CHP Berkshires Completes Dental Expansion

08:21AM / Monday, October 14, 2024Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — CHP Berkshires celebrated the reopening of Great Barrington Family Dental at its new brick-and-mortar location on Stockbridge Road, with staff, friends and supports, board, some patients and representatives from MassHealth's Boston office.

The state-of-the-art dental practice is the final step in CHP's dental expansion throughout the Berkshires: since 2022, CHP has established practices in North Adams, Adams and Great Barrington, in order to expand dental care access to for thousands of Berkshire County residents. CHP's Neighborhood Dental Center in Pittsfield was, until 2022, CHP's only dental practice.

Speaking at the event were CHP CEO Bethany Kieley, Great Barrington dentist Lina Bermudez, State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, Great Barrington Selectboard Chair Stephen Bannon, and CHP board Secretary Arlene Schiff.

Since 2021, when CHP lost its commercial lease on its downtown Great Barrington dental practice, patients and staff were relocated to Neighborhood Dental Center in Pittsfield. More recently, some patients received care at the CHP Mobile Dental Unit on site at CHP headquarters in Great Barrington. Now, patients and staff are back "home" in their new facility, which is already busy with patients.

CHP's dental expansion came about as fewer and fewer private dental practices in the Berkshires are accepting MassHealth patients, due to low reimbursement rates. As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) CHP Berkshires receives higher reimbursement rates for its dental services. Approximately 20,000 Berkshire County residents rely on MassHealth for their health insurance coverage.

"I know I speak for all of us in our practice when I say thank you to our patients who drove to Pittsfield for their dental care during the last two years, and to those who used our Mobile Dental Unit," Bermudez said. "Thank you to our CHP dental leadership team, and our facilities team, and to all who have created this great space for patient care. We're glad to be back in town."

CEO Bethany Kieley noted that having fine, new-state-of-the-art facilities is only part of dental care access challenge: Recruiting dentists and dental hygienists to rural communities remains a challenge and wait times for new appointments can be several months.

"Even as we celebrate our ribbon cutting today, not surprisingly, we still have more work to do," she said. "While we're excited to have more physical capacity to care for patients, we still need more dentists, hygienists and dental assistants, as recruiting these specialists is a unique challenge in our rural community. As more staff join us, though, we look forward to creating capacity for more and more patients."

"Re-establishing a state-of-the-art dental practice in Great Barrington has been a priority for us, as it has created important access to dental services for our South County community. Dental care is an essential part of healthcare, particularly at a community health center like CHP where we're focused on providing whole-person care. As with all of our services, we want everyone in Berkshire County to have access to the excellent care they deserve, regardless of their insurance status or their ability to pay," she added. "Luckily, in the last several years, we've gotten really good at this as we've strengthened our dental services from Northern to Southern Berkshire County—with the addition or expansion of sites in North Adams, Adams and now Great Barrington. We also have the benefit of the longstanding expertise and work of our Neighborhood Dental Center in Pittsfield, our early anchor for excellence in dental care. Our team has worked so hard to make this incredible growth happen."

CHP Berkshires cares for about 30,000 Berkshire County area residents with medical, dental, behavioral health, women's health and family services support, in practice locations in North, Central and South County.

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Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:17AM / Friday, August 21, 2026

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director.

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said.

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