Clark Art Kicks Off Outdoor Concert Series with Balla Kouyate

08:04AM / Friday, June 27, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute presents the first in a series of free outdoor concerts with thematic connections to the Ground/work 2025 exhibition with a performance by Balla Kouyaté on Wednesday, July 2 at 6 pm on the Reflecting Pool Lawn.

According to a press release:

Balla Kouyaté's lineage goes back more than 800 years to Balla Faséké, the first of an unbroken line of djelis in the Kouyaté clan. The word "djeli" derives from the Mandinka language, meaning the oral historians, musicians, and performers who celebrate the history of the Mandé people of Mali, Guinea, and other West African countries. Kouyaté's musical virtuosity on the balafon (the West African antecedent of the xylophone) brings the sounds of West Africa to Williamstown, honoring the roots of Ground/work 2025 artist Aboubakar Fofana.

Free. Bring a picnic and your own seating. Inclement weather moves events to the Manton Research Center auditorium. For accessibility questions, call 413 458 0524.

Tags: Clark Art,

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Mount Greylock School Committee Hears Budget Requests, Pressures

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:32AM / Wednesday, February 18, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee Thursday heard the final rounds of fiscal year 2027 budget requests and heard why those — or any — discretionary increases in spending will be difficult in the year that begins July 1.

Williamstown Elementary Principal Benjamin Torres and middle-high school Principal Jake Schutz each presented the spending priorities formulated by their respective school councils. The requests followed a presentation by Lanesborough Elementary Principal Nolan Pratt at the January meeting.

Superintendent Joseph Bergeron then told the School Committee that state and federal aid to the district is going to be slightly lower than FY26 and reminded the panel that the district spent the last two years spending down its reserve accounts, as requested by the member towns, to the point where those reserves — School Choice, tuition and excess and deficiency — cannot be applied to the operating budget.

"Spending the exact same amount of money from this year to next year — that alone will mean a 4 percent increase [in appropriations] to each of our towns," Bergeron said. "That's the baseline on top of which everything else will happen.

"We know we're seeing an 8.75 percent increase in health insurance, but we also have an increasing number of employees who are taking our health insurance, so that health insurance line is increasing substantially. When it comes to out-of-district tuition as well as transportation, both of those are seeing marked increases as well."

District staff and the School Committee will further refine its FY27 budget over the next five weeks, with a budget workshop scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, and a public hearing and final budget vote on March 19.

The district's appropriations to Williamstown and Lanesborough, which each pay a proportional share of the prekindergarten-Grade 12 district's operating expenses, will face an up-or-down vote at each town's annual meeting, in May and June, respectively.

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