Williams College Museum of Art

With seven additional visual art destinations over last year’s offerings and 11 new galleries, this year’s DownStreet Art initiative â€" organized by the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center (BCRC) at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) â€" not only will increase in scope and size; its installations will highlight communities from around the world.

The conceptual/ minimalist artist, critic, philosopher and theorist, Donald Judd (1928-1994) had radical ideas founding a contemporary art museum on a 340 acre former military base in Marfa, Texas. Today Marfa's Chinati and Donald Judd Foundations are major destinations for cultural tourism. As with Dia Beacon, in New York, and Mass MoCA in North Adams there has been a dramatic impact on the local economy and lifetstyle. Whether this is good or bad is a matter of who you talk to. In Marfa we got an earfull.

The launch of the Fourth of July arts season in the Berkshires will be like an explosion in a fireworks factory. There has never been a greater offering of superb and diverse performances. While three days of James Taylor and Carole King at Tanglewood sold out ages ago there are many other top options. Mass MoCA is going head to head with Tanglewood on Friday night. It has Richie Havens vs. The Pops. Barrington Stage and Williamstown Theatre Festival will duke it out with dueling Sondheim musicals. There is a ton of stuff at Shakespeare & Company including the opening of John Douglas Thompson in Richard III. Jacobs Pillow and Berkshire Theatre Festival are in the mix. We offer a complete rundown.

The spacious Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield has hosted events and dinners for charitable organizations. Now Leslie Ferrin has launched a series of Dish & Dine events featuring talks with gallery artists. Between courses of locally grown food the photographer Jason Houston discussed his exhibition Family of Mine and exotic global assignments.

Back in the day the Berkshire Museum, the oldest in the region, collected everything from soup to nuts. The museum's director, Stuart Chase, is challenged to find projects drawn from a vast collection of 30,000 objects. The interactive exhibitions are fun for families and instructive for 13,000 annual visiting students.

In the dead of winter The Clark Art Institute collaborated with its neighbor The Williamstown Theatre Festival with a reading of the hilarious Yasmina Reza play ART. This summer, when the Clark mounts Picasso Looks at Degas, they will again join forces with a reading of Steve Martin's comedy Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

Anticipate a mind boggling experience when the Williams College Museum of Art opens the special exhibition "Landscapes of the Mind" on January 30. The exhibition will remain on view through May 2 with a gala opening on Thursday, February 25.

While on a tight deadline to complete the installation of "Gravity Is a Force to Be Reckoned With" in the vast Building Five at Mass MoCA Inigo Manglano-Ovalle took a break to discuss his work. He will simultaneously show "Juggernaut" at the Williams College Museum of Art. A Williams alumnus class of '83 in 2005 he received the college's Bicentennial Medal.

An installation by Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle is in the process of being constructed and installed in the largest gallery at Mass MoCA in North Adams. Just up the road the Williams College Museum of Art will simultaneously mount an installation of his work Juggernaut from December 1 through October 31, 2010. The renowned artist is a Williams alumnus.

During 26 years as Mayor of North Adams, John Barrett has done a lot for the city. Just ask him. Thanks, but it is time to move on. Berkshire Fine Arts endorses Dick Alcombright for the Mayor of North Adams. It is more about hope, ideas, survival and progress than just change for the sake of change.

During this rainy and mostly miserable summer the exhibition "Dove/O'Keeffe Circles of Influence" at the Clark Art Institute has provided shelter from the storm. Visitors have flocked to this populat exhibition which ends on September 7.

For 26 years John Barrett has served as the Mayor of North Adams. He is running for yet another two year term. In a meeting with artists of the Eclipse Mill complex he related the epic struggle to salvage a depressed city largely through his personal efforts to help Tom Krens and then Joe Thompson in their plan to transform the abandoned Sprague Electric campus into Mass MoCA. Some $35 million in state revenue was used to renovate the museum which is celebrating its first decade.

Recently Dick Alcombright who opposes the incumbent, John Barrett, met with us to discuss his platform as candidate for Mayor of North Adams. We particulaly focused on the presence of Mass MoCA, MCLA, and an emerging community of artists as a matrix for arts as an economic engine to drive a depressed and recovering city.

North Adams, and Mass MoCA now celebrating its 10th anniversary, have come a long way from rock bottom when Sprague Electric left town, during the 13 terms of Mayor John Barrett, Jr. For the first time in 26 years Barrett has a tough opponent in Dick Albombright. Some 800 plus turned out for a spaghetti dinner fundraiser last week. It's shaping up to be a tight race.

Despite a drastic 20% budget cut Kate Maguire, the artistic director and CEO of Berkshire Theatre Festival is excitied about the coming season and the return of Randy Harrison in Ibsen's "Ghosts." During an upbeat interview she stated that "I'm not a director. I love directors. I'm married to one (Eric Hill). I love directing directors and I wanted to build a director's theatre."

Drawing on great depth in its collection the Williams College Museum of Art, from July 18 through September 20, will present "Prendergast in Italy." The exhibition features works by Maurice Prendergast (American, 1858–1924). The exhibition will be accompanied by a major catalogue and will travel internationally.

From the outset, Mass MoCA has kept an eye out for future arts lovers through Kidspace. With the addition of Cribs, a new installation by Matt Bua, that commitment has grown.

In addition to the 120 images in "Liu Zheng: The Chinese" the curator, John Stomberg, has installed selections from related book projects from the 19th century through today.

For seven years, with limited resources and under great adversity, Liu Zheng traveled extensively through China. This resulted in a book of 120 images "Liu Zheng: The Chinese." The Williams College Museum of Art comissioned a complete set of prints for its permanent collection. They are being shown at the college for the first time in a riveting and insightful exhibition.

There was a full weekend schedule of events celebrating the opening of a new building on the campus of Mass MoCA which, for the next 25 years, will house "Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective."

This is the third, self published book by artist/ entrepreneur, Eric Rudd. The superb images in this picture book were photographed by Kelly Lee who worked for ABC News and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer in D.C. before he settled in the Berkshires.

This is the first major exhibition of the art of the Ancient Near East at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston since 1965. Short of a visit to the British Museum this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to view treasures of Anicent Assyrian art with 250 objects including 30 monumental wall reliefs.

For too many years it has been dead in downtown North Adams in the shadow of Mass MoCA. Visitors to that museum did not spill over to depressed Main Street. But that may change as there is now a map guiding visitors to some dozen or so arts venues. It is creating a real buzz for Northern Berkshire County.

Part One: Use this handy guide to Berkshire museum discounts, and you can enjoy the same wonderful attractions that draw tens of thousands of people to our region each summer.

Using a computer program Devorah Sperber reduces details of Old Masters into a pattern of individual pixels. These are then combined in grids made of spools of thread. The results prove to be visually delightful as well as educational.