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Woodcarving exhibit MANCHESTER CENTER, Vt. — The Long Ago and Far Away Gallery has announced the opening of "With Spirit," a show of carvings by Santa Fe, N.M., artist Hib Sabin, beginning on Friday, Oct. 15, at 5 p.m. Visitors can meet Sabin during the evening and throughout gallery hours during the opening weekend. “With Spirit” will show throughout the season. A woodcarver, Sabin is inspired by his interest in shamanism and the search for a spiritual connection between man and nature. The selection of Sabin's art for the show is intended to demonstrate the artist's range of talent and influences. Sabin uses juniper wood — gathered near his home in rural New Mexico — as a medium for his carvings. His hand-carved pieces range from simple totemic “fetishes,” small enough to fit in a hand, to larger display pieces intended as a focal point for a home. The bronze castings of Sabin’s original carvings have expanded the availability of his work, and the patinas he has chosen have added to his repertoire. The gallery is in the Green Mountain Village Shops, historic Main Street, downtown. Information: 802-362-3435 or www.longagoandfaraway.com. Folk concert SHELBURNE FALLS — Hilltown Folk at Memorial Hall, 51 Bridge St., will present Tim O’Brien and Underbelly in concert on Sunday, Oct. 17. O’Brien has been named the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year and has been nominated for Grammy awards three times. Underbelly is a high-energy, “old-timey” trio, featuring fiddler Alicia Jo Rabins and multi-instrumentalists Michael Daves and Peter Siegel. Doors will open at 6 for the 7 p.m. show. Tickets are $18 in advance and $20 at the door. Information and tickets: 413- 625-2580 or www.hilltownfolk.com. Advance tickets are available at World Eye Bookshop and Boswell's Books. ‘Think Pink’ PITTSFIELD — The Storefront Artist Project and the Breast Health Team of the American Cancer Society will co-sponsor an art show opening at the Cooper Center Gallery on Friday, Oct. 15, “Think Pink,” in recognition of National Breast Health Awareness Month. The opening reception will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and attendees are encouraged to wear pink. Prizes will be awarded for the best outfits. The Cooper Center Gallery, managed by the Storefront Artist Project thanks to support from Compuworks, is at 116 North St. “Think Pink” will remain on display through Nov. 15. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from noon to 5 and by appointment. The show will feature artwork on the theme of pink and/or the female figure from over 20 local and regional artists. Participating artists include Karen Arp-Sandel, Lesley Beck, Morris Bennett, Paul Graubard, Alan Hayes, Jeanet Ingalls, Fern Leslie, Maggie Mailer, Ellen Metropole, Kelly Meisl, Anne Pasko, Jude Patoka, Anne Roland, Gabrielle Senza, Rosemary Starace, Janis Theodore, Doug Truth, Joe Wheaton and Jojo Whilden. In addition, decorated body casts from "Casting the Heroine: Healing with Art, Imagery and Dreams," an art workshop for breast cancer survivors, will be on display. Art sales from the exhibition will benefit arts workshops for women with breast cancer. “Think Pink” has received support from Berkshire OB/GYN Associates, Berkshire Radiological Associates, Blue Q, Compuworks, Kathy Hart, Interprint, Andrew and Laura Mick, QMS Associates and others. The Storefront Artist Project is a not-for-profit artist organization dedicated to keeping art and artists in the public mind. Information: www.storefrontartist.org or 445-2780. Trapps concert PITTSFIELD — The Berkshire Music Hall, 30 Union St., the four-piece band The Trapps and solo artist Greg Naughton in concert on Saturday, Oct. 16. The Trapps, an “all original” band, infuse elements of classic rock with a "modern pop sensibility." Led by Sean Schenke and featuring guitarist Warren Gold, drummer Brian Reid and bassist Jason Sarubbi, The Trapps are considered to be among the Hudson Valley's brightest musical performers. Paying homage to bands like The Black Crowes, Phish, The Rolling Stones and Tom Petty, The Trapps have been featured on radio stations WVKR and WDST. Naughton, of New York city, has appeared as a solo artist and with his backup band The Stark Naked Sole. He has played many Manhattan venues, including the famous Bottom Line and regular shows at Joe's Pub. He is promoting his debut CD "Demogogue and the Sun Songs," which features a cut with vocalist Phoebe Snow. He played Patrick on the soap opera “Another World,” and his father is Tony-Award winner James Naughton, who often appears with the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Doors will open at 7:30 for the 8 p.m. concert. Tickets are $5. Beer, wine and snacks will be available for purchase. Information: 499-5575. Shakespeare grant LENOX — Shakespeare & Company has announced that The GE Foundation has awarded its Education Program a $100,000 rant in support of the popular Fall Festival of Shakespeare. The annual festival, in its 16th season, involves nearly 500 students and 10 high schools around the county and New York. The students come together to celebrate language, human nature and youthful achievement through Shakespeare’s plays, culminating in a four-day celebration of 10 90-minute adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. This year’s performances will be Nov. 18-21, at the company’s Founders’ Theatre. The GE Foundation has supported Shakespeare & Company’s Education Programs for more than a decade, with grants totaling more than $820,000. The Fall Festival of Shakespeare, headed by Director of Education Kevin G. Coleman, Schools Program Manager Mark Woollett and Education Programs Administrator Lyn Liseno, sends teams of trained company artists and production staff into area high schools for eight weeks to direct and work with students ages 13 to 18. Specifically designed as a celebration rather than a competition, the festival has become an institution in Berkshire County. Schools participating this year are Chatham High School (“Macbeth”), Monument Mountain Regional High School (“Twelfth Nigh”), Lenox Memorial High School (“As You Like It”), Taconic High School (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), Lee High School (“Henry V”), Springfield Central High School (“The Winter’s Tale”), Mount Greylock Regional High School (“Pericles”), Taconic Hills High School (“Twelfth Night”), Mount Everett Regional High School (The Tempest), and North Andover High School (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”). Information: Woollett 637-1199, ext. 131. The GE Foundation, the philanthropic organization of the General Electric Co., works to strengthen educational access, equity and quality for disadvantaged youth globally. Major support to the Education Program also comes from The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities, Banknorth, Berkshire Bank and many other corporations, private foundations, individuals, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and local cultural councils. New troupe NORTH ADAMS — Mill City Productions, a new, local community theater organization, will host an Open House tonight [Thursday, Oct. 14] from 7 to 9 at St. John's Parish Hall (next to the post office). The company is seeking more involvement from the community, from actors to stagehands or anyone who would like to work behind the scenes. No experience is necessary. Refreshments will be served. Information: www.millcityproductions.org. Mill City Productions will present “Two Evenings and an Afternoon with David Ives,” directed by Jason Bailey and Mike Grogan, on Friday, Oct. 22, and Saturday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. at the Parish Hall. The three one-act plays written by comedic playwright Ives will also be performed Sunday, Oct. 24, at 2 p.m. Tickets will be available at the door at a cost of $5 for adults, $3 for students/seniors. Lakeville exhibition LAKEVILLE, Conn. — Morgan Lehman Gallery has announced its fall exhibition, “Strangely Familiar” with a reception on Saturday, Oct. 16, from 5 to 8 p.m. for refreshments and an opportunity to meet the artists. “Strangely Familiar” showcases the work of three figurative artists, whose work is linked by their references to familiar objects and themes, presented with a slightly twisted or quirky perspective. Bill Amundson creates meticulously drawn, detailed colored pencil and graphite works on paper. Drawing on pop culture and Americans’ fascination with corporate logos, supersizes and Wal-Mart, he injects thsse themes into his own versions of famous artworks. “Christina’s World,” a famous Andrew Wyeth image, has a Wal-Mart on the horizon, and Heronimus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights’ takes place in a McDonald’s McPlayPlace. James Meyer’s paintings reference the fantasy of childhood. His gestural depictions of images of play: children running, jumping, playing tug-of-war, are repeated in small ink drawings, small and large watercolors and very large-scale encaustic paintings on linen. Robert Andrew Parker is represented in the show with his signature dog portraits, some new monoprints of bulls and a selection of other favorite subjects, including steamships, goats and parrots. Parker has shown around the world, and his work is in many distinguished public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, the Museum of Modern Art and the National Museum of American Art. Information: Sally Morgan Oberbeck or Jay Lehman Horowitz, 860-435-0898 or art@morganlehmangallery.com. Gallery hours at 24 Sharon Road (Route 41) are Thursday through Sunday, 11 to 5, and by appointment. ‘Dracula’ trip MANCHESTER, Vt. — The Southern Vermont Arts Center will see a matinee performance of “Dracula, The Musical” on its next Domestic Excursion, Saturday, Oct. 30, in the famed Belasco Theatre on Manhattan’s West 44th Street. Deluxe roundtrip coach transportation, front mezzanine seats for the show and driver gratuity is $145 for arts center members and $155 for non-members. The coach will leave Manchester Elementary & Middle School at 7:15 a.m. and return at 9:30 p.m. Pick-ups and drop-offs at St. Jame’s Church in Arlington and the Bennington Station Restaurant in Bennington will be added as needed. Information and ticket sales: 802-362-1405. Due to the nature of group ticket purchases, refunds are not possible; all sales must be final. Landscape art LANESBORO — Select landscape pastel drawings of Mount Greylock by students of the Hoosac Valley High School advance portfolio class will be on display at the Mount Greylock State Reservation Visitors Center through Nov. 1. The public is invited to view and comment on artistic qualities of the artwork. The class is under the direction of art teacher Tiger Waterman. The exhibit is co-sponsored by Hoosac Valley High School and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. The visitors center is open daily from 9 to 4 and is on Rockwell Road, 1.5 miles from the intersections of Route 7 and North Main Street. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request. Information: 499-4262. BTF trustee STOCKBRIDGE — Berkshire Theatre Festival President of the Board of Trustees James W. Giddens and Executive Director Kate Maguire have announced the election of Judith Wile Shaw to the board of trustees. As freelance editor and writer, Shaw has lived in Richmond since 1998, when she returned to the United States after two decades of living abroad in Australia, Indonesia and Singapore. In Indonesia, she worked for seven years as a docent in the National Museum, writing catalogues of the prehistory and ethnography collections, as well as giving tours. In 1983, she wrote the text for “Indonesians: Portraits from Archipelago,” a coffee table book published by Concept Media. Since moving to Richmond, Shaw has indulged her passion for riding and driving Morgan horses. "Now," she said in a news release, "it is time to get involved with my community." She is married and has two grown children. Art lecture BENNINGTON, Vt. — The fall 2004 Visual Arts Lecture Series of Bennington College will continue with a presentation by Marina Zurkow, a multidisciplinary artist working with character, icon, and narrative, on Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m., in Tishman Lecture Hall. Zurkow, whose work is seen in such forms as animation, interactive installations, graphic images and home and body wear, is an internationally exhibited artist. Her work has been shown at the Sundance Film Festival, the Rotterdam Film Festival, the Brooklyn Museum and SFMoMA and has been broadcast on MTV and PBS. She was a 2003 Rockefeller New Media Fellow, and is an adjunct professor at the Parsons School of Design. Her work can be seen at www.o-matic.com. Information or directions to the campus: 802-440-4549 or www.bennington.edu. Dubussy concerts LENOX — The Stockbridge Chamber Concerts at Ventfort Hall will continue its fall series on Sunday, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m. The concert, the first of two programs entitled “Debussy and Friends,” will open with the composer’s “Petite Suite.” Elizabeth Hagenah and Jean Stackhouse will perform the work for two pianos. The program will continue with Debussy’s “Images, Book II,” with Hagenah at the piano, and “Sonata for Violin and Piano” with violinist Alfred Schneider. Hagenah is the founder and president of the Stockbridge Chamber Concerts. She has performed throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Schneider was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, assistant concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and, in 1955, became a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, appointed by Charles Munch. Stackhouse is on the faculty of Westminster Choir College and the conservatory of Rider University and is past president of the New England Piano Teachers Association. The Stockbridge Chamber Concerts at Ventfort Hall series will continue with the second “Debussy and Friends” concert on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 4 p.m. The fall series will end with “Romantic Music for the Gilded Age” on Sunday, Nov. 28 at 4 p.m., including works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Dvorak. Admission for each concert and artist reception is $25 per person. Information and reservations: 637-3206. The Museum of the Gilded Age at Ventfort Hall is at 104 Walker St. Russian music PITTSFIELD — MusicWorks will begin its 20th season on Friday, Oct. 15, with “From Russia with Love!” at South Congregational Church at 8 p.m. The concert will honor the Pittsfield Russian émigré community and guest artist Tamara Smirnova, a violinist, associate concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Audience members are invited to join a pre-concert talk at 7:15 p.m. A reception featuring Russian pastries will be held after the concert. BSO cellist Mihail Jojatu and pianist Randall Hodgkinson will join Smirnova for piano trios composed by Arensky and Tchaikovsky and surprises from the Russian repertory. Born in Siberia, Smirnova was the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra before moving on to solo appearances in the former Czechoslovakia, West Germany, Belgium, Great Britain and the United States. She made her BSO debut as a concerto soloist in 1989. MusicWorks has teamed up with Trattoria Rustica to offer prix fixe pre-concert dinner packages. Reservations: 499-1192. Tickets, available at the door, are $25, $22 for seniors and older students, students under 18 free. Seating is limited. Information: 1-866-266-2746. Art Auction SHEFFIELD — The Kiwanis Club of Sheffield will host its third annual Art Auction on Sunday, Oct. 17, at Wyantenuck Country Club in Great Barrington. A preview, along with a light brunch, silent auction and wine tasting, will begin at 11:30 a.m. Works by contemporary, impressionist, American primitive and landscape artists will be among the art offered at 1. Animation cells, hand-blown glass and sports memorabilia will also be offered. Marlin Art of Deer Park, N.Y., is coordinating the auction. Along with the preview, a collection of seasonal ciders and wines from the region will be served, compliments of Domaney’s Liquors. A light brunch will be provided by Kiwanians, coordinated by member Pat Hardisty. A silent auction consisting of donations from local merchants is being assembled by Phyllis Pickert and Debbie Wright. The event’s proceeds will support the full slate of Kiwanis Club of Sheffield youth services, including Little League, Family Safety Day, Soup Kitchen, Sponsored Youth, Youth Bowling and scholarships. Immediate Past President Dave Smith Jr., created the fundraiser in 2002. Recently inducted President Anita Diller expects the auction to begin her presidency “with great success, since 15 members have been working on it diligently for four months,” she said in a news release. Admission to the preview and auction is by ticket only. Diller and Bruce Hull are heading up ticket sales. Tickets: 528-2196. Advance purchasers have the opportunity to request a specific genre or artist to be on the program. Benefit performance GREAT BARRINGTON — The Quaker Meeting will present E.Z. Pine in a solo performance of Wallace Shawn’s award-winning play “The Fever” at The Quaker Meetinghouse at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 15. The main character in "The Fever" tries to reconcile the contrast between his life of comfort and sophistication and the poverty and social turmoil of a third-world country. He questions his enjoyment of material and cultural privileges, knowing that they are inextricably connected to the suffering of others. Shawn’s original performance of “The Fever” won the Obie for best new Off-Broadway play in 1991. Pine has been performing “The Fever” since 1998. He has also worked with Shakespeare & Company and The Bigger Light Theater Company. Admission is by donation for the benefit of Right Sharing of World Resources, a Quaker project supporting grassroots income-generating projects in the developing world and encouraging local self-reliance, sustainability, mutual support and accountability for rich and poor communities alike. Information: 528-1996. Parini reads GREAT BARRINGTON — The Poetry and Fiction Series at Simon’s Rock College of Bard will present a free reading by poet, novelist, biographer and editor Jay Parini on Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 7:30 p.m. in Blodgett House. Parini recently published a novel, “The Apprentice Lover,” and this fall will publish a biography of William Faulkner. He has written biographies of Robert Frost and John Steinbeck, as well as the novels “The Last Station” and “Benjamin’s Crossing.” His many books include “House of Days, Poems,” “An Invitation to Poetry” and “Some Necessary Angels: Essays on Literature and Politics.” His poems have appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Paris Review, The New Republic and elsewhere. Parini has also edited many books, including 2003’s anti-war anthology of poetry,“Cry Out!” ”Gore Vidal: Writer Against the Grain,” “The Columbia History of American Poetry” and “The Norton Book of American Autobiography.” He teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont. The Poetry and Fiction Series at Simon’s Rock hosts writers of achievement. The readings are followed by question-and-answer periods. This year’s series will conclude on Wednesday, Nov. 3, with a reading by poet Tom Sleigh. Information: 528-7395 or www.simons-rock.edu. Architecture program WILLIAMSTOWN — Williams College Museum of Art will host two after-school programs for children 4 to 9. The series, “Getting Around Architecture,” will be held on successive Wednesdays, Oct. 20 and 27, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Families are invited to visit the museum for one or both of the free programs. Advance registration is not required, but an adult must accompany participating children. “Getting Around Architecture” will provide children with the opportunity to explore the museum, experiment with building through architectural shapes, hear stories of unusual building designers who used bottles and found objects to create homes, go on a museum-wide search to find more than 40 columns in the museum and create their own architectural masterpieces. Information: 597-2038 or www.wcma.org. Rockwell trustees STOCKBRIDGE — Alice A. Carter, John V. Frank, and Peter C. Williams were elected to three-year terms to the Norman Rockwell Museum's Board of Trustees at the annual meeting on Oct. 1. Exiting trustees are Heather Wells Heim, who served from June 2002 to October 2004, and John C. "Hans" Morris, who served from September 1998 to October 2004. "We are excited to welcome our new board members," said Lee Williams, board president, in a news release. "Together they share a considerable wealth of knowledge and experience, and we look forward to working with them to continue the growth of the Norman Rockwell Museum. We are also grateful for the wonderful contributions of the trustees whose terms ended this year." Carter is an award-winning illustrator and professor in the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University in California. Her clients include LucasFilm Ltd., Rolling Stone magazine, The New York Times, Levi Strauss and CBS Television. In 2000, Carter was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach at Helwan University in Cairo, Egypt. She is the author of "The Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love" and was the curator of an exhibition of the same title on view at the Norman Rockwell Museum from November 2003 to June 2004. She lives in Stanford, Calif. Frank has been a president and trustee of The Burton D. Morgan Foundation for 30 years. He serves as president of The Civil War Memorial Society and The Friends of Historic Glendale Cemetery; trustee of Rectory School in Pomfret, Conn.; member of the board of directors and treasurer for Summa Health System Foundation; and member of the board of trustees and treasurer of Our Lady of the Elms School. He is a founding member of the museum's National Advisory Council and recently led a challenge campaign to assist with renovations at Linwood, the Norman Rockwell Museum's 1859 Berkshire "cottage." He lives in Akron, Ohio. Williams was a partner in the New York law firm of Thelen Reid & Priest, where he specialized in commercial litigation. A former high school social studies teacher, he serves as district enrollment director for Berkshire County and is a member and secretary for the Stockbridge Historic Preservation Task Force. He is the son of Henry Williams, trustee emeritus of the Norman Rockwell Museum. He lives in Stockbridge. Photography presentation BENNINGTON, Vt. — Photographer John Barnier will give a lecture and slide presentation at Bennington Museum on the work of 19th-century photographer Mendel John Diness at 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17, in the Ada Paresky Education Center. Barnier will discuss his discovery of Diness' glass plate negatives in a Minnesota garage sale in 1989. Until Barnier researched the origins of his collection of over 100 negatives, Diness had been known only to a few scholars who believed the bulk of his work had been lost. Barnier will show slides of Diness' work and explain the meticulous, difficult process it took to make the negatives. Born in the Ukraine in 1827, Diness, originally a watchmaker, learned photography from a Scottish missionary in Jerusalem in 1848. The Italian architect Ermete Pierotti, who was compiling a two-volume travelogue of the Holy Land, hired Diness in 1856 to photograph the topography and ruins of Jerusalem. Pierotti’s work, “Jerusalem Explored,” was published in London in 1864. The lecture is free and open to the public. The museum is at 75 Main St. (Route 9). Information: 802-447-1571 or www.benningtonmuseum.org. BTF Plays! STOCKBRIDGE — Berkshire Theatre Festival’s education program, BTF Plays! will begin teaching classes in playwriting on Monday, Oct. 18, in the curriculum of five area schools: Farmington Consolidated School in Otis, Richmond Consolidated School, Reid Middle School in Pittsfield, Undermountain Elementary School in Sheffield and Kittredge School in Hinsdale. The program emphasizes the importance of storytelling and is designed as a language arts curriculum, drawing on literature from different genres, time periods and cultures. Encouraging creativity and imagination, BTF’s School Residency Program utilizes dramatization techniques and teaches a variety of literary elements, including plot, character, motivation and conflict. BTF’s tour component will introduce the 222 students in grades two through five to the drama of a live performance, as their teachers — all part of the festival’s acting company — perform in “Strange Waves,” an adaptation of four myths by Director of Education Gray Simons. “Many of the students we work with have never seen a live play before,” said BTF’s Executive Director Kate Maguire in a news release. “Our aim in having them attend a performance of ‘Strange Waves,’ is to excite them about theater and the performing arts. When children are introduced to the magic of live theater at a young age, they tend to be drawn to it again and again throughout their lives, and that connection is incredibly important because theater constantly reminds us about what it means to be human.” “Strange Waves” will tour throughout the region during the 2004-05 school year in various schools and venues. Last year, more than 9,000 students in Berkshire County and the surrounding region saw the company’s production of “Just So Stories,” also adapted by Simons. Despite the rich cultural offerings in the Berkshires, many low- and middle-income children are often underexposed to the arts, according to the company. BTF Plays is designed to give those young people an opportunity to experience the excitement of live theater. Information: Eileen Pierce, 298-5536, ext. 14, or www.berkshiretheatre.org.
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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