Arts Venues Seek to Connect Adams, North Adams

ADAMS, Mass. — Barely three years old, the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace and Museum is attracting tourists from around the Northeast and as far as Japan.

But the small homestead can't be the only destination.

"We need your help," the museum's new director Colleen Janz implored the gathering at the Fire House Cafe on Saturday night. "We're a small museum, it only takes about an hour to go through ... There has to be something else for these people to do."

The nearly 50 members of the area's "creative community" — artists, writers and representatives of cultural venues — agreed that it was time for North Berkshire region to develop a "cross pollination" of effort, including in advocating for greater cultural funding.

It is also time for Adams to step out from behind the county's two cities and realize its own potential, said Bill Kolis Jr., owner of the cafe who hosted the meeting for Massachusetts Creative.

"We still have our front teeth," joked Kolis, referring to the town's intact Park Street, "and we're on the busiest road in the Berkshires."

The meeting was primarily to advocate with state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams, on funding for the Massachusetts Cultural Commission and other creative or tourism ventures. The House budget released last week cuts the MCC's budget by $1.5 million, or 15 percent, on top of a midyear cut of 1 percent and reduced National Endowment of the Arts funding.

Cariddi, a member of the Cultural Caucus and the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, said she was aware of the cuts and had spoken to Speaker Robert DeLeo about them.

"I fully support you," she said, acknowledging the growing significance of arts and culture to the region's economy.

While she is no longer on the Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development, Cariddi said it was appropriate to contact members of that committee. State Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, D-Lenox, sits on the committee.

Kolis, an Adams native who spent years working in community development and in law in Cleveland, has great hope for the Topia Arts Center in reinvigorating Park Street. But it can't be done by one person, or even two, he said, it has to be a community endeavor.

Others pointed to the success of the Anthony Museum, the saving of St. Stanislaus Church, the recent expansion of the Berkshire Dance Theatre, the potential in the town's history and the planned Berkshire Scenic Railway route between the Mother Town and North Adams.

Jack Savage, a performance artist and recent New York City transplant to North Adams, said the region has an industrial tradition that it should exploit. "This isn't Stockbridge, this isn't Norman Rockwell," he said.

Most importantly, the arts and cultural communities needed to tune into what each other was doing.

"I feel really strongly about this being the first step," said Gail Sellers, of the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. "We have to show up and support each other."

Kolis, her brother, envisioned more meetings of the new "Adams-Anthony Center for Political, Economic and Social Discourse" as ways to reconnect and hear different perspectives.

"We have to be citizens, we have to be a community again," he said. "We've got to support one another."

North Adams Schools Talk Final Budget Numbers for Public Hearing

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:15AM / Wednesday, May 08, 2024

The elementary schools will be phasing in a new math curriculum over the next two years. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Committee received the presentation given last week to the Finance & Facilities committee for the fiscal 2025 spending plan.

 

The subcommittee is recommending the budget of $20,357,096, up $302,744 or 1.51 percent over this year. This was expected to be funded by $16,418,826 in state Chapter 70 education funds, local funding of $3,938,270 (up $100,000 over this year) and a drawdown of school funds of $575,237. This will also include the closure of Greylock School at the end of this year and the reduction of 26 full-time positions. 

 

A hybrid public hearing on the budget will be held on Thursday, May 23, at 5:30 at Brayton School, with a vote by the School Committee to immediately follow. 

 

The extra $100,000 from the city will likely not be part of this funding package, warned Mayor Jennifer Macksey, chair of the School Committee. 

 

"Going through all my process on the city side, so to say, with the rest of my departments, it's going to be really hard for me to squeak out the additional $100,000," said the mayor, alluding to a budget gap of $600,000 to $800,000 for fiscal 2025 she's trying to close. 

 

"I just want to be fully transparent with everyone sitting here, and as your School Committee chair, I don't know if the city budget is going to be able to squeak out that $100,000. That number will most likely change."

 

Director of School Finance and Operations Nancy Rauscher said the $100,000 had been a placeholder with administration understanding that it could change.