capture of Fort Ticonderoga, the first military action of the Revolutionary War.
BIDWELL HOUSE MUSEUM 100 Art School Rd., Monterey bidwellhousemuseum. org 413-528-6888
Built in 1760 by the Reverend Adonijah Bidwell, the house has been restored to its original appearance and is open for guided tours Memorial Day to the end of October. Programs include Sandy Spector’ s Portrayal of Martha Washington on May 17, and talks about traditional trades in the 18th and early 19th centuries, including architecture and masonry. There are also talks about tavern life and The Battle of Lewisburg, in which Bidwell fought. Their big annual event is the Living History Revolutionary War Reenactment from October 3 to 5, which connects to America’ s 250th birthday in 2026.
CHESTERWOOD 4 Williamsville Rd., Stockbridge chesterwood. org 413-298-2023
A National Historic Site, Chesterwood was the summer home, studio, and gardens of America’ s most distinguished sculptor of public monuments, Daniel Chester French. Open for the season in May, Chesterwood offers daily tours and multimedia exhibits in stunning surroundings. On display are numerous sculptures, including models of his most famous works, with his creation of the seated figure of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial being a particularly noteworthy piece on view.
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Chesterwood’ s Collection, May 14 to October 31, including pieces that have been mostly in storage for half a century, will be on view on the second floor of the French family residence. Through sculptures, photographs, paintings, and furniture, the exhibition explores French’ s wife, Mary Adams French, who played a key role in supporting French’ s career; his daughter, Margaret French Cresson, who sculpted alongside her father; and the achievements of French’ s only female studio assistant, Evelyn Beatrice Longman. Global Warming / Global Warning, June 7 to October 31, is a contemporary sculpture show set within the property’ s natural landscape and ancient forest and curated by historic preservation architect Michael F. Lynch. The exhibit includes the work of regional artists whose works engage directly with the environment and raise issues around climate: Harold Grinspoon, Kathleen Jacobs, Ann Jon, and Natalie Tyler. Ann Jon: A Life in Sculpture, August 3 to October 31. This local sculptor, international exhibitor, and founder of Sculpture Now— an outdoor contemporary sculpture exhibition in the Berkshires that was held from 1998 to 2023— will exhibit a retrospective of her work, showcasing nature-themed sculptures and models. Arts Alive! Tanglewood Music Center Fellows, July 23. Berkshire Pulse, August 15 this year includes choreographer / poet Ian Spencer Bell recreating the dances of Isadora Duncan, June 20; students from Close Encounters with Music’ s High Peaks Festival, July 27; Sherman Chamber Players, August 2; and Tableaux Vivants, August 8.
Words Alive! presents Patricia Hoerth Batchelder( Evelyn Beatrice Longman: The Woman Who Sculpted Thomas Edison, Golden Boy, and other Monuments), June 11; Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer( Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French), August 6; poetry readings with Jessica Jacobs and Owen Lewis, August 21; and Voices of Poetry, September 13. Mark Shapiro, Music and the Brain, August 14. Poetry Reading, July 9.
The Bel Canto Duo from Nebraska is in residence in July to create a musical composition about French. W. E. B. Du Bois statue sculptor Richard Blake gives a talk on July 18, the eve of the Du Bois sculpture’ s unveiling( July 19) at the Mason Library in Great Barrington. On the afternoon of July 20, Chesterwood hosts a panel discussion about the role of public sculpture with Blake and others involved in the W. E. B. Du Bois Sculpture Project.
CLARK ART INSTITUTE 225 South St., Williamstown clarkart. edu 413-458-2303
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is an art museum and research institution whose collection of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, and decorative art ranges from the 14th to the early 20th century. It’ s set on a sweepingly gorgeous 140 acres designed to enhance your visit. The Clark’ s masterful permanent installations are punctuated by seasonal shows that showcase a range of art forms, both multidisciplinary and single-minded, and give us reason to visit again and again.
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Paginations— Bold by Design: Mid-Century Modern Graphic Art, May 20 to September 21, is part of a series of year-round public installations in the Manton Research Center. A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875 – 1945, June 14 to September 15, is in the Clark Center lower level. In A Room of One’ s Own, Virginia Woolf argued that women need their own physical space, and sufficient income, to write fiction. This exhibition explores the spaces women claimed as their own— rooms, homes, studios, art schools, clubs, and public exhibition venues— which furthered their artistic ambitions. Ground / work 2025, June 28 to October 12, 2026, continues what began in 2020, year-long exhibitions of monumental sculpture situated in the landscape surrounding the museum. Ground / work 2025 features works by six artists that focus on global conceptions of craft— the physical process by which artists transform the world around them. Berenice Abbott’ s Modern Lens, July 12 to October 5, in the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery for Works on Paper, Manton Research Center, celebrates Abbott’ s pioneering documentary style, unpretentious compositions, and technical innovations and the 100-year anniversary of her first photographs. Modern Lens examines the relationship between her portraits of people and her“ portraits” of places.( See story on page 76.) Isamu Noguchi: Landscapes of Time, July 19 to October 13, in the Michael Conforti Pavilion, Clark Center, is a non-chronological survey of acclaimed Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi’ s work across media, presenting some of his most compelling engagements with time. In 1972, he said,“ You know one shifts— I do— backwards and forwards. Sometimes, I think I’ m part of this world today. Sometimes I feel that maybe I belong in history or in prehistory, or that there’ s no such thing as time.”
CONTINUING:
Mariel Capanna: Giornata, through January 2026, in the Clark Center and Manton Research Center. Philadelphia-based Mariel Capanna plays what she calls“ games of remembering” as a way of reckoning with loss, presenting two new, site-specific oil paintings
70 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE May / June 2025