Berkshire Taconic Awards $150K to Artists, Arts Organizations

• Community Access to the Arts, Great Barrington, for an installation of Susan Hardcastle and Janice Shields’ "Sticks and Stones." The installation will serve both as a stage set for the annual gala performance on May 1 and 2 and as an exhibit at the Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield in May.
  
  
• City of Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development, Pittsfield, MA: for the exhibition of five works by New England artists in the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts. Pieces incorporate natural and recycled elements, use of illumination, interactive performance-based elements, functionality, and more.
  
  
• Additionally, John Stritch, an artist from Hinsdale, MA, received a grant. Stritch is a painter and sculptor whose work has been exhibited widely in local galleries, museums and colleges.

• Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vt., for a residency for Kristen Reynolds.
• MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, to purchase, ship and frame prints and photographs from three New England based artists for the MIT Student Loan Art Program.  
  
  
• DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, for the exhibition Scapes by Halsey Burgund. This will be a site specific, interactive art work using open source technology to combine musical scores and viewers’ verbal reactions into a continually evolving real-time recording.
  
  
• Real Art Ways, Hartford, Conn., for the commission and exhibition of new work by Olu Oguibe. The new work will stem from research the artist has done about New England stone walls and highlighting the aesthetic qualities of everyday objects.
  
  
• Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, for the commission of "Sugar," a new site-specific installation by Maria Magdelena Campos-Pons. This work addressed the Afro-Cuban diaspora and the artist’s identity as a woman of Yoruba ancestry. 
  
  
• Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, for the commission and exhibition of a major new installation by the Massachusetts artist, Gina Siepel in November 2010. The multipart piece will feature a fully functional handmade riverboat and will include video documentation of the artist’s use of the boat.
  
  
• Boston Day & Evening Academy, Roxbury, for the purchase of a piece of sculpture by Nora Valdez which is part of the installation "Walking with Memories" designed and executed by students of this public charter school. The installation explores the life of the individual and relationships within society and nature.
  
  
• Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, for support exhibitions of New England artists.        

• Dana Salvo, Gloucester                                                              
• Tiaga Ermansons, Northampton                                         
• Isabel Riley, Somerville                                                              
• Amy Jenkins, Peterborough, N.H.                                                        
• Christopher Armstrong, Gloucester                                          
• Liza Bingham, Waltham                                                             
• Dido Thayer, Malden                                                            
• Duncan Johnson, Hartford, Vt.                                                       
• Carol O’Malia, Westwood,                                                                       
• Angelo Arnold, Montpelier, Vt.                                                           
• Deborah Davidson, Somerville                                                   
• Jieun Shin, Amherst                                                                    

ServiceNet Cuts Ribbon on Vocational Farm to 'Sow Seeds of Hope'

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
06:30AM / Saturday, May 18, 2024

Lori Carnute plants flowers at the farm and enjoys seeing her friends. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Smiles were all around as farmers, human service workers, and officials cut the ribbon Friday on ServiceNet's new vocational farm on Crane Avenue.

Whether it is planting flowers or growing fresh produce, the program is for "sowing seeds of hope" for those with developmental disabilities.

"What Prospect Meadow Farm is about is changing lives," Vice President of Vocational Services Shawn Robinson said.

"Giving people something meaningful to do, a community to belong to, a place to go every day and to make a paycheck, and again, I am seeing that every day from our first 17 farmhands the smiles on their faces. They're glad to be here. They're glad to be making money."

Prospect Meadow Farm Berkshires held a launch event on Friday with tours, music, snacks, and a ribbon cutting in front of its tomato greenhouse. The nonprofit human service agency closed on the former Jodi's Seasonal on Crane Avenue earlier this year.  

It is an expansion of ServiceNet's first farm in Hatfield that has provided meaningful agricultural work, fair wages, and personal and professional growth to hundreds of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities since opening in 2011.

Eventually, the farm will employ 50 individuals with developmental disabilities year-round and another 20 to 25 local folks supporting their work.

The pay is a great aspect for Billy Baker, who is learning valuable skills for future employment doing various tasks around the farm. He has known some of the ServiceNet community for over a decade.

"I just go wherever they need me to help," he said. "I'm more of a hands-on person."