About Berkshire Fine Arts
The Berkshire Fine Arts website was launched in August, 2006 at the end of summer long meetings and collaborations between web designer, Jason Morin, of North Adams, Mass. and publisher/ editor, Charles Giuliano. The intention was to create a multi leveled site that would include many categories covering the rich and diverse culture and lifestyle of the Berkshires particularly during the height of the summer season. The truth is, however, that all of the seasons in the Berkshires are special in different ways.
There was also the recognition that residents of the Berkshires represent several different elements comprising a complex community. In addition to the "year rounders" there is a seasonal audience, as well as, a significant number of Berkshire people for whom the region in Western Massachusetts represents the site of a second home or who travel extensively through New York, Boston and Conneticut both for work and an extended cultural life. Even the "year rounders" try to get out of the area for travel, leisure and to escape the cabin fever of the "mud months."
For a variety of reasons one visiting Berkshire Fine Arts may also be interested in what's on TV, in the movies, in books, or on view in New York, Boston and Connecticut museums, galleries and theatres. Particularly during the busy summer months our critics may well widen their scope to music and theatre festivals in lower New England or New York state.
Berskhire Fine Arts strives to represent a diverse sense of lifestyle, rich involvement with the arts and appreciation of a full menu of interests rather than a fixed, regional and possibly provincial location. The Berkshires represent the epicenter for ever expanding circles that both radiate out from as well as resonate back into one of the truly beautiful and lively regions of the American North East. In addition to the great regional museums and cultural institutiosn of the Berkshires, like Mass MoCA, the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Barrington Stage Company, the greatest museums and theatres in America are a short drive away and some of them, such as Tanglewood Music Festival, and Jacob's Pillow, spend their summers in the Berkshires.
So, if you live in the Berkshires, own a second home, or are just passing through, we hope that Berkshire Fine Arts will serve as a useful guide for many and diverse interests.