Thursday, February 23, 2012

Check Out North Adams 15th Annual Winterfest!



Saturday, February 25, 2012, 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. FREE

We haven't had much of a snowy winter so far, with days that are just short of balmy, but it's still fun to enjoy winter and the winter activities such as ice skating and watching people carve up enormous chunks of ice at the local winterfest. North Adams is less then 15 minutes from the 1896 House.

Early Morning, come see local artists and business owners try their hands at ice carving

The WinterFest Chowder Competition, 12 – 2 p.m.

Activities such as face painting, karaoke, hot chocolate, and horse drawn wagon rides. Children’s activities will be held at both MASS MoCA and Heritage State Park. MASS.

The North Adams Vietnam Memorial Skating Rink will host a Skating Dance Party from 7-9 p.m.. Admission is FREE and will feature a DJ, food and fun.

New events, performances and activities are being added all the time. Maps and schedules will be available the day of the event. For the most up-to-date information on North Adams’ WinterFest, call (413) 664-6180.

For more information please also check out

ALSO!!!

Come visit PRESS during the City of North Adams 15th Annual Winterfest Celebration

Take advantage of this surprisingly spring-like winter and take a walk downtown to experiment with letterpress by making your own type composition. Drop on in and choose from the large assortment of found wood type and bring your words to life! There is a suggested donation of $ 5 for printing.

PRESS
Date: February 25th
Time: 12-2
51 Main Street, North Adams, MA 01247

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Susan B. Anthony Birthplace and a Special Concert Event


Plan a multi-day visit to Adams, MA while staying at the comfortable 1896 House Inn, on Saturday, visit the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum and then on Sunday, listen to a lovely concert honoring the "daughter of Adams".

If you are looking for some fun things to also do on Saturday, go Ice Skating! For more information about hours and rates, please visit http://northadams-ma.gov/index.php?cmd=content&nav_id=76. On Sunday have a leisurely relaxing lunch at the 6' House Pub and then go listen to some lovely music celebrating Susan B. Anthony.

Susan B. Anthony Birthday Concert to Feature “Only the Message Mattered,” Sunday February 19, 2011
The annual event for Susan B. Anthony will feature “an absolutely gorgeous piece of music” to honor the “daughter of Adams.” And will present the original music and narrative, “Only the Message Mattered,” by composer/musician Bob Warren.

The concert, at 3:00 pm, Sunday, February 19, Adams Free Library, 92 Park Street, will honor  one of the world’s greatest human rights leaders and “daughter of Adams,” Susan B. Anthony. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

The event is co-hosted by the Adams Historical Society and funded in part from a grant from Mass Humanities. Bob Warren wrote the piece in 2010 with a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts for an ensemble of three singers/narrators and two instrumentalists. Performing in Adams on February 19, in simple Quaker dress, will be singer/narrators Brittany Rivers, Barbara Skiff, Rebecca Rogers, cellist Demetria Koninis and Bob Warren on piano.

For more information, contact the Adams Free Library, 413-743-8345, or the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum, 413-743-7121.

Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum (20 minutes from the 1896 House)
67 East Road
Adams, MA 01220
413-743-7121

The Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation, dedicated to preserving the birthplace and raising public awareness of the wide-ranging legacy of the great social reformer, Susan B. Anthony, who was a pioneering feminist and suffragist as well as a noteworthy figure in the abolitionist, opposition to Restellism, and temperance movements of the 19th century.  As part of its mission, the Museum will highlight the familial and regional influences which shaped Ms. Anthony’s early life, by displaying the textiles and furnishings of that period, as well as the literature and other memorabilia associated with her later career.

Museum’s hours and schedule:
October 14, 2010 - May 28, 2011
Thursday, Friday & Saturday 10am - 4pm
- or - Call the Birthplace office and request a special tour.
One can tour the five room home in less than an hour.
Admission is $5 for adults
$3 for seniors and children
Free for children under 6 years of age.

This rural, Federal-style home was the birthplace and childhood home of Susan Brownell Anthony, an advocate for temperance and the rights of women. She was born in 1820 and lived in the house until the age of seven. She later returned here several times throughout her life. Anthony’s family had a long tradition in the Quaker Society of Friends, and she was raised to value the precepts of society, humility, simplicity, and in particular, equality. Anthony received a broad education and undoubtedly incorporated the instruction she received in this rural home into her later career. As an adult, Anthony went on to be educated as a teacher in Philadelphia and taught in various schools from 1835 to 1860, earning 1/3 of the salary paid to her male cohorts. Frustrated by the restrictions placed on her because of her gender, Anthony moved to her family’s home in New York in 1849. There, she became an associate of Fredrick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, leaders in the anti-slavery movement before the Civil War. Already an advocate of temperance and a good friend of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she also endorsed rights for women and in 1869 helped found the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. Anthony cast a ballot in the 1872 presidential election and was arrested and fined $100 by a judge who directed the jury to find her guilty. She refused to pay, but because the judgment was never enforced, she could not appeal to the Supreme Court.
In 1892, she became the National Woman’s Suffrage Association’s president. Susan B. Anthony did not live to see women get the right to vote, for she died in 1906, 13 years before the 19th amendment was passed.
Information courtesy of: http://www.susanbanthonybirthplace.com

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Love is in the Art


February is the month for romance and what better way to spend a chilly day with your sweetheart then touring a local art gallery.

Love is in the Art – A Group Show. Mon-Sat 10am – 5:30pm. Sun. 11am-4pm.
At The Harrison Gallery (less then 5 minutes from the 1896 House)
February 4 - 29, 2012
39 Spring Street
Williamstown MA 01267
413-458-1700

The Harrison Gallery specializes in contemporary American artists, with a focus on landscapes. The works are created by traditional New England painters, American Impressionists, photographers, watercolorists, and mixed media artists. The Harrison Gallery prides itself in representing a wide variety of styles to serve diverse tastes. The gallery's collection also includes etchings, sculpture, pottery, jewelry, and fine art ceramics. With both local pride and an international scope, our artists range from Williamstown talent to Berkshire residents, the New York School to the California School , and a handful of international artists.

Artists featured in the Love is in the Art Show

Brother Thomas Bezanson
Susan Read Cronin
Stanley Bielen
John Traynor

While your visiting the Williamstown area, stop by and check out the The Williamstown Art Conservation Center at Stone Hill Center.

The Conservation Center is a unique facility for art conservation. It offers spacious labs for paintings, works on paper, photography, objects, textiles, furniture and picture frames, each space brightly illuminated with natural light and built to meet the specific needs of its specialty. Stone Hill Center also houses Clark exhibition galleries and features sweeping vistas of the Berkshires and Green Mountains. Visitors may experience the conservation process via a viewing platform and windows that look in on the labs.

227 South Street
Williamstown, MA 01267

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Bees Knees



Berkshire Botanical Gardens is hosting some great classes this upcoming Saturday.

Now is the time to start thinking about your spring and summer gardens. Bees are vital to earth's food production. Bees are immensely important to the success of over 90 types of food crops all over the world. Most varieties of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are dependent on bees, as are crops used as in feed for human's protein sources. Albert Einstein reportedly said the human race would last only four years in a world without bees, while there is debate over whether the great physicist made the claim, no one disputes the fact that we would be in serious trouble were bees to disappear. Bees are now in danger of dying out. In the winter of 2008, one in every three hives were lost.

Beekeeping is not an expensive hobby to take up and the rewards, aside from the sweet rewards of honey, that you are contributing to the world's overall sustainability, make it a very worthwhile undertaking.

Beekeeping for Gardeners: Getting Started in Backyard Beekeeping- 9 am – noon
This workshop is for everyone with an interest in honeybees and beekeeping. Learn how to start a honeybee colony, the seasonal management required to keep a healthy hive of bees and the role of pollinators and their relationship to flowering plants.  Topics provide an overview of the beekeeper's job, and will help new beekeepers, or those who are considering becoming a beekeeper, to make the correct choices for starting a backyard apiary. Equipment and tools used by the beekeeper will be discussed, and step-by-step instructions for starting a new colony of bees will be covered.  At the end of the workshop participants should have a solid understanding of how to successfully begin as a new beekeeper.

The Secret Life of Bees 1 – 2:30 pm
Most gardeners are familiar with the sight of a honey- bee forager as she visits flowers in our gardens, but few of us understand the intricacies of bee life within the hive. Join Heather Mattila, assistant professor at Wellesley College, for a lively talk about honeybees and honeybee behavior. She will discuss the secret life of honeybees, including the different kinds of bees that are found in hives, the jobs they do, as well as the means by which honeybees communicate to ensure a healthy and productive colony. This lecture appeals to beginner and seasoned beekeepers as well as naturalists.

Berkshire Botanical Garden (less then an hour from the 1896 House)
5 West Stockbridge Road
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Phone: 413-298-3926