Shaker Museum and Library presents an artist's reception for Gift, a site-responsive work by Léonie

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Old Chatham, NY - The Shaker Museum and Library presents an artist's reception for Gift, a site-responsive work by Léonie Guyer. Gift is informed by the artist's consideration of Shaker gift drawings and architecture and inspired by a natural resonance between these works and her own creative practice. The long-term installation occupies one room of the Brethren's Work Shop (1829), a four story brick building located at the Museum's recently acquired North Family property in Mount Lebanon Shaker Village. Guyer's paintings and installations explore idiosyncratic shapes and the spaces they inhabit. By working directly on the surfaces of the extant plaster walls and one window, Guyer has applied traces of her internalized experience onto the architecture itself. Intimate in scale and discretely sited, the paintings have become a temporary layer in the history and life of the building. Leonie Guyer's painting-centered practice extends from studio-based works to site responsive installations. It investigates the interconnection between idiosyncratic shapes and the spaces they inhabit. The shapes elude naming while they embody fragments of possible meanings. Guyer's interest in Shaker gift drawings was sparked by an encounter with a single work in a San Francisco gallery in the 1990s. Comprised of cryptic script in linear and geometric configurations, it seemed to hover between writing and drawing. The Shaker Museum and Library's decision to work with Guyer continues a long tradition of supporting artists who have drawn inspiration from the Shakers - from their art, artifacts, music, and dance. A limited edition catalog to accompany the exhibition is being published by the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, Oregon. The reception will be held in the Brethren's Work Shop, Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, on Saturday, September 16, from 2:00 until 4:00 pm. Guyer will present an illustrated public lecture about her work on Monday, September 18, at 7:00 pm, in the living room of The Forge at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village. For more information call The Shaker Museum and Library at 518-794-9100 ext. 211 or visit www.shakermuseumandlibrary.org
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Dalton to Hold Special Town Meeting Monday

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — Voters will reconvene Monday for a special town meeting to decide on six articles, including an item to permit mobile accessory dwelling units. 
 
The meeting will take place on Monday, June 29, at 7 p.m., at Wahconah Regional High School. 
 
The first article requests voters authorize amending the vote taken on Article 3 at the May 4 annual town meeting allowing the town to increase or decrease funding for one or more departments for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
 
Article 2 requests voters establish a line item for the Clean Air Committee. Subsequently, Article 3, transfers the available funds, that were appropriated at previous town meetings, into the new account. 
 
Article 4 requests voters transfer a sum of money, not yet provided, from the Capital Stabilization Fund to cover costs to the Department of Public Work's roof repair project that exceed borrowing.
 
The most anticipated articles are on amending the town's current bylaws to allow mobile tiny homes, Articles 5 and 6. 
 
For more than two years, Amy Turnbull has been advocating to amend the bylaw but has met obstacles delaying the effort. 
 
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