Cultural Pittsfield This Week: April 17-23

11:50AM / Friday, April 17, 2015Print Story | Email Story

Office of Cultural Development | City of Pittsfield

Friday+: Baby Animals at Hancock Shaker Village

The popular and much-loved event -- celebrating newborn barnyard animals on the farm- runs every day, 10 am to 4 pm, through May 3, 2015. Eighteen of the Village's 20 historic buildings open for the season, staffed with crafts demonstrators and historic interpreters. The Village remains open seven days a week for visitors through November 1.

Friday: WeeMuse Adventures at Berkshire Museum

Little ones can explore the Aquarium and three Museum galleries! Each week features songs, stories, scavenger hunts, play time, and more. Check our weekly e-news for each week's theme. This program is geared towards children 18 months to 3 years. Older and younger siblings are always welcome!

Friday: A Special Luncheon with Congressman Neal at Crowne Plaza

Join the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce for a special luncheon featuring Congressman Richard E. Neal as the keynote speaker. He, along with some other surprise guests, will be addressing the local business community. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from our representatives on the state and federal level. Speakers include Congressman Richard Neal, Senator Benjamin Downing, Jay Ash- Secretary, MA Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and others! Questions? Call (413) 499-4000 X126 or email dthomas@berkshirechamber.com.

Friday: Welcome to Kindergarten at Berkshire Museum

This event is free to the public and is designed for children and their families who are preparing to enter Kindergarten. There will be fun activities, music and games for children to explore. Professionals dedicated to the growth and development of young children will also be present to answer any questions families have about development milestones, kindergarten readiness and registration.

Friday: Cocktails With Purpose at Crowne Plaza

Join Shout Out Loud Productions for this evening of important panelists to further the cause, a silent auction to raise funds, and dancing to dance away the blues. The purpose is to raise funds to support projects related to the eradication of human trafficking. These funds will be allocated to support and educate our state's law enforcement officials, health service providers and the community at large about how to recognize victims of Human Trafficking and connect them to resources for safety and recovery. Part of this effort will help to implement training initiatives, protocols and create successful statewide collaborations between agencies to ensure that victims of trafficking and abuse will get the help and resources they desperately need.

Friday-Monday: Leviathan at The Little Cinema

Kolya lives in a small fishing town near the stunning Barents Sea in Northern Russia. He owns an auto-repair shop that stands right next to the house where he lives with his young wife Lilya and his son Roma from a previous marriage. The town's corrupt mayor Vadim Shelevyat is determined to take away his business, his house, as well as his land. First the Mayor tries buying off Kolya, but Kolya unflinchingly fights as hard as he can so as not to lose everything he owns including the beauty that has surrounded him from the day he was born. Facing resistance, the mayor starts being more aggressive.

Friday & Saturday: Paint Parties at Berkshire Paint and Sip

Friday features the Boat on Beach painting. All painting materials and light snack included for this 2 hour painting. BYOB

Saturday's event is meant for families ages six and up. They will be painting the Blue Feather Dove. No BYOB for this event please.

Friday: Pittsfield Firefighters Presents Paul D'Angelo at The Colonial Theatre

Who is the comedian/writer/actor that The Los Angeles Times calls "...quite likely the funniest entertainer you've never heard of... yet"? Paul Murphy spent ten and a half years as an Assistant District Attorney, supervising several of Massachusetts' busiest courthouses, before becoming a noted criminal-defense trial attorney. The unexpected twist to this story is that, for nine of those years, under the pseudonym of Paul D'Angelo, Paul was simultaneously becoming one of the nation's top standup comedians.

Friday, April 17 | 7pm | The Colonial Theatre| 111 South Street | 413-997-4444 | $10

Friday: SummerSound Pre-Party at Dotties and Mission

Free shows featuring Summersound - Live at Tanglewood performers! Head over to Mission Bar + Tapas at 7:00pm to see Andy Wrba and members of The Whiskey Treaty Billy Keane and Tory Hanna!
Head down the street at 9:00pm to Dottie's Coffee Lounge to continue the night with DJ BFG!
There will be SummerSound ticket giveaways, free prizes, music and more!

Friday: Bread And Roses at South Congregational Church

Bread and Roses Coffee House will host a concert with proceeds benefiting The Kids Place in Pittsfield. Please join for an evening of magic with two of the Berkshires most unique musicians, Mark Kelso and Linda Worster as they entertain with a mix of old favorites and original music.

Friday, April 17 | 7pm | South Congregational Church

| 110 South Street| Free Will Offering

Friday: Last Dance with DJ Yung at Fairways

Featuring Music by the Shutdown's Team own DJ Yung. Doors open at 9:30 pm. Get in FREE before 11 pm, then $5 after 11pm. FREE giveaways while you dance the night away.

Saturday: Cuba at The Turning Point at Berkshire Museum

Sally Eagle spent three weeks traveling around Cuba in December 2014, photographing the everyday lives of Cubans from cities like Havana and Santiago de Cuba, to smaller villages like Baracoa and Remedios. This program will present a visual journey of the evolution of politics, architecture, culture and society in a fascinating country that is going through yet another historic transition.

Saturday: Full STEAM Ahead at Berkshire Athenaeum

Saturday morning Play & Learn with Jenn will include STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math) presentations for families, caregivers and teachers. For infants to early elementary-aged students. No registration required.

Saturday: Chow Time at Berkshire Museum

Help prepare enticing feasts for the turtles, fish, chameleon, and even the blue-tongue skink in the Aquarium!

Saturday: Repair Cafe at St. Stephens

At the Repair Cafe on the 18th, in addition to the repairs, there will be great music with Ben Foley playing acoustic guitar until 2:00; the duo of Green & White playing from 2:00 until 3:30; and Alan

Monasch from San Francisco playing piano from 3:30 until 5:00. And Berkshire Mountain Bakery will once again provide scrumptious pizza to go along with our other delicious and healthy snacks and drinks. You can bring clothing, chairs, lamps, vacuums, other electrical items, bicycles, knives & blades for sharpening, wood items, crockery, toys, cushions, bags, and more (up to 2 items per person).

Saturday: Icons and Iconography at St Nicholas Orthodox Church

The Art Gallery at Bagels Too and Nicholas Bobrovsky will present a free program about icons and iconography as a religious art form amid Bobrovsky's icons at St Nicholas Orthodox Church. Bobrovsky will talk about how he creates icons and cover their meaning, history and veneration; their use and placement; various, techniques, styles, subjects historically and in the present; iconographers' rules and responsibilities. He will show examples of his father's as well as his own iconography. He welcomes questions from his audience. Learn more about the traditional art of iconography from one of its few local practitioners.

Saturday: Music At The Taft

Berkshire Music School faculty members Beth Craig, cello; Rahima Hohlstein, piano; and Paul Green, clarinet perform chamber pieces by Foss, Engel and Wyaskovsky; and special guests Eribeth Trio from Albany performing Alice Spatz's Grandmother Spider. Coffeehouse setting, admission includes desserts and coffee.

Saturday, April 18 | 4:30pm | Berkshire Music School | 30 Wendell Ave | 413-442-1411 | $15

Saturday: Katherine Winston at The Garage at The Colonial Theatre

American Idol contestant, Katherine Winston, is a singer/songwriter from the Lenox, Massachusetts, whose influences range from country to folk, or blues to pop. For the past few years, Winston has been playing out at venues all over the northeast, and then even down to Nashville, and over to Iceland.

Saturday: Blackwater on Tap at Fairways

Dance to your favorite hits with Berkshire County's own Blackwater. Featuring a night of hard-driven' Rock, classic rock, rockin' country, southern rock and more.

Sunday: Second Annual Cupcake Showdown at Dotties

10 bakers will battle it out to see if they have the sweets and the skills. Admission gets you 10 incredible cupcakes from the competitors and complimentary tea and coffee.

Sunday, April 19 | 3:30pm | Dottie's Coffee Lounge | 444 North Street | 413-443-1792 | $15

Monday: Animals Up Close: North American Birds of Prey at Berkshire Museum

Meet five live birds of prey with raptor rehabilitator Julie Anne Collier of Wingmasters. Visitors will learn about eagles, hawks, owls and falcons, their unique hunting adaptations, and their uncertain future in a rapidly changing world.

Tuesday: The Creature Teachers Present Animals Around the World at Berkshire Athenaeum

Come take a trip around the world with us and find out where our animals come from. This program explores the diverse habitats of our planet and the animals that live within them. See why some animals are well suited for certain areas and why some are not. Free and no registration required.

Wednesday: Parent/Teacher STEM Session at Berkshire Museum

It's Little Inventors Day! Explore Spark!Lab and have your photo taken with your newest invention or creation. Get your name, age and invention photo placed on our wall of fame. This is geared for ages 2-4. Reservations are required.

Thursday: Play and Learn with Jenn at Berkshire Athenaeum

Come hear stories, sing songs and play some games! For ages 1 1/2 - 5. No registration required. Children under age 10 must be accompanied by an adult, age 18 or older, at all times.

Thursday-Saturday: Sleeping Beauty at Berkshire Museum

The talented young performers of Berkshire Children's Theater present a family-friendly musical version of the classic tale Sleeping Beauty, adapted by and directed by Kara Demler.

Thursday: Sonny and Pearly perform 'Brazilian Romance' at Berkshire Athenaeum

Join Sonny and Pearly in concert as they perform "Brazilian Romance: The Boss Nova Phenomenon". Free and no registration required. Sponsored by the Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum.

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Pittsfield Subcommittee Supports Election Pay, Veterans Parking, Wetland Ordinances

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
06:08PM / Tuesday, April 23, 2024

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Ordinances and Rules subcommittee on Monday unanimously supported a pay raise for election workers, free downtown parking for veterans, and safeguards to better protect wetlands.

Workers will have a $5 bump in hourly pay for municipal, state and federal elections, rising from $10 an hour to $15 for inspectors, $11 to $16 for clerks, and $12 to $17 for wardens.

"This has not been increased in well over a decade," City Clerk Michele Benjamin told the subcommittee, saying the rate has been the same throughout the past 14 years she has been in the office.

She originally proposed raises to $13, $14 and $15 per hour, respectively, but after researching other communities, landed on the numbers that she believes the workers "wholeheartedly deserve."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso agreed.

"I see over decades some of the same people and obviously they're not doing it for the money," she said. "So I appreciate you looking at this and saying this is important even though I still think it's a low wage but at least it's making some adjustments."

The city has 14 wardens, 14 clerks, and 56 inspectors. This will add about $3,500 to the departmental budget for the local election and about $5,900 for state elections because they start an hour earlier and sometimes take more time because of absentee ballots.

Workers are estimated to work 13 hours for local elections and 14 hours for state and federal elections.

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