Berkshire Museum Bringing Butterflies Inside For New Exhibit

By Rebecca DravisiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story
Above, a monarch butterfly investigates a lilac bush. Monarchs will be highlighted in a new Berkshire Museum exhibit opening May 31. Left,, one of the world culture, butterfly-decorated objects in the exhibit.
                      Photos courtesy Berkshire Museum

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is considered one of the best children's books of all time.

In it, Eric Carle's green baby caterpillar hatches from an egg and proceeds to eat so much that he get sick, then spins a cocoon in which he remains for the two weeks before emerging as a bright, colorful butterfly.

The Berkshire Museum is banking on a metamorphosis of its own, capitalizing on everyone's love of butterflies, in its new exhibit, simply titled "Butterflies."

As part of the exhibit, which opens Saturday, May 31, the museum is housing in one of its galleries a live butterfly pavilion through which visitors can walk and intimately experience a variety of vivid butterflies, representing species from around the world as well as those found in New England meadows.

"Personally I can't wait," Berkshire Museum Executive Director Van Shields said while touring the progress of the exhibit a week before its opening. "What's not to like about butterflies? It's fun to do something so extraordinarily different."

The museum houses its own aquarium and has presented live exhibits before, including frogs and geckos. This is indeed different because those exhibits were traveling exhibits making a Berkshire stop, while "Butterflies" was completely curated by Maria Mingalone, the museum’s director of interpretation. This exhibit, Shields said, will prove that the museum is skilled at its mission of bringing art, history and natural history together.

"The shows we do ourselves can be just as popular as the shows we rent from the outside," he said.

While the butterfly pavilion is bound to be the most popular part of the exhibit, what surrounds it fulfills that mission. In the first of four galleries, the life cycle of the butterfly will be demonstrated through a live chrysalis and an interactive area where kids can mimic caterpillars in caterpillar wiggle bags and manipulate morphing a caterpillar into a butterfly with plush toys. That gallery also will feature a piece of art created by Paul Villinski, a New York City artist. Villinski's piece is called "Arcus" and is constructed of recycled beer cans meticulously cut into butterfly shapes.

The second gallery includes the pavilion, an enclosed structure that will be "green and lush and humid," according to Lesley Ann Beck, the museum's director of communications. Beck said the museum has worked closely with Project Native in Great Barrington, which has a butterfly pavilion of its own, and Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory & Gardens in South Deerfield. A trip through the pavilion will cost visitors $2 on top of admission charges but will give visitors a completely interactive experience with the butterflies.

"They will be flying about," Beck said. "It should be very wonderful."

Visitors will face a mirror on the way out of the exhibit to make sure no stowaways have hitched a ride on their clothing. Upon exiting they will be directed to the rest of that gallery as well as the other two galleries in the exhibit, all of which feature both new art as well as pieces culled from the museum's extensive collection, including items such as glassware and other world culture items.

There also will be a section that tells the story of the iconic monarch butterfly, and the last gallery will teach visitors about the structure of the butterfly, all in an effort to boost the educational component of the exhibit.

"We have had such great success in the past with 'Frogs' and 'Geckos' and we know the community really appreciates learning about nature and critters," Beck said.

While the exhibit officially opens Saturday (and remains up through Sept. 1), a preview party will be held Friday, May 30, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission to the preview party is $5; reservations are requested at 413-443-7171, Ext. 37.

"We really want people to come," Beck said. "I think all ages are going to enjoy this."


Tags: Berkshire Museum,   butterflies,   exhibit,   natural history,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Pittsfield CPA Committee Funds Half of FY24 Requests

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A few projects are not getting funded by the Community Preservation Committee because of a tight budget.

The projects not making the cut were in the historic preservation and open space and recreation categories and though they were seen as interesting and valuable projects, the urgency was not prevalent enough for this cycle.

"It's a tough year," Chair Danielle Steinmann said.

The panel made its recommendations on Monday after several meetings of presentations from applications. They will advance to the City Council for final approval.  

Two cemetery projects were scored low by the committee and not funded: A $9,500 request from the city for fencing at the West Part Cemetery as outlined in a preservation plan created in 2021 and a $39,500 request from the St. Joseph Cemetery Commission for tombstone restorations.

"I feel personally that they could be pushed back a year," Elizabeth Herland said. "And I think they're both good projects but they don't have the urgency."

It was also decided that George B. Crane Memorial Center's $73,465 application for the creation of a recreational space would not be funded. Herland said the main reason she scored the project low was because it didn't appear to benefit the larger community as much as other projects do.

There was conversation about not funding The Christian Center's $34,100 request for heating system repairs but the committee ended up voting to give it $21,341 when monies were left over.

The total funding request was more than $1.6 million for FY24 and with a budget of $808,547, only about half could be funded. The panel allocated all of the available monies, breaking down into $107,206 for open space and recreation, $276,341 for historic preservation, and $425,000 for community housing.

View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories