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Egyptian Artist Gives Gift of Art to North Adams

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Egyptian artist Alaa Awad is giving a gift to the city of North Adams: an original, nearly 60-foot-long mural on the base of the Route 2 overpass.

Awad has painted street art in Asia and Denmark and has had exhibitions and murals in Germany and throughout Egypt. This North Adams piece, though, marks his first commissioned work in the United States.

“It’s a gift for North Adams; it’s a fabulous city,” Awad said. “Everything is very nice and the people are very nice and I decided to make something that will speak to the city.”

Awad’s work draws from historical Egyptian tomb paintings, and his mural is covered in stylized figures of ancient gods, chimeric beasts and people.

Awad looks to celebrate humankind and bring Egyptian heritage back to the surface as a source of pride for Egyptians and instill ideas such as “peace, mercy, justice and balance.”

Awad is a graduate and a faculty member of the Luxor Faculty of Fine Arts and Egypt, and he teamed up with fellow artist to use art to protest censorship, social injustice, and civilian life lost during the revolution in Tahrir Square in 2011.

Awad’s mural will be unveiled June 26, along with his “Thebes” exhibit in Gallery 51, as part of the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center’s Down Street Art Initiative, which aims to bring more public art to downtown North Adams. Down Street Art runs from 5 to 9 p.m. at locations throughout downtown North Adams.

The general theme of the new North Adams mural is “Justice.” Awad said the piece is designed to point people toward the past so they can learn from it and be better equipped to make a peaceful and brighter future.

“I believe absolutely you can never make the past again, but I think we can learn from our past and refocus the positive values and principles form the past,” he said. "The past is something to learn from, and we can see…what is negative and what is positive and we must focus on things like peace and mercy.”

Northern Berkshire United Way: 1980s Sees Double the Growth, Double the Need

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:16AM / Monday, July 13, 2026

Northern Berkshire United Way is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Each month, we will take a look back at the agency's milestones over the decades. 

 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Northern Berkshire United Way rolled through the "Me Decade" on a high. 

 

The "Massachusetts Miracle" ushered in a boomtime — despite gloomy local indicators like the relocation of Sprague Electric, loss of Adams Print Works in a massive blaze, and Photech's bankruptcy.

 

The agency failed to reach its fundraising goals only two times during the decade even as the region's needs grew. For the first time, homelessness and substance abuse were listed among its allocations.

 

Fundraising grew by leaps and bounds as critical human service relief agencies asked for more. An estimated 36,000 people in North County were being served by the agency's affiliates. The funds went to support between 14 and 17 agencies over the decade for health services, youth support, mental health, child care, and family needs. 

 

NBUW was making enough toward the end of the 1980s that it could provide help to nonmembers such as the Dalton Community Chest, a rape crisis center and two homelessness initiatives. It also worked with the Piton Foundation of Colorado on venture funding, including for a peer mentoring program at Drury High School 

 

Mary G. Dailey had given her first dollar to the original Community Chest in 1935 as a worker at Arnold Print Works. As keynote speaker at the 1981 kick off, she credited North Berkshire's generosity as "enthusiasm."

 

"I'm all for enthusiasm," she told the 150 gathered at the Eagles Hall that fall, with her sister, Catherine, as toastmaster. "No other characteristic, with the possible exception of kindness, has contributed so much to happy and successful living."