News. Tyning leads annual natural history tours to exotic destinations such as the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Venezuela, the Amazon River Basin, South Florida's Everglades, Newfoundland and eastern Canada and the desert Southwest. Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for non-members and $5 for students. Reservations and information: 443-7171, ext. 10, or www.berkshiremuseum.org. Musical gift GREAT BARRINGTON — Community Access to the Arts (CATA) was awarded a gift of percussion instruments from The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation Special Projects Program. The 54 Remo instruments, with a retail value of $1,500, include drums, tambourines, bells, maracas and shakers. The instruments are freestanding or designed to be held easily so that individuals with disabilities can enjoy the texture of the instruments and sounds of the music. CATA, a nonprofit arts organization that began in 1993, has a vision of a world where difference could be cause for celebration, and creative energy could fuel both personal and community transformation. The mission of its music program is to reveal and enhance talents, develop interests, build self-esteem and connect individuals with disabilities to each other and their community through music and song. “Music is an important vehicle for people with disabilities because all individuals, regardless of abilities can participate in the joys of music, whether tapping a drum, shaking a tambourine or ringing a bell” said Sandy Newman, CATA’s founder and executive director, in a news release. “Everyone can enjoy music, rhythm and song.” CATA Faculty Artist Vikki True said, “Instruments become the voices of students with disabilities and connect them with the greater student body.” CATA applied and received the gift of musical instruments for its “Arts In & Arts Out” school-based workshops with special-needs students and students at risk at the Lee, Pittsfield, Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire school districts and Valleyhead School in Lenox. While CATA has worked with students for the past 10 years, it has never owned its own equipment, relying upon faculty artists to provide their own instruments. The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation supports music education through the donation of new and refurbished musical instruments to underserved school and community music programs and individual students nationwide. The Special Projects program is designed to provide musical instruments and instrument repairs to community schools of the arts, after-school programs and youth orchestras. Information about CATA: 528-5485, e-mail cata@bcn.net or www.communityaccesstothearts.org. Information about the foundation: 818-784-6787 or www.mhopus.org. Columbia festival CHATHAM, N.Y. — The fifth annual FilmColumbia film festival will present a three-day lineup of independent films and programs on Friday, Oct. 22. “Our program of special events has always been a very popular component of the film festival,” said Director Calliope Nicholas in a news release. “The intimate setting of the festival gives audiences a chance to interact with and learn from filmmakers and film experts.” The festival will kick off at 6 p.m. with an outdoor party on Main Street. The event is free to festival gold pass holders and $10 for everyone else. A cash bar will be offered. On Saturday, Oct. 23, and Sunday, Oct. 24, from 10 to noon at the Tracy Memorial building on Main Street, the festival will offer “Meet the Filmmakers” brunch and panel discussions. “Animation” will be presented on Saturday, with a panel that includes Gary Leib, president of Twinkle Animation in New York City. Leib’s illustrations and cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, and he contributed to the animation for the film, “American Splendor.” On Sunday, “The Art of Film Criticism” will feature panel moderator Peter Biskind, author of several film industry books, and will include Seth Rogovoy, editor-in-chief of Berkshire Living, and Ned DePew, frequent film reviewer for Berkshire HomeStyle Magazine. Brunches and panel discussions are free to festival gold pass holders, $15 for Chatham Film Club members and students with ID and $20 for non-members. FilmColumbia’s “Film and Dessert” event will begin at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, featuring Alexander Payne’s new film “Sideways” and culminating in a buffet of desserts at the Blue Plate restaurant. The FilmColumbia Script Reading will be held on Sunday, featuring “The Glass Tank,” by playwright, scriptwriter and Columbia County resident Anastasia Traina. Traina’s work has been produced in New York City and Los Angeles theaters. Read by a cast of professional actors, the script reading will be held at 12:30 p.m. at the Weber Art Gallery on Park Row. Admission is $5. Information and tickets: 518-392-1162, www.filmcolumbia.com or e-mail filmcolumbia@aol.com. Tickets are available in advance at the Chatham Book Store on Main Street and on event days at the Tracy Memorial building. Group show GREAT BARRINGTON — The Geoffrey Young Gallery, 40 Railroad St., will present a group show, “Taste Like Chicken, through Nov. 14, with an opening reception open to the public Friday, Oct. 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The show will feature the drawings, paintings and photographs of Dennis McLeod, Morgan Bulkeley, Oona Ratcliffe, Warren Isensee, Paul Carpenter, James Franklin, David Humphrey, James Welling, Robby Rose, Neil Whitacre and Donald Baechler, in what organizers describe as “a free-for-all of visual challenge and delectation.” On Saturday, Oct. 23, at 5:30 p.m., the gallery will host a free poetry reading by English poet Tony Lopez, author of “False Memory,” and Bob Perelman, one of Language Poetry's founding fathers and author of “The Future of Memory” and “Ten to One. Regular gallery hours are Friday to Sunday, 11 to 5. University art WILLIAMSTOWN — Jock Reynolds, Henry J. Heinz II director of the Yale University Art Gallery, will deliver the first Hamilton Memorial Lecture, “University Art Museums: Some Reflections of What They Do Well and Might Do Better,” at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, in the auditorium of the Clark Art Institute. George Heard Hamilton, professor of art, emeritus and director of the Clark from 1966 to 1977, died in March at the age of 93. Hamilton was the founder of the Graduate Program in the History of Art at Williams, offered jointly by Williams College and the Clark. In honor of Hamilton, the annual fall lecture series at the Clark, established by Samuel Edgerton, the Amos Lawrence professor of art at Williams in 1989, will continue as the George Heard Hamilton Memorial Lecture. As director of the Yale Art Gallery, Reynolds oversees the oldest university art museum in North America, established in 1832 by the patriot and artist John Trumbull with approximately 100 of his own works. The encyclopedic collection has grown to more than 80,900 works of art representing all major periods in the history of art. Reynolds is an artist in his own right. His creative projects include photography, large-scale visual theater productions, installations, and public artworks — often in collaboration with his wife, artist Suzanne Hellmuth. Their works have been commissioned by MIT, the Carnegie Library, and the University of Washington. Reynolds' artwork is in many public collections, including the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Walker Art Center, the Hood Art Gallery at Dartmouth College, and the Lewitt Collection at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, as well as in private collections. Vault Gallery GREAT BARRINGTON — The Vault Gallery has announced "Cool and Green," new color works by Marilyn Kalish, on view October through mid November. There will be a closing reception Friday, Nov. 19. The large-scale mylar panels are suspended in space, allowing light to illuminate from behind. Kailsh's paintings, combining color and line, represent a body of work that has been selected for the 2005 Florence Biennial. Also on display are photographs by Clemens Kalischer, Craig Walker and engravings by Barry Moser. The Vault Gallery is in the historic Mahaiwe Bank, 322 Main St. (corner of Castle and Main). Gallery hours are noon to 6 weekdays, noon to 8 weekends or by appointment: 644-0221. Chamber concerts LENOX — The Stockbridge Chamber Concerts at Ventfort Hall will continue its fall series with the second of a two-part “Debussy and Friends” program on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 4 p.m. Works from Debussy’s Preludes for Piano, Book II, will include “Bruyeres,” “La Puerto del Vino” and “Les Fees sont d’ exquises danseuses,” as well as “Canope,” “Les tierces alternees” and “Feux d’artificees,” all performed by pianist Elizabeth Hagenah. Violinist Andrew Wise will join Hagenah for Faure’s Sonata in A, Op. 13 for violin and piano. Two works by English composer Rebecca Clarke will be performed: “Midsummer Moon” for violin and piano and “Songs” for soprano and piano. Hagenah is the founder and president of the Stockbridge Chamber Concerts, which have been performed at Searles Castle in Great Barrington since 1975. She is a frequent performer throughout this country, Canada and Europe. Wise has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe. The final fall at Ventfort Hall will be on Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday, Nov. 28, at 4 p.m. The program, “Romantic Music for the Gilded Age,” will include works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Dvorak. Following each concert, the audience is invited to remain for refreshments and a reception with the artists. Admission for each concert and reception is $25 per person. Reservations (recommended) or information: Ventfort Hall, 104 Walker St., 637-3206. Wharton book LENOX — After sitting for decades unnoticed in a French library, a travel memoir written 115 years ago by a young Edith Wharton was published for the first time in the United States this summer, The Mount has announced. “The Cruise of the Vanadis (Rizzoli International, 2004) chronicles Wharton’s 1888 voyage through the Mediterranean and features the photographs of Jonas Dovydenas, who retraced Wharton’s steps to capture the images that illustrate the book. At a book signing from 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23, at Stable Auditorium at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Estate and Gardens, Dovydenas will describe the discovery and publication of the work. The event is free and will include refreshments. Just 26 years old in 1888, Wharton fulfilled her dream of taking a cruise through the Mediterranean. Accompanied by her cousin-in-law James Van Alen and Teddy, her husband of three years, she set out on an 82-day journey that she would later call the crowning wonder of her life. Alhough Wharton meticulously documented every detail as she traveled along the way, she never published the complete log of her voyage. Uncovered by French scholar Claudine Lesage in 1991, “The Cruise of the Vanadis” manuscript had been on a dusty shelf for over 50 years in the Municipal Library in Hyères, France, the town where Wharton had spent her last years. The discovery revealed one of the earliest known records of what was to become Wharton’s signature ability to capture every important detail in all that she observed, according to the Mount. Dovydenas traveled for three weeks each spring for three years, tracking Wharton’s itinerary to “not just to find places she visited, but to be right where she might have stood … to look at things through her eyes.” His photographs have appeared in American Photographer, National Geographic Adventure, Soldier of Fortune, Time and others. His work can be seen in the collections at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art/Chicago, International Center for Photography, The Library of Congress, and The Minneapolis Institute of Art. He was a trustee of Edith Wharton Restoration Inc. from 1983 to June 2004, and for many years served as chairman. Dovydenas recently returned from Afghanistan, where he is photographing the daily life of American and Afghan soldiers. At the book signing, copies of “The Cruise of the Vanadis” will be available for $20.95, a 25-percent discount. Those who cannot attend may order copies at that price, signed by Dovydenas, by calling The Bookstore at The Mount, 637-3366. The book can also be purchased online at www.EdithWharton.org/shop. The Mount is at 2 Plunkett St. (Route 7 and Plunkett). Information: 637-1899. Berkshire Symphony WILLIAMSTOWN — Ronald Feldman will conduct the Berkshire Symphony in a free performance in Chapin Hall at Williams College on Friday, Oct. 22, at 8 p.m., following a discussion at 7:15 p.m. in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall. The program will include Mozart’s Symphony No. 32; Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, with Leslie Parnas, soloist; Barber’s “Serenade for String Orchestra” and Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. Winner of the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Parnas is regarded as one of the foremost cellists of his generation. He has performed and recorded with some of the greatest orchestras in the world and collaborated with renowned soloists like Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern. He has also appeared with popular artists as well, including Red Skelton, Victor Borge, and Marcel Marceau. Parnas performed at the White House for both Presidents Carter and Reagan. He has appeared at the world's most prestigious summer festivals, including Tanglewood, Spoleto, and Marlboro. His instrument, the 1698 Gofriller "Rosette," is considered one of the finest and rarest cellos in the world. Directions to the concert: 597-2736. Jazz donation WILLIAMSTOWN — Williamstown Jazz Festival Artistic Director Andy Jaffe has announced that Berkshire Bank will contribute $2,500 to help defray the costs of this April's annual jazz festival. The bank will join the Massachusetts Cultural Council and area businesses through advertisements in lending support to the annual dance, gospel, lecture, college band performance, jams and professional jazz combo concerts held at the Clark Art Institute, Mass MoCA and in Chapin Hall at Williams college. The festival makes every effort to offer as many free activities as possible and to hold down costs for ticketed events. The coming year's schedule will be posted on the festival’s Web site early in 2005 at www.williamstownjazz.com. Information will also be available at the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce and Department of Music at Williams College. Clark Halloween WILLIAMSTOWN — Masks will be the theme for an afternoon of family activities celebrating Halloween at the Clark Art Institute on Saturday, Oct. 30, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Art-making activities will include masks, jack-o-lanterns and puppets. Families can enjoy hayrides on the Clark grounds. At 1:15 and 3:15, “kid-“ gallery talks on the theme "Masks, Faces, and Expression" will include a special show of prints featuring masks and masquerade. Live entertainment will include the interactive play "The Singing, Ringing Tree" by Imagine That! Productions at 2 and roaming mime Robert Rivest. At 2:30, children 10 and up may participate in a masked dance workshop with the Williams College Dance Program, culminating in a live performance at 4. Admission is free. The exhibition “Medieval Mystery: Who Is the Master of the Embroidered Foliage?” will be on view. The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is at 225 South St. Information: 458-2303 or www.clarkart.edu. Close Encounters GREAT BARRINGTON — Close Encounters with Music's 13th season in the Berkshires will offer "Six Concerts With a Point of View," with the opening concert on Saturday, Oct. 23, at 6 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Art Center. The Massachusetts Cultural Council has praised Close Encounters for its "high level of performance quality, its commissions of new works and works for families and children,” among other accolades. The opening concert, “Romantic Landscapes,” designed to coincide with the last blaze of color in autumn foliage, will be an exploration of nature as mirror. It will feature Schumann's “Piano Quartet” and Schubert's "Trout Quintet,” works that represent the richest outpourings of German Romanticism and are among the two most popular works in the chamber music repertoire. Joining Artistic Director and cellist Yehuda Hanani will be acclaimed Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen, violist Richard O’Neill and double bass player Stephen Sas. Close Encounters will continue its tradition of commentary before each performance, of commissioning original essays for its playbill to shed further light on the themes and of inviting the entire audience to a reception to meet the artists. In honor of violinist Arve Tellefsen, the new Norwegian brasserie Bolgen & Moi, based in Hudson, N.Y., will provide the reception, onstage at the Mahaiwe. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students and are available at 800-843-0778 or by e-mailing cewmusic@aol.com. Subscriptions are $125 for the series of six concerts. Information: www.cewm.org. Tickets also available at Evergreen and Rubiner’s Cheesemongers in Great Barrington. Successful gala LENOX — Shakespeare & Company has announced that its Autumn Gala, “Hawthorne Revisited,” on Oct. 9, raised over $100,000 to benefit the company’s education and training programs. Directed by Artistic Director Tina Packer and produced by Gordon Hyatt, the Gala was hosted by Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes and featured actors Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei and David Strathairn. Each read excerpts from several of Hawthorne’s works and journals on stage at Ozawa Hall, in commemoration of the author’s 200th birthday. Gala festivities included private dinners at elegant inns, restaurants and homes throughout Berkshire County, followed by the performance. The gala culminated with a champagne and dessert reception at Founders’ Theatre, where GE Foundation representative Keith Newman made a special presentation of a $100,000 check to Packer in support of the Education Program’s Fall Festival of Shakespeare. Art tour LENOX — The Museum of the Gilded Age at Ventfort Hall is sponsoring a private tour of the J. Pierpont Morgan Collections at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn., on Wednesday, Oct. 27. Morgan was the brother of Sarah Morgan, who, with her husband, George, built Ventfort Hall as a summer residence in Lenox in 1893. J. P. Morgan was one of the world’s great art collectors. His considerable success as a leading financier provided him with the means to amass, over a 22 year period, a collection of over 20,000 works of art, valued in 1912, the year before his death, at about $50 million. The range of objects he collected included antiquities, medieval silver gilt and ivories, Renaissance bronzes and Majolica, Renaissance and Baroque silver gilt, ivories and glass, watches and clocks, jewelry, rock crystal and amber, sculpture, miniatures, Meissen porcelain, Old Master paintings and drawings, books and illuminated manuscripts. But the vast majority of his collections consisted of decorative arts, especially from France, including Beauvais and Gobelins tapestries, carpets, furniture and French porcelain. On view for the Ventfort Hall tour will be Baroque and Rococo works of art and an important collection of French 18th-century porcelain, comprising objects from such major soft-paste factories as Saint-Cloud, Chantilly, Villeroy, Vincennes and Sevres. The collection is considered one of the most prized segments of the museum’s permanent holdings. Curator Eugene Gaddis will be the tour guide. The tour will leave from Ventfort Hall at 9 a.m. by private motor coach. Lunch will be served in the museum’s café. The day will continue with a visit to the burial site of the Morgan family at Cedar Hill Cemetery, which includes J. P. Morgan’s tomb, representing his vision of the Ark of the Covenant. The cost of the excursion is $75, which includes museum admission and round-trip fare, as well as a donation to the restoration of Ventfort Hall. Reservations (mandatory) must be made by Friday, Oct. 22: 637-3206. Audition notice: AVERILL PARK, N.Y. — the Circle Theatre Players are seeking actors for the March production of “Brighton Beach Memoirs.” Needed are parents in their 40s, sons age 15 to 18-plus, an aunt in her 30s and two daughters, age 13 to 16. The play will be performed Nov. 1 and 2 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Sand Lake Center for the Arts, 2880 Route 43. Information: Joan Fuess, director, 518-674-2154.
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Former Harry's Supermarket Under Construction for Restaurant

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Construction is underway to transform the former Harry's Supermarket into a restaurant. 

Late last month, the Conservation Commission greenlit some tree pruning on the property. New windows and a new door can be seen in the front of the building. 

"It's a substantial renovation that's currently underway here," Brent White of White Engineering said, speaking on behalf of the applicant and owner, Huajie Zhu. 

A fire gutted the longtime Wahconah Street supermarket in 2023, and the following year, Zhu purchased the property for $460,000 two years ago to build a restaurant with hibachi in the existing footprint of the more than 100-year-old building. 

White explained that the project has been ongoing for over a year, and the Community Development Board granted the property a waiver to reduce the minimum required number of parking spaces so that additional spaces aren't needed.  

He noted that, looking at the site plan, there is very little room to do so. A mirror will be installed near the sharp turn on Bel Air Avenue to alleviate traffic concerns. 

Pruning will be done on trees in the southeast corner of the existing paved parking lot, as a number of branches are hanging over. The new owners also intend to patch, sealcoat, and re-stripe the parking lot. 

A fire tore through the building less than an hour after the supermarket closed for the day three years ago. An automatic sprinkler system is required for the new use. 

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