Saint James Place Appoints Executive Director

12:46PM / Monday, February 26, 2024Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Saint James Place, a Center for Arts and Culture, announced the appointment of Seth Keyes to the position of Executive Director.

As Executive Director, he will be charged with extending the growth of Saint James Place through management of finances, marketing and expanded program development.

Saint James Place reopened in 2017 after a full historic restoration and preservation with a carefully designed adaptation for performances. Established as a Cultural Landmark and event space, it hosts music, theatre, dance, lectures, classes, and meetings year round. Since its 2017 opening, Saint James Place has welcomed over 50 arts groups, providing them with quality performance, rehearsal, and office space.

Seth Keyes has been a producer and presenter of world-class performing arts for forty years. He began his career in 1984 as Manager Director/Producer of the Francis Wilson Playhouse in Clearwater, Fla, and progressed to pivotal roles in talent booking and senior programming for renowned performance venues in Tampa Bay, Cleveland, and Akron. Prior to founding his consultancy, Artist License, LLC, he served as Vice President for Innovation Arts & Entertainment, overseeing touring Broadway seasons in 20 subscription markets throughout North America and collaborating extensively with luminaries such as David Sedaris, Anthony Bourdain, William Shatner, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, among others.

Sally Harris, President of Saint James Place, and co-Founder with her husband Fred Harris, said of the appointment, "After working with Seth for the past seven years as our General Manager, Fred and I have come to appreciate the talent, experience, and professionalism he has demonstrated. We enthusiastically look forward to the contribution Seth can make to the future of Saint James Place working in this new role."

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South County Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the Knox Trail

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:18PM / Sunday, January 11, 2026

State Sen. Paul Mark carries the ceremonial linstock, a device used to light artillery. With him are New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey and state Sen. Nick Collins of Suffolk County.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The 250th celebration of American independence began in the tiny town of Alford on Saturday morning.

Later that afternoon, a small contingent of re-enactors, community members and officials marched from the Great Barrington Historical Society to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to recognize the Berkshire towns that were part of that significant event in the nation's history.

State Sen. Paul Mark, as the highest ranking Massachusetts governmental official at the Alford crossing, was presented a ceremonial linstock flying the ribbons representing every New York State county that Henry Knox and his team passed through on their 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter of 1775-76.

"The New York contingent came to the border. We had a speaking program, and they officially handed over the linstock, transferring control of the train to Massachusetts," said Mark, co-chair of Massachusetts' special commission for the semiquincentennial. "It was a great melding of both states, a kind of coming together."

State Rep. Leigh Davis called Knox "an unlikely hero, he was someone that rose up to the occasion. ... this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates."

Gen. George Washington charged 25-year-old bookseller Knox with bringing artillery from the recently captured fort on Lake Champlain to the beleaugured and occupied by Boston. It took 80 teams of horses and oxen to carry the nearly 60 tons of cannon through snow and over mountains.

Knox wrote to Washington that "the difficulties were inconceivable yet surmountable" and left the fort in December. He crossed the Hudson River in early January near Albany, crossing into Massachusetts on what is now Route 71 on Jan. 10, 1776. By late January, he was in Framingham and in the weeks to follow the artillery was positioned on Dorchester Heights.

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