Clark Art Presents Constant Smiles and Ava Mirzadegan

Print Story | Email Story
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute's Music at the Manton Concert spring series concludes with a performance by Constant Smiles and Ava Mirzadegan on Sunday, May 5 at 5 pm.
 
The performance takes place in the Clark's auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.
 
According to a press release:
 
Constant Smiles began in 2009 in leader Ben Jones' home of Martha's Vineyard. Inspired by the island's now-defunct community record store Aboveground Records, the group made their live debut as a noise duo opening for Ralph White (Bad Livers). Fourteen indie-folk albums later, Constant Smiles returns to their electronic roots with their latest release Kenneth Anger, evoking the eponymous filmmaker with hypnotic, '80s-inspired synth classics that examine how rituals and community can heal feelings of isolation.
 
Ava Mirzadegan opens for Constant Smiles. Mirzadegan writes quiet songs about heartbreak, longing, letting go, and befriending the night sky. Accompanied most often by fingerpicked nylon string guitar, her work rings of unembellished honesty.
 
Tickets $10 ($8 members, $7 students, $5 children 15 and under). Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. Advance registration encouraged. For more information and to register, visit clarkart.edu/events.
 
Presented in collaboration with Belltower Records, North Adams.

Tags: Clark Art,   

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

Williamstown Residents Question Plan to Use Herbicide Near Green River

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Residents are asking the Conservation Commission to reconsider a 2023 decision that allowed the use of an herbicide that studies have linked to cancer, while its unclear if the group with permission to treat a parcel near the Green River will follow through on the plan.
 
At issue is a 4.3-acre riverfront parcel owned by the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation off Woodlawn Drive near the site of the town's new fire station.
 
In late 2023, Con Comm OK'd a management plan for the area that included, "a combination of forestry mowing, cut/paint and foliar spray herbicide application," to address the out-of-control growth of invasive exotic plants on the site.
 
But WRLF never recorded the commission's order of conditions with the Registry of Deeds, a step it would need to complete in order to implement the plan. The town's conservation agent told the commission at its March 12 meeting that because of budgetary concerns, Rural Lands had not embarked on the planned ecological restoration, but it might want to revive that plan.
 
The commission's order of conditions expires three years after it was issued in December 2023.
 
"There was a seasonal plan in that [2023] application of cutting at a certain time of year … and then herbicide application in certain times of year to line up with the seasonality of certain plant and animal communities," Community Development Director Andrew Groff told the Con Comm. "They'll have to amend some of that schedule moving forward.
 
"I think we'll see [Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation's Dan Gura] and his contractor in the spring for an amendment to that schedule later in the spring, maybe early summer, and, likely, an extension."
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories