It's a Living

The Berkshires' summer season has begun. In my opinion, there's no better time to visit the area. 

First impressions: entering the Berkshires from New York's Hudson Valley.
Photo by Jeremy Clowe. All rights reserved.

A couple weeks ago I appeared as a guest on the WNPR morning show, Where We Live, extolling the virtues of a trip to Western Massachusetts and Norman Rockwell Museum. Not my smoothest interview, but I was happy to take part. I was joined by representatives from Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (coincidentally, how I first learned of the area), Shakespeare & Company, and The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, where the radio interview was broadcast. 

WNPR is based in Hartford yet the show's host, John Dankosky, lives in an area of Connecticut not far from the Berkshires and so decided to broadcast his show live in Great Barrington, on the occasion of the Berkshire International Film Festival. It's interesting for me to recall that during my own years in Hartford, where I attended college, I had no concept of the Berkshires and frequently drove right through its outskirts (none the wiser) during trips to visit my family in the Hudson Valley. 

Go pro: courtesy "Out" magazine.

As I mentioned to Dankosky before we went on the air, my first impression of the Berkshires was that of a "summer camp" for artists, after being tipped off to area by a dancer who was studying at Jacob's Pillow. While working part-time in New York City and living in the Hudson Valley over ten years ago, I started making frequent trips to the Berkshires, enjoying its beautiful countryside, finding part-time work at the Pillow, performing with acting troupes in the area and, of course, working full-time at Norman Rockwell Museum. The rest, as they say, is history.

In the May issue of Out magazine, I offered further insight into my time spent in the area, and was featured as a "pro tip" on the joys of hiking the Berkshires' scenic hills. This is certainly a unique aspect of the area. 

As I mentioned in the WNPR interview, right down the street from the Rockwell Museum  you can take a hike up the mountain where Herman Melville was inspired to write Moby Dick. We talked about the other significant artists and activists who lived in the area, including Norman Rockwell, and theorized about what it was about the area that continues to draw such people. Following the interview, I drove a few miles away to finally visit the newly opened W.E.B. Du Bois homesite, dedicated to the influential American humanist and civil rights activist, who grew up in Great Barrington. Like much of the Berkshires, it was a pleasantly meditative stroll through both nature and history.

History happened here:
entrance to W.E.B. Du Bois homesite.
Photo by Jeremy Clowe. All rights reserved.

They say the grass is always greener... for me, living in the Berkshires for a few years started to feel a little claustrophobic (especially during the winter), so I am happy to now be commuting from the nearby Capital Region. It's the best of both worlds. Due to a technical glitch, you'll hear my mic cut out at the end of the radio segment, but what I was trying to say is that the Berkshires is an easy drive from such areas as Albany, Boston, and New York City, and visitors are in for a real treat this summer (we just opened a show on New Yorker artist Roz Chast, and I'll write more about that shortly). Personally, I'm looking forward to the exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh's landscapes that will be on display at the Clark Art Institute... Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists, and what could be more fitting than a show about the great outdoors here in the Berkshires?

Related Links:

"Live from the Mahaiwe: Arts in the Berkshires," Where We Live, WNPR, May 29, 2015

"Spotlight on the Berkshires," Out Magazine, May 25, 2015

Berkshires.org