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John Stritch Poster for Naumkeag Garden Party11:19AM / Wednesday, July 15, 2009
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. – Berkshires art icon John Stritch has released a poster for Naumkeag Garden Party, to be held on Friday, July 31. The Trustees of Reservations and the Stockbridge Properties Committee host this annual event each year, and this is the second time that John Stritch has designed a poster to help raise funds for restoration projects at this National Historic Landmark.
Stritch’s last Naumkeag poster featured the famous Blue Steps. It is now a collector’s item. His subject this year is a little more obscure – but just as beautiful. “We asked John to focus his design on the kitchen area as that is where restoration funds will be directed from this Garden Party event,” explained Trustees regional director Steve McMahon. “We took John to see the site last winter, and a metal grate on a window caught his eye,” explains Steve McMahon, regional director for The Trustees.
“My father did lots of posters for many Berkshire organizations, going back quite a ways,” explains Stritch’s daughter Hilary Beadel. “The ones he’s really known for are the ones he did for Tanglewood and the Josh Billings,” she says. Beadel serves as a Trustees volunteer. Her father’s serigraphs (silkscreens), are limited in number and each one is unique. “Now he is 84 so they are going to be few and far between in the future.”
“They dragged me out there in the middle of winter in snow up to my waist,” explains John, whose 50 year retrospective can be viewed online at www.johnstritch.org. “They rediscovered this beautiful iron grate. I got stuck in the snow. My camera got all fogged up. My daughter was there with one of those new digital cameras, so she took the picture.” Stritch, who used to be a surgeon, works with a knife. “That’s how I show the grate itself. The background is more like a painting. And the colors were my daughter. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed doing it. “
There were 30 posters printed to be sold at the Garden Party for $50 each. Tickets to the party must be purchased in advance. To order tickets for this fundraiser, please contact Diane Cote at 413.298.3239 x3000 or at westregion@ttor.org. Any posters remaining after the party will be sold in the Naumkeag gift shop. With the support from this event and local contributions, the Trustees will match a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund to both interpret and reuse Naumkeag’s former kitchen area which has never been open to the public.”
Naumkeag, with its mansion and exquisite gardens, is an intact “Berkshires Cottage” located on Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge. In addition to strolling the gardens, guests will enjoy cocktails, a buffet dinner, music, and silent and live auctions. Auction items will include four tickets to a Red Sox game, a three night stay at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess in Bermuda, a Berkshire Mountain Bakery “Make your own Pizza Dinner for eight,” and other generous donations from local businesses and artists.
A limited number of tickets are available at a special price of $140 (individual) or $250 (couple) and will include a first time one-year membership in The Trustees in addition to a Garden Party ticket. For information, or to purchase tickets, call 413/298-3239 x3000. Tickets are not available at the door. Funds support restoration projects at Naumkeag and The Mission House.
Proceeds from this year’s Garden Party will support restoration of Naumkeag’s historic kitchen. Historically accurate paint colors and artifacts from the working side of the estate will provide the backdrop for a museum shop. And the heart of the kitchen - a 1930s Garland gas cooking range (just like Julia Childs’) – will be restored to its former glory.
Miss Mabel Choate bequeathed Naumkeag, with its 44-room “Berkshire Cottage” built in 1886, to The Trustees of Reservations in 1958 to “be operated for the benefit of the public as a country house museum.” Naumkeag was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007. |
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