County Goes Wild Over Berkshire Museum Festival of Trees
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The Festival of Trees is now on display at the Berkshire Museum and will remain up through Jan. 4. For more pictures of the Nov. 14 preview party, click here. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — It's a jungle out there.
Well, at the very least, it's a jungle in there, with "there" being the Berkshire Museum.
The museum kicked off its annual holiday tradition, the Festival of Trees, on Nov. 14, and this year's theme is "On Safari" to connect with the current exhibit "Lions & Tigers & Bears: Through the Lens with National Geographic."
More than 100 local businesses and organizations decorated trees in a safari theme to grace the entire second floor of the museum.
"Everybody embraced the theme," Lesley Beck, the museum's director of communication, said during the preview party in which a crowd of hundred of people got a peek at the exhibit before it official opened on Nov. 15. The exhibit runs through Sunday, Jan. 4. "The creativity is amazing."
One of the more creative entries belonged to Berkshire Family and Individual Resources (BFAIR), which opted not to use a traditional Christmas tree but instead made a "baobab," a tree made from paper mache, according to Kristen Wampler, BFAIR's Individual & Family Support Services director.
Wampler said she and fellow BFAIR employee Kris Neep agreed to try something different this year with the safari theme.
"The baobab tree is known as 'The Tree of Life,' and an icon of the African savanna, a symbol of life and positivity in a landscape where little else can thrive," Wampler said. "I thought that was a great idea."
The BFAIR team made the tree and loved it, but felt it needed something more - and so decided to make a three-dimensional giraffe only one week before the event.
"One thing led to another, and one giraffe turned into two," Wamper said. "Kris's daughter Jodi Hurley, who is a student at BCC, came before and after class to help us. We also recruited my husband Scott to help with the giraffes when we started to panic because we had no idea how to connect all the parts together, and we weren't sure if we could get the giraffes to stand in the end."
And in the end it was a unique twist on a traditional Christmas tree.
"It was a lot of work and we weren't sure how it was going to look, but in the end it all came together nicely," Neep said.
Wampler said she was happy to have BFAIR, with offices in Pittsfield and North Adams, join the creative effort that is the Festival of Trees.
"I am always so impressed with the commitment and the creativity that is displayed by so many during this festival," she said. "It is so inspiring."
Other displays ranged from other non-traditional trees, like Berkshire Co-op's non-evergreen tree covered in birds, to traditional evergreen trees with a business-themed twist, like Hillcrest Dental's "open wide" entry and Ayelada's tree decorated with empty frozen yogurt containers and spoons adorned with jungle animals.
Many of the trees embraced a theme of encouraging children to read, including Greylock Federal Credit Union's entry.
"Greylock is strong supporter of Pittsfield Promise, a grass roots campaign focused on building a stronger community through early literacy success," said Victoria May, assistant vice president of Manager Marketing Promotions & Partnerships. "Our tree display furthers this effort by featuring a comfortable place for children to relax and read books and then decorate our tree with a 'My Favorite Book' tag."
That's only fitting, because the Festival of Trees is a significant fundraiser for Berkshire Museum every year — the proceeds benefit the education programs that provide more than 17,000 educational experiences annually.
While the trees are on display daily through Jan. 4, a special day family is also scheduled on Saturday, Dec. 13, featuring Rick Roth of Creature Teachers and his "Animals Up Close" animals, some of whom attended the preview party. The animal show is scheduled for 11 a.m. with cookie decorating to follow at noon and a Blafield Children's Chorus performance at 1:30 p.m. Those activities are free with admission, which is $13 for adults and $6 for children above the age of 3. For more information, visit berkshiremuseum.org or call 413-443-7171.
"I think this theme is great and people approached it with humor," Beck said as she took a break from the preview party action to check out the gift shop, also carrying items related to the safari theme. "It's a great kickoff to the holiday season in the Berkshires."
Tags: Berkshire Museum, Christmas tree,
