Tri-State Pennysaver Ceasing Operations

BENNINGTON, Vt. — The Tri-State Pennysaver, a victim of declining print advertising, will cease publication at the end of this year and its press will go quiet in January.

The news was announced on the Pennysaver's website Thursday by owner Hersam Acorn Newspapers.

Hersam Acorn said the "restructuring was a result of a seven-year lull" in the region's advertising markets.

"Despite having the smartest, most hard-working and dedicated employees, we could not ignore the need to rescale our Vermont operations due to negative market and industry forces," said Martin V. Hersam, chief executive officer, in the release.

Hersam Acorn, which owns 21 weeklies, bought the TriState Pennysaver News, Berkshire Pennysaver, Yankee Shopper and the Vermont News Guide and Bennington Printing in 2007 from Journal Community Publishing Group. The acquisition included 11 newspapers in Connecticut and a printing operation in Trumbull, Conn.

The Yankee Shopper and Berkshire Pennysaver were closed in early 2009. (The Western Massachusetts Pennysaver out of Northampton is distributed in Berkshire County.)

BAAMS Students Compose Music Inspired By Clark Art

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
08:17AM / Sunday, December 14, 2025

BAAMS students view 'West Point, Prout's Neck' at the Clark Art. The painting was an inspiration point for creating music.

 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Berkshires' Academy for Advanced Musical Studies (BAAMS) students found new inspiration at the Clark Art Institute through the "SEEING SOUND/HEARING ART" initiative, utilizing visual art as a springboard for young musicians to develop original compositions.

 

On Saturday, Dec. 6, museum faculty mentors guided BAAMS student musicians, ages 10 to 16, through the Williamstown museum, inviting students to respond directly to the artwork and the building itself.

 

"As they moved through the museum, students were invited to respond to paintings, sculptures, and the architecture itself — jotting notes, sketching, singing melodic ideas, and writing phrases that could become lyrics," BAAMS Director of Communications Jane Forrestal said. "These impressions became the foundation for new musical works created back in our BAAMS studios, transforming visual experiences into sound."

 

BAAMS founder and Creative Director Richard Boulger said this project was specifically designed to develop skills for young composers, requiring students to articulate emotional and intellectual responses to art, find musical equivalents for visual experiences, and collaborate in translating shared observations into cohesive compositions.

 

"Rather than starting with a musical concept or technique, students begin with visual and spatial experiences — color, form, light, the stories told in paintings, the feeling of moving through architectural space," said Boulger. "This cross-pollination between art forms pushes our students to think differently about how they translate emotion and observations, and experiences, into music."

 

This is a new program and represents a new partnership between BAAMS and the Clark.

 

"This partnership grew naturally from BAAMS' commitment to helping young musicians engage deeply with their community and find inspiration beyond the practice room. The Clark's world-class collection and their proven dedication to arts education made them an ideal partner," Boulger said. "We approached them with the idea of using their galleries as a creative laboratory for our students, and they were wonderfully receptive to supporting this kind of interdisciplinary exploration."