Mount Greylock junior Anya Sheldon is recognized by U.S. Rep. Richard A. Neal for her artwork that will hang at the U.S. Capitol.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A veteran of elections for more than 30 years, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal knows a lot about the art of politics.
But it is not the only art he likes to talk about.
"Back in the worst days of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt insisted that artists be paid," Neal recalled on Monday during a tour of Mount Greylock Regional School.
Neal was at the school to pay tribute to one of its own, junior Anya Sheldon, whose acrylic painting "Quiet Ferocity" is this year's winner of the Congressional Art Competition for the First Congressional District.
Sheldon's work was chosen from among 111 entries from 16 high schools throughout Neal's district, he said. And in addition to Monday's recognition, Sheldon will have the honor of seeing her work hung in a hallway at the U.S. Capitol among other winning entries from around the country.
"I can't really picture what it will look like hanging there," Sheldon said after an unveiling on Monday in the school's meeting room. "I really hope to be able to get there and see what other works were selected. I think that would be really interesting."
Neal said on Monday that he always enjoys the opportunity to view those works — from his constituents and beyond.
"For me, it's particularly important because it's located in a tunnel between the Capitol and the Cannon House Office Building, and as you can imagine, after 27 years, you get pretty good office assignments," Neal said. "So from my office in the Cannon Building on rainy days or cold nights, I go through the Cannon tunnel. And every chance I have stop and look and view the art work, it's just astounding how good these artists are.
"And I also take some satisfaction that our office, we were one of the first to participate in the Congressional Art contest. Now, just about everyone in Massachusetts does it, but there was a time when it wasn't embraced with the same enthusiasm. I want the artwork up. I want it published. I want people to see it so we can all take satisfaction in Anya's moment."
Sheldon, a quiet teen not given to blowing her own horn, used the moment to thank her family and her teacher, Jane-Ellen DeSomma, for their support.
"I was just really surprised [by winning]," she said. "I didn't believe it at first. It's been a shock in general, and it all escalated very quickly. Entering the contest, I did not think I would win."
That said, Sheldon did take a lot of pride in "Quiet Ferocity," a painting that she developed on her own, not as a class project, but with guidance from DeSomma.
"It's evolved quite a bit," she said. "It's been three different people that I was unhappy with.
"It was just something I started on a weekend in the summer time and spent a lot of time on."
DeSomma on Monday praised Sheldon as, among other things, prolific, and several works from her portfolio were on display on Monday for Neal's visit. "Quiet Ferocity" stood out as something a little different, the artist said.
"I think generally I don't work on very large scale," she said. "It's bigger than some of my other drawings, so it has more of an effect I think, in that way. And also I didn't use a reference photo for it, so I'm a little bit proud of the originality of it."
Among the art that Neal saw on Monday was a mural that Sheldon created along with other Mount Greylock students that now adorns the school's library, where the congressmen made reference to the Works Progress Administration artists of FDR's New Deal.
DeSomma used Monday's ceremony to note that Sheldon is an example, not an anomaly, when it comes to Mount Greylock's arts program.
"We have a lot of kids who work very hard," DeSomma said. "Anya is a renaissance woman. She is good in just about everything she does. She does make things look easy sometimes, however, I think it's really, really important to understand that when someone turns out the level and the quality of work that Anya produces, you have to acknowledge the hundreds and hundreds of hours that have gone into this."
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Williamstown Affordable Housing Trust Hears Objections to Summer Street Proposal
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Neighbors concerned about a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week raised the specter of a lawsuit against the town and/or Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity.
"If I'm not mistaken, I think this is kind of a new thing for Williamstown, an affordable housing subdivision of this size that's plunked down in the middle, or the midst of houses in a mature neighborhood," Summer Street resident Christopher Bolton told the Affordable Housing Trust board, reading from a prepared statement, last Wednesday. "I think all of us, the Trust, Habitat, the community, have a vested interest in giving this project the best chance of success that it can have. We all remember subdivisions that have been blocked by neighbors who have become frustrated with the developers and resorted to adversarial legal processes.
"But most of us in the neighborhood would welcome this at the right scale if the Trust and Northern Berkshire Habitat would communicate with us and compromise with us and try to address some of our concerns."
Bolton and other residents of the neighborhood were invited to speak to the board of the trust, which in 2015 purchased the Summer Street lot along with a parcel at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street with the intent of developing new affordable housing on the vacant lots.
Currently, Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, which built two homes at the Cole/Maple property, is developing plans to build up to five single-family homes on the 1.75-acre Summer Street lot. Earlier this month, many of the same would-be neighbors raised objections to the scale of the proposed subdivision and its impact on the neighborhood in front of the Planning Board.
The Affordable Housing Trust board heard many of the same arguments at its meeting. It also heard from some voices not heard at the Planning Board session.
And the trustees agreed that the developer needs to engage in a three-way conversation with the abutters and the trust, which still owns the land, to develop a plan that is more acceptable to all parties.
Developer David Traggorth asked the trustees to make the contribution from its coffers to help unlock an additional $5.4 million in state funds for the planned 54-unit apartment building at the south end of the Cable Mills site.
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The donors, who wish to remain anonymous, say the gift reflects their desire to not only support Williams but also President Maud S. Mandel's strategic vision and plan for the college.
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Neighbors of a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week asked the Planning Board to take a critical look at the project, which the residents say is out of scale to the neighborhood. click for more
The Select Board and Planning Board this week clashed over a proposal that would add to the town charter a mechanism to ensure compliance with the foundation of town government. click for more