Clark Art Institute to Host First Sunday Free: Artists' Books Day

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute will present its First Sunday Free series on Sunday, April 6, coinciding with Artists' Books Day.

The event will feature free admission and activities throughout the day, focusing on the Clark's collection of over 5,000 artists' books. Activities include:

• Clark Book Expo: From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Michael Conforti Pavilion, the Clark will host a Book Expo featuring regional artists, practitioners, and artists' book publishers. Participating entities include Antler Editions, Draw Down Books, Ghost Proposal, Horse Gurl Press, Kareem Michael Worrell, Kylie Gellatly, La Horchata Zine, Looky Here, Messenger Press, Molly Rideout/Alyssum Press, mundus press, Nine Syllables Press, Passenger Pigeon Press, PRESS | 29 Press, Publication Studio, Red Trillium Press, Seaton Street Press, siglio, Small Editions, THE BIRD PRESS/Thorsten Dennerline, and The Brother In Elysium.

• Artists' Books Art-Making Activities: From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Manton Research Center reading room, art-making activities will be available. Participants can engage in activities such as creating accordion books and mini books.

• Unusual Bindings and Inventive Structures Pop-Up: From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Manton Study Center for Works on Paper, Andrea Puccio, director of the library, will present a selection of artists' books from the Clark library's collection.

• Panel Discussion: From 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Manton Research Center auditorium, a panel discussion will take place featuring May Castleberry, Lisa Pearson (Siglio Press), and Steven Daiber (Red Trillium Press). The discussion will focus on the production and distribution of artists' books.

• Iron Coffee Co.: From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Orientation Center, coffee from Iron Coffee Company will be available for purchase.

Free admission will be offered all day. Special activities will be held in the Michael Conforti Pavilion and Manton Research Center from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For accessibility questions, the Clark Art Institute can be contacted at 413-458-0524.

Area Cyclists Gear Up for Dana-Farber Fund-Raiser

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
07:39AM / Saturday, July 18, 2026

Matthew Behnke, left, and ForzaG teammate and Living Proof rider Abraham Landau with a photo of a Pan-Mass Challenge 'Pedal Partner,' a pediatric patient paired with a rider.

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute calls its biggest fund-raiser of the year the Pan-Mass Challenge.

 

But participants know that the challenge of riding their bicycles 177 miles from Worcester to Provincetown pales in comparison to the day-to-day challenge faced by cancer survivors.

 

"Riding side-by-side, you share stories," Great Barrington's Peter Whitehead said recently. "Everyone has a story, whether it's personal themselves or a family member. There's a lot of back-and forth.

 

"And there's the Living Proof group that gathers together on Saturday afternoon at the end of the ride. All the people who have had cancer or still have cancer. People often at the end of that meeting get up to tell a story, and it's just amazing some of the things people have gone through in their fight against cancer.

 

"It's inspirational."

 

For 46 years, riders have been drawing on those inspirations to power through a two-day ride across the commonwealth and raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Since 1980, the event has raised $1.125 billion for the treatment and research center, and it accounts for 67 percent of the Jimmy Fund's annual revenue.

 

This year's ride, scheduled for Aug. 1 and 2, includes at least 17 Berkshire County residents among the 6,000 cyclists planning to complete the ride to the tip of Cape Cod.