Cultural Grants Awarded To Northern Berkshire Communities

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — State Representative John Barrett III and the Northern Berkshire Cultural Council jointly announced the award of 63 grants totaling $72,500.00, for cultural programs in Northern Berkshire Communities. 
 
These eleven communities are comprised of ; Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Florida, Hancock, Lanesborough, Monroe, New Ashford, Savoy, Williamstown, and the City of North Adams. A complete list of recipients and grant amounts can be found here. http://Www.mass-culture.org/ccnb
 
"It's the local volunteers who really make this system work," said State Representative Barrett. "They make limited resources go as far as possible, and they make the tough decisions about which projects should be supported. Thanks to them, the arts, sciences, and humanities are part of people's everyday lives in communities across the state."
 
The Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The LCC Program is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation, supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, sciences, and humanities every year. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.
 
Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of municipally appointed volunteers. The members of the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire are:
 
Arthur De Bow, Co-Chair - North Adams               
 
Lorna Gayle - Lanesborough      
 
Cecilia Hirsch, Co-Chair - Williamstown
 
Henry Klein - Adams     
 
Donna Motta - North Adams      
 
Barbara Proper - Cheshire          
 
Linda Rhoads - Adams  
 
Mark Siegars - Lanesborough    
 
Sally Sussman - Williamstown
 
Peter Traub - Savoy
 
Erica Jane Wetherell - Hancock
 
Maureen Riley Moriarty, Staff/Administrator
 
Statewide, more than $3.3 million will be distributed by local cultural councils in 2021. Grants will support an enormous range of grass-roots activities: concerts, exhibitions, radio and video productions, field trips for schoolchildren, after-school youth programs, writing workshops, historical preservation efforts, lectures, First Night celebrations, nature and science education programs for families and town festivals. Nearly half of LCC funds support educational activities for young people.
 
The Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire will seek applications again in the fall. For guidelines and complete information on the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, contact us at the email or number above.  Applications and more information about the Local Cultural Council Program are available online at www.mass-culture.org .  Applications are due Oct 15.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Pittsfield Celebrates Robert 'Bob' Presutti on Arbor Day

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Bob Presutti, right, is presented the Hebert Award in 2017 for his volunteer efforts at Springside Park. He died in 2023 at age 88.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A tree has been planted next to the Berkshire Athenaeum in honor of local "giant" Robert Presutti.

Officials celebrated Arbor Day on Friday by installing a commemorative plaque next to the American elm sapling. This is a tree that James McGrath, the city's park program manager, said Presutti would have been particularly proud of.

"Today is a day where we yes, celebrate trees, but today is also a day where here in the city we intentionally try to acknowledge the good work of folks in our community who spend their time and their efforts and their talents to make Pittsfield a more beautiful place," he said to a crowd of about 20 people.

"Today we are honoring a longtime community volunteer named Bob Presutti. I'm sure a lot of you here know Bob and know his contributions to the city, not only when it comes to trees and parks but also to the Retired Senior Volunteer Program."

The longtime volunteer passed away last year at the age of 88. He contributed more than 10,600 hours to RSVP and had great impacts on the Parks Department over the years from sharing his knowledge and talents to ensuring that workers were safe when working on trees.

"This morning I went through my emails to see how many emails Bob Presutti sent me since the year 2001 when I started with the city. Bob Presutti sent me 14,000 emails and nearly every single one of those was about trees," McGrath said, prompting laughter and smiles from attendees.

One thread struck him as particularly important because it showed Presutti's empathy when it comes to the safety of city workers while caring for trees.

"There were multiple emails from Bob about the need to get the Parks Department maintenance guys into a program learning about chainsaw safety and learning about ladder safety. He was really into making certain that our city workers were well cared for and had all of the instruction that they needed and in fact, he even offered his own time and services after he became certified to teach our city workers," McGrath said.

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