Berkshire Museum Will Open at 1 pm On October 1

Print Story | Email Story
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Museam will open later Thursday Oct 1. To accommodate staff diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility training.
 
The Berkshire Museum, which is currently open Thursday through Monday, will close its doors on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 1, while staff attend training. The museum will open for the day at 1 pm. Reservations continue to be required at the downtown Museum; visitors are encouraged to reserve online.
 
The museum’s complete staff will participate in a two-part training this week with social justice and equity consultant Angela Park on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1. The training will focus on increasing awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion topics to allow staff to develop programming and communications that better reflect the museum’s community and audiences as the 117-year old organization works to examine the role of museums in institutionalizing racism, reflect on its internal and external culture, and join with community partners to end systemic racism. 
 
The museum team will use their training to set and meet specific goals designed to ensure that guests of all backgrounds feel safe, welcomed, and included. 
 
Angela Park is a Vermont-based consultant, researcher, and writer. She helps organizations embed social justice and equity throughout their operations and programming, including testing assumptions about the root causes of inequity, mapping impacts and dynamics of systemic racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression, and making visible the mental models that can hinder well-intended organizational efforts. 
 
Park has testified before Congress and state legislatures, lectured at universities across the United States, and worked in the Clinton-Gore White House as part of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development.
 
Funding for the museum’s training comes from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s Community Engagement Through the Arts Capacity Building Program.
 

Tags: Berkshire Museum,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Toy Library Installed at Onota Lake

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Feel free to use or leave a toy at Onota Lake's newest infrastructure meant to foster community and benefit kids.

Burbank Park now has a toy library thanks to Wahconah Regional High School senior Alexandra Bills. Located along the wall at the beach area, the green and blue structure features two shelves with sand toys that can be used to enhance children's visits.

The Parks Commission supported Bills' proposal in February as part of her National Honors Society individual service project and it was installed this month. Measuring about 4 feet wide and 5.8 feet tall, it was built by the student and her father with donated materials from a local lumber company.

Friends and family members provided toys to fill the library such as pails, shovels, Frisbees, and trucks.

"I wanted to create a toy library like the other examples in Berkshire County from the sled library to the book libraries," she told the commission in February.

"But I wanted to make it toys for Onota Lake because a lot of kids forget their toys or some kids can't afford toys."

Bills lives nearby and will check on the library weekly — if not daily — to ensure the operation is running smoothly.  A sign reading "Borrow-Play-Return" asks community members to clean up after themselves after using the toys.

It was built to accommodate children's heights and will be stored during the winter season.

View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories