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Our
Mission
To
preserve
our historic building
and provide cultural
and educational
programs
for
our community.
Sandisfield Arts Center
5 Hammertown Road
PO Box 31
Sandisfield, MA 01255
413-258-4100
sandisfieldartscenter.org
Our programs are supported,
in part, by grants from
the Monterey Cultural Council,
the New Marlborough Cultural
Council,
the Otis Cultural Council, and
the
Sandisfield Cultural Council,
all local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts
Cultural Council,
a state agency.
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 Saturday, April 26 8pm in the SAC PERFORMANCE HALL
Skip Parsons’
Riverboat Jazz Band
Tickets: $20
Skip Parsons plays clarinet and leads the Riverboat Jazz Band, a group of talented musicians that includes: Woody Strobeck on trombone; Tim Coakley on drums; Ernie Belanger on tuba and bass; Ed Kebebjian on banjo and guitar; Richard Downs on cornet and bass; and Rich Skrika on piano.This lively gathering of polished jazz enthusiasts has been around in one form or another since 1956, traveling the college and nightclub circuit and performing on cruise ships. The band has appeared at Newport at Saratoga, Ottawa International, Syracuse Bix Bash, and during recent summers Skip has featured his Clarinet Marmalade Trio aboard all ships of the American Canadian Caribbean Cruise Lines.Skip Parsons and the Riverboat Jazz Band stay on the road with a busy schedule of parks, gazebos, festivals and jazz venues throughout the northeast. Join us for a terrific evening of rousing music! |
 
In the Gallery from April 26th thru June 7th in the SAC CAFE
Hillary Carl of Tolland, and Jennifer Surprise of Westfield. Click here for details. Gallery is open before, during and after performances.
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 Workshops for Teens and Adults
Morning Yoga with Lauren Paul
Ongoing: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 8:00-9:00am
Location: Contact Lauren at 413-258-4296.
Monthly fee is $120, individual classes are $15.
Lauren’s yoga classes encourage mobility, balance, strength, focus, flexibility and fun! All levels of experience are welcome. Lauren is a licensed acupuncturist and certified shiatsu therapist with a background in dance. Join Lauren’s class to take a positive step toward insuring your health and well-being.
Photo by Richard Migot |
 Saturday, May 10 8pm in the SAC PERFORMANCE HALL
Judith Davidoff and the Consort of Viols
Tickets: $20
This 4-member ensemble, led by the artistic director Judith Davidoff, was founded in 1972. The consort holds periodic workshops, outreach programs and other activities such as the creation, in 2005, of the Boychoir Viol Consort at Manhattan’s “Little Church Around the Corner,” where the New York Consort of Viols is in residence. The program follows the viol from its first appearance in Renaissance Spain through its travels to Italy, France and the court of Henry VIII. Since its eclipse by the violin family in the 19th century, it has reappeared. New music is being composed for the viol and its earlier repertoire is being brought back to life. Informative and entertaining readings will be provided by Benjamin Luxon. |
Workshops for Teens and Adults
Introduction to bead stringing and jewelry design
with Paula Kohler
Saturday, May 17th 1-4PM at SAC
Cost: Free to Sandisfield and Otis Residents, all other participants - $15 for materials. For reservations call 413-429-6627 or paulabellabeads@msn.com.
Paula Kohler, a glass bead maker and beaded jewelry designer will guide participants in designing and stringing their own beaded necklace, bracelet or anklet to take home. All materials will be provided. Materials used will be beadalon wire, glass seed beads, spacers, clasps, and tools. Handmade glass focal beads and pendants will also be available for sale. Participants may also bring a favorite pendant or beads to incorporate into their art piece. Maximum of 25 participants. Children 10 and older welcome when accompanied by an adult. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Otis and Sandisfield Cultural Councils. |
 Saturday, May 24 8pm in the SAC PERFORMANCE HALL
Bharata Natyam South Indian Classical Dance
Tickets: $20
Please join Lauren Paul, dance, B. Balasubrahmaniyan, voice, David Nelson, mridangam (drum) and Garrett Field, electric mandolin for a concert of Bharata Natyam, an evening of music and dance from South India. Steeped in the Tanjore family tradition of Balasaraswati, Viswanathan and Ranganathan this band hails from Wesleyan University where its members teach, have taught or are currently studying.
Photo by Richard Migot |
 Saturday, June 7 8pm in the SAC CAFE
An Evening with the Bard
Tickets $20
William Shakespeare - the most famous writer in the world’s literary history - what do we REALLY know about him? The man & his times illustrated by monologues and speeches from his plays was devised and is acted by Ben Luxon. Luxon was one of Britain’s major international singers, performing at most of the world’s major opera houses and with the leading symphony orchestras. He was an extremely versatile artist whose thirty year career covered just about all styles and periods of vocal music. In the early 90’s his career came to an end due to severe hearing loss and in his “retirement” he has turned his attention to the spoken word. Along with his poetry readings he has, in the last year, performed King Lear with Walking the Dog Theater Company of Hudson, NY, in their Winter Festival of Youth series, and as the Ghost and the Grave Digger in their widely acclaimed production of Hamlet.
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 Saturday, June 21 at SAC 10-12am
Alexander Technique with Betsy Polatin
Cost: $25
For reservations call either 617- 277- 2224 or 413- 258-2820 or email bpolatin1@aol.com.
Betsy Polatin teaches the Alexander Technique, a unique gentle hands-on approach to body movement, at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. Her background includes thirty-five years of movement education and performance as well as training in yoga, meditation and the healing arts. Betsy has taught all over the United States and in India, Japan and Korea. The Alexander Technique teaches us to become aware of the excess tensions and patterns of daily life that we scarcely even recognize, and reorganize ourselves to understand our true nature and potential. |
 Saturday, June 21 in the SAC PERFORMANCE HALL
6pm - Ice Cream Social
7pm - Performance
Castle Street Theater
presents JACK AND THE BEANSTALK
Admission $10 per person. Children 14 & under are admitted free. Adults with children half price ($5). Ice Cream Cones $3.
A Fun Evening for the Entire Family!
(the young, the old and the in-between) This well-known, age-old fairy tale, is presented by Castle Hill Theatre Company in an entirely new and distinctive way. In this presentation, the Giant is allowed to make his own case and tell HIS side of the story. Funny, thrilling and theatrically imaginative, it’s “Jack and the Beanstalk” as you have never seen it before.
Photo by Peggy Reeves
This performance will be
in memory of Joyce Campetti,
one of our early and most loyal supporters.
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In the Gallery June 21: The Farmington River Elementary School Students in the Art and Literacy project will create visual images of Jack and the Beanstalk.
This image was drawn by Farmington River Elementary School student, Ariana Saporito, Grade 2. |
Saturday, June 28 8pm in the SAC PERFORMANCE HALL
Klezmer - Sruli and Lisa
Tickets: $20
Sruli and Lisa play the clarinet, violin, accordion, base recorder, cello and drum, and perform and teach Klezmer and Hasidic music and dance all over the country. They have been described as two people who sound like a whole orchestra and have performed with Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. They have a busy schedule performing in synagogues, schools and at weddings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and in downtown clubs in New York City. Sruli and Lisa Klezmer for Kids concerts are famous from coast to coast, and were created especially for the next generation of Klezmorim. |
In the Gallery From June 28 through July 26,
Samuel Clarke of East Hartland, CT
Click here for details. Gallery is open before, during and after performances. |
FORUM SERIES
ON AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE RETURNS!
Saturdays 10:30 – Noon
July 12, 19, 26, and August 2 in the SAC CAFE
$5 admission
The Impact of Culture on Presidential Election Outcomes
from 1948 to the Present. The Sandisfield Arts Center’s 2008 Forum Series will focus on the impact of culture on presidential election outcomes from 1948 to the present. We will examine various aspects of culture in the second half of the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first that informed and guided voters to make electoral decisions that affected their economic and civic interests over time.
Saturday, July 12
CULTURE AND THE WINNERS AND LOSERS
Bill Cohn, a Sandisfield resident and SAC Board Member, will explain those aspects of American culture that contributed to the victories and defeats of presidential candidates from Truman-Dewey in 1948 to Bush-Gore in 2004. |
Saturday, July 12 8pm in the SAC CAFE
Bernice Lewis and Bobby Sweet
Tickets: $15
 Listening to Bobby Sweet and Bernice Lewis perform together is a real treat. Bobby Sweet is a sixth generation musician from Becket, MA, a small Berkshire community where the loves and lives of those around him continually provide the wellspring for new songs.
Bobby’s guitar and vocal work have been featured on albums with other musicians including Arlo Guthrie as well as four CDs of his own.
 Of Bernice Lewis it has been said that she elevates the experiences of everyday life to an art form.Bernice has more than earned her stellar reputation as a songwriter’s songwriter. A fixture on the coffeehouse circuit, contemporary folk radio, and at major festivals, Bernice has shared the stage with such renowned artists as Pete Seeger and the Dixie Chicks. Bernice lives in Williamstown, MA, and teaches at Williams College.
Bernice Lewis Photo by Elaine Criscione
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FORUM SERIES
ON AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
Saturday, July 19 10:30 – Noon in the SAC CAFE
$5 admission
BLACK AMERICANS AND THE FRANCHISE
Val Coleman, also a Sandisfield resident and SAC Board Member, will discuss the evolution of Black voting rights from the post Civil War era to the present , noting the changes in the American experience that tended to inhibit or enhance Black participation in electoral politics as well as in American culture and society. |
FORUM SERIES
ON AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
Saturday, July 26 10:30 – Noon in the SAC CAFE
$5 admission
FROM GETTING THE VOTE TO GETTING VOTES: A WOMAN AS PRESIDENT?
Audrey Manring, Editor of “The Women’s Times” and a resident of Great Barrington, will talk about changes in American culture that have made it possible for a woman to emerge as a viable presidential candidate in 2008—and the cultural hurdles that remain. |
 Saturday, July 26 8pm in the SAC CAFE
Joel Brown
Tickets $20
Classical Guitarist Joel Brown returns to the Sandisfield Arts Center for another delightful evening. Brown’s eclectic career has taken him to England to record with the London Symphony, to Carnegie Hall with soprano Dawn Upshaw, and to recital performances with Frederika von Stade. He has appeared at New York’s Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Tanglewood Festival, the Chamber Music Festival at Saratoga, Music in the Mountains in British Columbia and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. He’s best known to Sandisfield audiences as a long time collaborator with Bill Crofut.
Photo by Richard Migot |
FORUM SERIES
ON AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
Saturday, August 2 10:30 – Noon in the SAC CAFE
$5 admission
TIME TO CAST YOUR BALLOT
At our concluding session we will ask the audience to talk about who they’re voting for and to trace the history of their vote beyond the individual personality of the candidate they intend to support. |
 Saturday, August 16 8pm in the SAC CAFE
Bottom of the Bucket
Tickets: $10
Monterey-based Bottom of the Bucket combines Traditional Irish, Old Time, New England and French Canadian music with their own eclectic, original sound. Coming from very different musical backgrounds, the band’s members, Eric Martin, Stephen Enoch and Daniel Garrigan-Byerly met while working at Gould Farm when they joined the fiddle, guitar, djembe and mandolin to create their unique and expanding repertoire. The addition of viola, banjo, bouzouki, penny whistle, feet and hand percussions has given the group an interesting sound for both concerts and contra dances. The band has taken the stage at Club Helsinki, The Lion’s Den, the Buhrmaster Barn Dance, the annual Dance Flurry, the Eighth Step Dance in Albany and countless living rooms and porches. For the past few years, they have kept dancers moving at the Lenox Contra Dance Series. |
In the Gallery
From August 16 through September 20 in the SAC CAFE
Lucinda Tavernise of Granville, MA
Click here for details. Gallery is open before, during and after performances.
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 Saturday, August 23 8pm in the SAC CAFE
Common Thread
Tickets $10
COMMON THREAD is a new trio of musicians from Monterey who love to sing (three part harmony is their specialty) and play traditional and contemporary folk music. Guitar, fiddle, and voice meld into a uniquely warm and captivating sound. John Sellew has been entertaining audiences for many years playing with contra dance bands, performing solo, and collaborating with other folk musicians in the Berkshires. Jamie Vlcek has also been on the local music scene for a long time. She was an original member of the Berkshire Bach Society, a partner in the duo “Eclectic Folk” and one of the “The Sweet Sisters of Mercy” with Vicki True. Eric Martin, a classically trained violinist, violist, and vocalist, is a member of the contra dance bands Bottom of the Bucket and The Flying Garbanzos as well as a backup musician for various singer songwriters. |
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Saturday, September 13 8pm in the SAC PERFORMANCE HALL
The Arron Chamber Ensemble
Tickets: $20
This performance is a benefit for the Bill Crofut Arts Fund for Children.An accomplished array of international musicians, the Arron Chamber Ensemble contains an ensemble of artists whose dedication to the chamber music repertoire is unquestionable. From the stages of Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, the Arron Chamber Ensemble brings world-class music making to Sandisfield.
Members include:
Abraham Appleman, Violin
Aaron Boyd, Violin
Ronald Arron, Viola
Edward Arron, Cello
Jeewon Park, Piano
The evening’s program lists:
Dvorak: Miniatures opus 75a for Two Violins and Viola
Viola Mozart: Piano Concerto in A Major with String Quartet K 414
Schumann: Quintet for piano, Two Violins, Viola and Cello opus 44.
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Saturday, September 20 8pm in the SAC CAFE
Poetry Reading – The Church Hill Poets
Admission: Contributions are most welcome
The Church Hill Poets are a group of friends living in the hills north of Sandisfield who meet regularly to share and critique each other’s work. All have published and they have read together as a group on numerous occasions. Come and hear an evening of imagery and thoughts, both personal and objective, created by the mix of people that could well be your own neighbors. Members of the Church Hill Poets are Colin Harrington, Wil Hastings, Patty Kimura, Mary Koncel, Antonia Lake, Stephen Philbrick and Dennis Pollock, some of whom will be with us tonight. The poets bring their poems as gifts to our audience. A contribution to the Sandisfield Arts Center would be welcome. |
 Saturday, September 27 8pm in the SAC PERFORMANCE HALL
Quintessential
Tickets $20
Quintessential is an outstanding quintet of male a cappela voices: Al Thorp, Jay Wise and Jim McMenamy are the tenors and John Minor and David Anderegg sing bass and baritone. All are former members of the Berkshire Bach Society Singers. These veteran performers have appeared with the Stockbridge Festival Chorus, the Earth Angels, the Berkshire Concert Choir, the Berkshire Opera and the Shaker Mountain Festival as well as in other venues in the area. The group has sung gospel and blues at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, barbershop favorites at classic baseball games at Wahconah Park and the national anthem for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. In 2005 Quintessential premiered its original song “Feel the Love (and Turn off your Cell Phones)” at the Berkshire Fringe Festival and later that year they performed the world premiere of the Christmas-themed all-a-capella opera, “What Owls Do” featuring original libretto and music by the quintet’s own David Anderegg. Quintessential sings in the widest possible variety of musical styles. Their current repertoire includes gospel, reggae, classical, barbershop, American standards, classic rock and funk as well as original liturgical and popular music. Quintessential promises that “If it moves. . .we sing it!” |
In the Gallery From September 27 through October 11
Presenting works from participants in Community Access to the Arts (CATA). “I AM a Part OF ART” features works created in CATA visual arts workshops for people with developmental disabilities. Gallery is open before, during and after performances.
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 Saturday, October 11 8pm in the SAC PERFORMANCE HALL
Simon Winchester
Tickets: $20
SIMON WINCHESTER, author, journalist and broadcaster, has worked as a foreign correspondent for most of his career, writing mainly for “The Guardian” and the “New York Sunday Times”. His recent work is principally as an author and among the several best selling works to his credit is The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, soon to be made into a major film by the distinguished French director Luc Besson.Winchester is currently working on the remarkable story of Joseph Needham, the eccentric and adventurous English scientist who fell in love with China and whose own work there unveils the answer to the puzzle of why China, which has enjoyed 5,000 years of continuous civilization that includes a long history of inventiveness, failed to undergo an industrial revolution, and instead spent so many years mired in poverty and racked by instability and revolution. Needham’s love affair with China that transformed him into the greatest China scholar of all time will be the subject of Simon Winchester’s presentation.
While Winchester often travels around the world, he resides in New York City and Sandisfield.
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BOX OFFICE
CALL 413-258-4100 OR CLICK HERE TO EMAIL REQUEST.
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Generally, tickets for events at the Sandisfield Arts Center may be purchased at the door on the night of the performance, however RESERVATIONS ARE STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.
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Please note that while reservations will guarantee you a seat -
seats are not actually assigned.
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Children 12 and under are admitted FREE, unless otherwise noted.
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DIRECTIONS TO THE SANDISFIELD ARTS CENTER
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The historic Sandisfield Arts Center building is located at 5 Hammertown Road off Route 57 in Sandisfield, Massachusetts. A small town noted for its scenic beauty and historic homes, Sandisfield is approximately 25 minutes east of Gt. Barrington, MA, north of Winsted, CT, and south of Becket, MA.
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From Great Barrington, take Route 23 East to 57 East. Signs will guide you to the Arts Center which is approximately 1.5 miles past the Sandisfield Fire House. There is a sharp left turn on 57. The Arts Center is the third left down the hill after this turn, and it will be the first building on your left.
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From Otis, take Route 8 south to the junction of 8 and 57. Take a right onto 57W and go for about 3 miles. The Arts Center will be on your right.
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