NEA awards $30,000 to Shakespeare & Company

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Lenox, Mass — The National Endowment for the Arts’ Learning in the Arts Program has awarded $30,000 to Shakespeare & Company’s 20th annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare. This is the 14th year the NEA has generously provided support targeted specifically for Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program.

The Festival is a nine-week program involving over 500 students in Massachusetts and New York, culminating in a four-day marathon of 10 fully mounted Shakespeare plays in the Company’s Founders’ Theatre November 20-23. Performances in the participating schools run November 13-15. For tickets and Festival information please call the Box Office at (413) 637-3353 or visit the website at www.shakespeare.org. In-school performances and Founders’ schedules are also available online. Please check out this link and see some of the recent student interviews as well as Director of Education, Kevin Coleman, speak about the Festival and what it means to them. This is a link to our 2007 & 2008 Festival blog: http://www.shakespeare.org/blog/2008/09/20th-annual-fall-festival-of-shakespeare-now-underway/.

Shakespeare & Company is founded upon a belief in the power of language, and this approach is reflected in the Fall Festival. Students are encouraged to dig into Shakespeare’s works from the inside out, breaking down the language and mentally chewing on it so as to taste the humor, violence, heartbreak and transcendent beauty of plays written over 400 years ago. Daily rehearsals focus on students’ response to Shakespeare’s text, opening the doorway for the essential personal connection to works that students may have previously written off as inaccessible. Led by Shakespeare & Company’s Director of Education Kevin G. Coleman, Education Program Administrator Jo Ann Valle and School Program Manager Alexandra Lincoln, the Fall Festival is specifically designed as a celebration rather than a competition between the schools. This season’s participating high schools include Chatham High School, Mt. Everett Regional High School, Mt. Greylock Regional High School, Lee High School, Lenox Memorial High School, Monument Mountain Regional High School, North Andover High School, Springfield Central High School, Taconic High School, and Taconic Hills High School.

“As we head toward a successful culmination of our 20th Fall Festival of Shakespeare, it’s a time to look back and thank the people and organizations who have helped us get to where we are. We are incredibly honored and grateful for this recent gift from the NEA and their continued support for all of our Education Programs, in particular our Fall Festival of Shakespeare,” said Coleman. “It is this kind of support that makes the Festival possible, and will not only bring Shakespeare vibrantly alive for hundreds of students this year but it also reinforces the fact that arts in education is essential to the full development of all our children.”

The National Endowment for the Arts supports American theater by funding the work of theater companies of all sizes, genres and esthetics, and is committed to the goal of enabling all Americans to enrich their lives through the arts. The Learning In the Arts program’s two goals are to invite children to celebrate and participate in a central part of their cultural inheritance, and to develop their social and academic skills through the arts.  For more information on the National Endowment for the Arts, go to www.NEA.gov.

Shakespeare & Company’s Education Program has reached nearly one million students since 1978 with innovative performances, workshops, and residencies. It received the prestigious 2006 Coming Up Taller Award presented by First Lady Laura Bush at the White House in January 2007, and in 2005 it also received the Commonwealth Award, the highest award for excellence in the arts, sciences and humanities given by the state of Massachusetts. The Education Program has been identified by the Arts Education Partnership and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities as a Champion of Change.  The Program is focused on bringing Shakespeare alive and into the lives of as many students and teachers as possible through the active exploration and performance of Shakespeare’s plays.  Shakespeare & Company arts-in-education programs receive major support from The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and its local cultural councils, Country Curtains and The Red Lion Inn, and many other local corporations, private foundations, and individuals.
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A Boutique Hotel is Bringing Guests a Luxury Stay in Lenox

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

LENOX, Mass. — A new Inn is bringing a boutique-style stay for visitors and locals to enjoy.

Owners, Sullivan Capital LLC, purchased the property, located on 135 Main Street, in 2024. After a year or renovations, Garden Gables Inn is open for business. 

"Garden Gables started off as one of the many Berkshire cottages, 1790 was the date on that, and it's always operated as an inn," said Hospitality Manager Yvonne Walton. "It's just a great gathering place and relaxation spot for people to come and get the feel of Lenox, and just slow down and enjoy the nature and the surrounding area...get culture and art and see some great concerts. I think it'll be a wonderful place, definitely does more of the upper-scale hospitality." 

Owners Niko Giallouis and Eric Sullivan bought the property from the former owner. Sullivan had his eye on Lenox since attending a wedding almost 10 years ago.

"I came to a wedding in Lenox, probably six or seven years ago. Personally, just kind of fell in love with the area, and I guess that's kind of how it got on my radar. So you know from that perspective, as we got into the hotel business out towards an area, it was a place I was kind of monitoring and waiting for the right property to show up."

After purchasing the two underwent a full renovation, a project that cost around $1.5 million. The building, first built in 1780, required some TLC. Sullivan's wife, Jessica, who owns Jessica Sullivan Design, designed the inn.

Sullivan said they installed a new roof, repainted everything, renovated the bathrooms, installed new floors, a new HVAC system, and new plumbing.

"We really touched everything from the outside...I mean, all the aesthetics and layouts changed a bit," he said. "As I said, put about a million and a half into it. All new furniture, fixtures, everything. The design's completely different. It wasn't a full gut, but it was a heavy, heavy renovation."

The two like to collaborate with local businesses, and they make a point to direct visitors to local restaurants, businesses, and attractions.

"If guests are asking for recommendations, our customer service team, our guest services team, will relay that kind of information. Even if we can call and make a reservation for somebody, happy to do it," he said. "We aren't doing breakfast, but what we do is we have partnerships with a lot of the breakfast places downtown. We actually purchase a gift certificates for each person each day, so that they can use that to go downtown."

Sullivan hopes that guests don't see their inn as just a place to sleep and dump their bags, but make it an experience for anyone who stays.

"We really focus on kind of the experience side of things, so again, we want to give you the best experience you can have here...and we want that not just to be the place you put your bag and go do things. It's important to think of everything," he said.

Sullivan said partnerships are important to their business and are a way to connect with locals.

"The local partnerships, I can't stress that enough, because no matter how much and how great the room is, people are still going to want to go do other things," he said. "So, I think it just benefits everybody if we're all working together and so forth, and supporting the community, being neighborly too, because we are surrounded by residential homes...But we really try to put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, a lot of love into the building, all the details, really care about the senses," Sullivan said.

The Inn's check-in and reservations are completely online. When guests arrive, all they have to do is check in online and receive their code that they will use to enter their room. Sullivan hopes this helps create less stress for guests and gets them to their room as fast as possible, especially after a long trip.

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