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MCLA Opens Campus, New Science Center

The facilities crew gets a round of applause for their efforts on Tuesday at MCLA's traditional opening breakfast.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Two words have been haunting the opening breakfasts at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts for years: Science center.

The words reflected at first a vision, then a hope, a plan, a location and, finally, a physical reality.

While the crowd at this year's breakfast in the Amsler Campus Center couldn't see the four-story building across the campus, the knowledge it was there lent a sense of satisfaction to the proceedings.

"Please wipe your feet," said President Mary Grant on inviting the college community to tour the brand-new building.

"It is wonderful to see this building come to life," she said. "We began with a series of conversations with imagining how we want to teach and learn and engage and to then to see that turn into physical space ... ."

After two years of construction, classes in the building start on Wednesday. The instructors have mostly moved in but there are still piles of boxes to unpack, furniture wrapped in plastic and workers finishing up a punchlist of items. James Stakenas, vice president of administration and finance, leading a tour of the building after the breakfast, said the instructors have time to get their labs in order since they won't start those for a couple weeks.

Professor Daniel Connerton said he'll have the students unwrap the chairs in the new 72-seat auditorium classroom, "and then we'll find the lights."

The history and political science instructor will lead the first class in the building at 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

"It's just tremendous," he said of the building. "It's going to be great fun."

The imposing structure is surprisingly light and airy inside, helped by soaring window walls and glass interior walls and corner stairwells.

It's fully wired — electrical and otherwise — to accommodate the technical needs of faculty and students. Stakenas said more than 700 data points in the building can be monitored, ranging from carbon dioxide levels to lights to sustainable energy installations on the roof (the small solar array will soon get a wind turbine partner).

The building is designed to allow for future growth, for instance by creating an open space in the office suites that can be converted into a office with minimum effort.

"This building actually has a modicum of space for every faculty member to have a unique spot for their own research," said Stakenas, replacing "desk corners" and other odd spaces. The research areas have room for work with students and a central space for non-clean items like laptops and lunch. "There is one on every floor for faculty research."

Mayors Richard Alcombright, left, and Daniel Bianchi spoke at the breakfast.

Bowman is closed, with classes being moved to other halls and the visual and performing arts department ensconced at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for the interim. Stakenas said bidding on the project has not yet taken place. Bowman is expected to hold the college's arts, math and computer programming departments.

In other business at the opening breakfast, Grant welcomed new staff and faculty and thanked those who had helped with the new building move and in setting up for the incoming classes.

"Thankfully, these past few budget cycles we're starting to do what Massachusetts has't done for too long," said state Rep. Benjamin B. Downing, "which is to match our reality to our rhetoric in espousing higher education.

"We have finally started to invest again not just in the infrastructure, which is incredibly important, but in the budget and in access to higher education. We have much, much more work to do."

Charles Cianfarini, president of the local Association of Professional Administrators, and Elizabeth Manns, steward of the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, reminded the gathering of the important role unions have and continue to play for workers; Dana Rapp, president of the Faculty Association, urged greater efforts to solve the inequalities that limit success in higher education. Also speaking were state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams; Berkshire County Chamber of Commerce President Michael Supranowicz President of the Board of Trustees Tyler Fairbank; new student Trustee Alyson Stolz and SGA President Jake Powers. State Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, and representatives from Gov. Deval Patrick's and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal's offices also attended.

North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright said the college was a valued member of the community.

"The melding of this campus and of our greater community truly makes me feel part of what happens at MCLA each and every day," he said.

Enrollment is up with some 450 new students arriving on campus from 11 different states and with 10 coming in as exchange students from other countries.

Grant said the signs are looking good — especially the new ones at the exits off the Massachusetts Turnpike and on Interstate 91 at Greenfield that direct motorists to the college.

"We don't tell them there's another 100 miles to go," she laughed.

Sheffield Craftsman Offering Workshops on Windsor Chairs

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:30AM / Sunday, March 29, 2026

Andrew Jack uses hand tools in his wood working shop. 

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — A new workshop is bringing woodworking classes and handmade items.

Andrew Jack specializes in Windsor chairs and has been making them for almost 20 years.

He recently opened a workshop at 292 South Main St. as a space for people to see his work and learn how to do it.

"This is sort of the next, or latest iteration of a business that I've kind of been limping along for a little while," he said. "I make Windsor chairs from scratch, and this is an effort to have a little bit more of a public-facing space, where people can see the chairs, talk about options, talking about commissions.

"I also am using it as a space to teach workshops, which for the last 10 years or so I've been trying to do out of my own personal workshop at home."

Jack graduated in 2008 from State University of New York at Purchase, and later met woodworker Curtis Buchanan, who inspired him.

"Right after I finished there, I was feeling a little lost. I wasn't sure how to make the next steps and afford a workspace. And the machine tooling that I was used to using in school." he said, "Right after I graduated, I crossed paths with a guy named Curtis Buchanan, and he was demonstrating making really refined Windsor chairs with not much more than some some flea market tools, and I saw that as a great, low overhead way to keep working with wood."

Jack moved into his workshop last month with help from his wife. He is renting the space from the owners of Magic Flute, who he says have been wonderful to work with.

"My wife actually noticed the 'for rent' sign out by the road, and she made the initial call to just see if we get some more information," he said. "It wasn't on my radar, because it felt like kind of a big leap, and sometimes that's how it's been in my life, where I just need other people to believe in me more than I do to, you know, really pull the trigger."

Jack does commissions and while most of his work is Windsor chairs, he also builds desks and tables, and does spoon carving. 

Windsor chairs are different because of the way their backs are attached into the seat instead of being a continuous leg and back frame.

"A lot of the designs that I make are on the traditional side, but I do some contemporary stuff as well. And so usually the legs are turned on a lathe and they have sort of a fancy baluster look to them, or they could be much more simple," he said. "But the solid seat that separates the undercarriage from the backrest and the arms and stuff is sort of one of the defining characteristics of a Windsor."

He hopes to help people learn the craft and says it's rewarding to see the finished product. In the future, he also hopes to host other instructors and add more designs for the workshop.

"The prime impact for the workshops is to give close instruction to people that are interested in working wood with hand tools or developing a new skill. Or seeing what's possible with proper guidance," Jack said. "Chairs are often considered some of the more difficult or complex woodworking endeavors, and maybe less so Windsor chairs, but there is a lot that goes into them, and being able to kind of demystify that, or guide people through the process is quite rewarding."

People can sign up for classes on his website; some classes are over a couple and others a couple of weekends.

"I offer a three-day class for, a much, much more simple, like perch, kind of stool, where most of the parts are kind of pre-made, and students can focus on the joinery that goes into it and the carving of the seat, again, all with hand tools. And then students will leave with their own chair," he said.

"The longer classes run similarly, although there's quite a bit more labor that goes into those. So I provide all the turned parts, legs and stretchers and posts and things, but students will do all the joinery and all the seat carving the assembly. And they'll split and shave and shape their own spindles, and any of the bent parts that go into the chair."

His gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m to 2 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday by appointment.