PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The 14th annual 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival officially kicked off Thursday night with an "Off The Streets" art exhibition.

 

The show features work from 10 artists who have murals in Pittsfield. The 10 artists are Hope Aguilera, Mike Carty, Huck Elling, Diane Firtell, Frances Chloe Jones-Whitman, Pops Peterson, Cara Petricca, Stef Quetti, Shelsy Rodriguez and Jesse Tobin McCauley. 

 

Each artist has a couple of their works on the wall throughout the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts from now until Feb. 28. 

 

Jen Glockner, the city's director of cultural development, said the exhibit is to raise awareness of some of the talented artists who have created the murals.

 

"It's to raise awareness of the murals in Pittsfield like people come here and they don't realize how many murals there are. There are 31 murals — we counted them in Pittsfield and these are only 10 of the artists involved," she said. "There are many other artists that don't necessarily have Berkshire connections. There's people from outside the region but these people, all of these artists have Berkshire connections."

 

Artists like Pops Peterson are showcasing two works at the center. He said it's great to be able to showcase with many other artists.

 

"It’s great to be a part of the artistic community up here," he said. "Artists work alone, you know, so it can be a pretty lonely endeavor but to have a scene where you go and people welcome you and you're a part of something — that is very heartwarming."

 

Stef Quetti is showcasing four pieces of printmaking, something she is currently taking a class for and is excited to be able to show off her other types of work.

 

"It's lovely because also it can show versatility of artists if you're doing large murals with different themes and then you kind of sort of showcase other things that are important to you that you like to work on privately," she said.

 

Shelsy Rodriguez, also known as Stephx, is showcasing four works depicting animals from Colombia to highlight the importance of nature and some endangered species in her native land. She felt honored to be able to show some more of her work in a smaller setting.

 

"I'm really grateful to be a part of this exhibition because I really did my first mural here in the Berkshires in Pittsfield at the train station," she said. "So I feel grateful and I am fortunate to be here with all of these artists."

 

The 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival has about 70 different events taking place throughout the month. There will be fireworks, theater, ice sculpting, and more to enjoy.

 

You can find out what is happening throughout the month on the Cultural Pittsfield Facebook page.