BCC Hosting Exhibit by Artist, former Professor Benigna Chilla

PITTSFIELD, MA — Internationally known artist and former BCC professor Benigna Chilla’s solo art exhibition, From West to East to West, is on view at Berkshire Community College (BCC)’s Koussevitzsky Gallery through Friday, Oct. 28. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday. 

Specializing in the intersections between math, design and architecture, Chilla creates multi-layered paintings and wall hangings with vibrant colors and rich, varied textures. This exhibition features the artist’s recent series of large paintings, created after a 2011 stay in Bhutan and her retirement from BCC as a professor of visual arts.  

Chilla’s artistic process begins with inspiration from geometric patterns found in architecture, textiles and nature. She explores both organic and constructed geometric shapes, which are organized through symmetry, and says the meditative and physical process of painting is as important to her as the final pieces themselves. The paintings in the exhibition feature actual texture embedded onto the canvas, layered with natural pigment like turmeric, saffron and minerals.  

Chilla studied in her native Germany at the Folkwangschule in Essen and the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. She moved to America in 1969, completing her graduate studies at the State University of New York at Albany and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She held Visiting Assistant or Artist-in-Residence positions at the University of Massachusetts, Brown University, Cornell University and the Rhode Island School of Design until 1980, when she became a faculty member at Berkshire Community College. She has also held residencies at Yaddo, the Djerassi Foundation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  

At age 82, Chilla has continued to steadily produce work from her home studio in Chatham, New York as well as exhibit and lecture all over the world.  

Colombian Artist Celebrates Immigrant Stories in New Pittsfield Mural

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
06:49AM / Saturday, October 24, 2026

Artist Laura Barrios explains the  inspiration of the mural, of immigrants building new lives in the Berkshires.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The walls along the Intermodal Center's train platform are a little more colorful following the unveiling of Let It Shine's third mural at that location, transforming a space once surrounded by bare concrete into a vibrant display of public art.

 

The unveiling on Thursday, marks the close of Let It Shine's 2026 outdoor public art season and the third year of its emerging artist program, said Mill Town Foundation Program Director Andy Wrba. 

 

Let It Shine's Emerging Artists Mentorship program was established in 2024 to support aspiring artists in the community by providing guidance, hands-on experiences, and opportunities to create large-scale public art.

 

"This mural, along with all the murals, as part of this emerging artist program, and even more broadly, all the murals that you see downtown throughout Pittsfield shows that we care about the cultural scene and we care about the creative people that live and work in our city," Wrba said.

 

The new mural, painted by Colombian artist Laura Barrios, celebrates immigrants who have built lives and found a sense of home in Berkshire County.

 

Barrios has been working on the piece for the last two months alongside mentor artist, Jesse Tobin McCauley. 

 

"It's a homage to the immigrants who work and make a home in the Berkshires … this is a very personal experience too because I am an immigrant," Barrios said in her speech.