PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The opening of the Berkshire Carousel on Friday morning wasn't about an amusement ride. It wasn't about art.

It was about the community coming together to improve their surroundings.

For more than a decade, hundreds of volunteers have put hours and hours of effort into handcarving and painting the 33-piece ride. Each horse and carriage features images of people from the community as well as areas and scenery of the county, and other unique designs.

 

It's the only handcrafted carousel to be built in Massachusetts in the last century.

 

"This is a beautiful piece of art. This should be seen as a showcase in the state of Massachusetts, if not New England," said Jim Shulman, who started the effort as a gift back to his hometown. "This carousel is the first classical, hand-carved, wooden carousel made in Massachusetts in more than 100 years. It is the largest permanent volunteer-made art project in the entire New England. It is much more than an amusement ride."

 

Shulman gets nostalgic when he thinks of the city he grew up in with the "best parades" and multiple beaches and playgrounds. He remembers the community in those 1950s days as one with optimism and love for one another. 

 

"This is about a community of people. When I grew up in Pittsfield, after World War II, we were all poor. Our folks were in World War II and they didn't have a lot of money. But they loved this community and worked hard, many worked at GE, many had their own businesses, and they tried to give their kids things they didn't have," Shulman said. "What they gave us was the love of a community." 

 

When he closes his eyes, he remembers the feeling of riding on a carousel in his youth at Pontoosuc Lake. Years later, he and his wife were on yet another carousel thinking about those days when Jackie Shulman thought up the project. The Shulman family then embarked on a massive journey, taking the carousel from being considered for Pittsfield, then to Lanesborough, and then to Dalton, before coming back to the original site on Center Street in Pittsfield.

 

"Many of the people in the community over the years were getting very negative and very cynical, stuff I did not grow up with. I grew up with optimism. We all had a wonderful base to grow up in, a community that loved us, good schools. We have good schools and we have good teachers. But we need to create things as a community," Jim Shulman said.

 

Creating something for the community is really what the Berkshire Carousel is all about. The Shulmans didn't use any city funding for the $3 million, though they did receive $250,000 from the state to help with the building. It was volunteers and donors providing the work and funding. 

 

"We are so happy we are able to, today, make it happen," said Joseph Tournier, one of the volunteers who worked on the project since its inception. 

 

Some 400 people from the area volunteered their time on the project, many bringing their own expertise to the table, from carpenters to electricians, to artists. The result was smiles on the faces of those residents young and old who piled onto the carousel Friday morning for the first ride.

 

"You cannot match what's in [the building housing the carousel] unless there is love," Executive Director Maria Caccaviello said. "It is one thing to have talent. But it is another thing to have talent and share it."

 

Caccaviello remembers when Nancy Shulman presented the idea years ago. Nancy Shulman brought in a mini carousel and told local officials the plans. 

 

"I thought how amazing, what a gift to our community, to bring not so much the carousel but to bring people together for a common goal to bring a gift back to the community," Caccaviello said.

 

In 2005, the project began out of a one-car garage on Merrill Road with volunteers carving the first of the many horses. The workshop got moved a half dozen times and the permanent location was ever-changing from the original intent to be in Pittsfield. Carousel organizers moved their workshop to the Berkshire Mall and toyed with the idea of moving it to Laston Field in Lanesborough, then returned to the idea of staying at the mall. The carousel then moved to Dalton and worked to secure a permanent location there.

 

Eventually, it all came back to Center Street.

 

The first phase includes the housing for the carousel, a snack bar, a gift shop and bathrooms. But the project is far from complete. Two other phases are planned that include event space, a larger concession operation and space for a fully functioning workshop. Further, the organization found a niche business in carving and restoring other carousels. 

 

On Friday, the celebration including only a short speaking portion and music, culminating with the first rides on the carousel. More than 100 children and adults with tokens in hand lined up around the carousel to take a ride on the city's newest treasure.