Coffee, Internet, Art: Cafe Creates High Tech Gallery

"When we first opened this place, I immediately thought 'We've got great walls for a gallery,'" said Adelle Michaud, the shop's cafe manager and an avid art collector.

Graphic designer and locally-based artist Richard Harrington is organizing the show, which will feature his own works and art by two other Berkshire natives - Michael Miller and Joanna Gabler. An opening reception will be held at the space on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 6 p.m.

"I'm nervous about our first opening. It's impossible to gauge how the audience will react but I'm also optimistic. I'm eager to see how bringing people from all over New England will affect the artist community. How does the insight of artists interact with what the community expects of art?" Harrington, an Adams native, asked.

Michaud and Harrington are working with shop owner Tim Auxier to ready the store for its first show. The cafe, which features a variety of coffee and pastry products, wireless Internet, desktop computer access for $1 an hour and half-a-dozen comfy chairs for lounging, is the perfect spot for a community arts show, Auxier said.

"There really wasn't a place in Adams for this sort of merging of talents. It's just a nice, local, community space," Auxier said.

<L2>The show will feature several floral paintings by Gabler, a native of Poland who emigrated to the United States in the 1980s and moved to the Northern Berkshires in 2002, and Miller, whose photography work focuses on decaying industrial objects. Harrington, a former Adobe employee, uses Adobe products to create digital prints of abstract shapes in a myriad of colors.

The three friends have participated in group shows before but Harrington said he hopes this particular show will highlight each artist's individual talent while also encouraging dialogue about the growing art atmosphere in the county.

"It's like the second wave of the Hudson River School [a mid-19th-century art movement that used Hudson River landscapes as inspiration] and it's interesting to see the three unique perspectives of creativity from three astute scholars on the subject," said Harrington. "The level of art activity here is intense and the fact that it's taking place here is fascinating."

And Harrington can't wait to introduce that artist community to the Net Beans Cafe.

"It's got everything and it's a mix of the old and the new, which is a lot like what Adams is like," said Harrington. "We're your 21st-century general store."

For further information about the show, contact Richard Harrington at rh_hoosac@yahoo.com.

Cheshire Town Meeting Oks Budgets, Debates Potential Prop 2 1/2 Override

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
10:12PM / Monday, June 08, 2026

Moderator Carol Francesconi, left, and Anne Marie Furey were presented flowers in memory of the Rev. William Furey, their brother and husband, respectively. The town report was dedicated to him. 

CHESHIRE, Mass. — Town meeting on Monday approved all 35 articles on the annual meeting warrant, including a total spending for fiscal 2027 of more than $8.5 million. 

 

Some 77 of the town's more than 2,500 registered voters filled the Cheshire Community House meeting room, debating on a number of articles during the meeting that lasted nearly three hours

 

The town dedicated its annual report to the Rev. William David Furey, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church and more recently Berkshire Union Chapel in Lanesborough. Furey died last year at age 77.

 

His wife, Anne Marie Furey, and his sister, Town Moderator Carol Francesconi, were presented with a bouquet of flowers in tribute to him. 

 

He was an exemplary member of the community who left a lasting impression in each and every life that he touched, said Town Clerk Whitney Flynn. 

 

Voters approved several warrant articles that make up an operating budget of $3,840,314 for fiscal 2027. Of this amount, $1,642,481 is allocated for the general government budget, which was approved after clarification of a few questions.

 

One item was the administrative assistant's salary. Prior to the annual meeting, the town eliminated the executive assistant salary of $54,309 in favor of a part-time administrative assistant salary of $27,155, to reduce costs considering the financial constraint the town is in.