Berkshire Museum To Offer Lecture By Raya Ariella And Booksigning With Leo Nash

11:12AM / Monday, December 03, 2007Print Story | Email Story

Raya Ariella, Climate USA Coordinator for Climate Crisis Coalition, will speak at the Berkshire Museum in Downtown Pittsfield on Saturday, December 8 at 3:30 p.m. Her topic will be â€œGrease Cars: Alternative Transportation in the 21st Century. Ariella will discuss her own journey to fueling her car with peanut oil. Visitors will learn how to make the switch to â€œgrease carsâ€ themselves, as well as simple ways to lessen their impact on the earth. Preceding the lecture, the Berkshire Museum Shop will offer a booksigning event with A. Leo Nash, author and photographer of Burning Man: Art in the Desert, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. The program is presented in connection with the Festival of Trees On the Move and is free with Festival admission. Raya Ariella grew up in North Egremont on a small farm and has worked locally on environmental issues and projects, including the Art of Recycling project in Great Barrington. She now works at the Climate Crisis Coalition in South Lee where she helps people to understand and act on the urgency of climate change. Raya still lives in North Egremont where she raised her son, grows much of her own food, and drives a car that runs on recycled fryer oil. Leo Nash is a writer and photographer who lives in Oakland, Calif. A regular creative participant in Nevadaâ€™s famed Burning Man Festival, Nash documented the event in words and photographs in his new book, Burning Man: Art in the Desert, published by Harry N. Abrams ($29.95). In his San Francisco Chronicle review critic Kenneth Baker wrote, â€œNashâ€™s moody pictures, all in black-and-white, evoke the sort of creative madness that he and others say propels them into the desert.â€ Nash will sign copies of the book, available for sale in the Berkshire Museum Shop next door to the museum at 31 South Street. The lecture is offered in conjunction with the 23rd Annual Festival of Trees on view through December 31, 2007. 200 decorated trees celebrate this year's theme "On the Move" as tree designers look to planes, trains, and automobiles for inspiration. Highlights of the 2007 Festival include displays of vintage wind-up toys from the private collection of Victor Reiling, model trains, and antique skis, skates, and sleds from the Berkshire Museumâ€™s collection. The Festival of Trees is sponsored by Legacy Banks Foundation. The Berkshire Museum is located at 39 South Street on Route 7 in Downtown Pittsfield. The galleries are open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays noon to 5 p.m. The Berkshire Museum Shop is located at 31 South Street in Downtown Pittsfield, and is open during Berkshire Museum hours. The Berkshire Museum will be closed for construction from January 1 through late March, 2008. For more information, contact the Berkshire Museum at (413) 443-7171, ext. 10, or visit www.berkshiremuseum.org

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BVNA Nurses Raise Funds for Berkshire Bounty

06:38AM / Wednesday, December 24, 2025

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Massachusetts Nursing Association members of the Berkshire Visiting Nurses Association raised $650 to help with food insecurity in Berkshire County.

The nurses and health-care professionals of BVNA have given back to the community every holiday season for the last three years. The first year, they adopted a large family, raised money, bought, wrapped and delivered the gifts for the family. Last year, they sold raffle tickets and the money raised went to the charitable cause of the winner.

This year, with food insecurity as a rising issue, they chose to give to Berkshire Bounty in Great Barrington.

They sold raffle tickets for a drawing to win one of two items: A lottery ticket tree or a gift certificate tree, each worth $100. They will be giving the organization the donation this month.

Berkshire Bounty seeks to improve food security in the county through food donations from retailers and local farms; supplemental purchases of healthy foods; distribution to food sites and home deliveries; and collaborating with partners to address emergencies and improve the food system.

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