Posters and Fliers and Site Maps — Oh, My!

It’s a good thing I enjoy playing with pixels as well as word balloons or I’d be fleeing for the hills in search of serenity right now. (And the nice thing about living in the Berkshires is that those hills are so very near and so very pretty that fleeing to them tends to shed any ambience of unpleasant psychic desperation.)

No hills for Howie, though. There have been fliers, posters, receptiuon invitations, and an incredibly complicated map to compose, the latter item showing where the event’s more than 85 participating artists are going to be showing off their brainchildren next Saturday and Sunday.

Yes, North Adams Open Studios, the annual citywide arts event that I warned you in an earlier blog entry was preparing to roll into north Berkshire county like morning fog into San Francisco Bay, is now but a week away.

Hopefully the word is getting out, because what’s the point of turning Greater North Adams into one long string of artists’ studios on October 13 and 14 unless lots of art-lovers, artist-lovers, and general partiers show up to help keep things lively. The town will be providing free rides thither and yon on its historic trolley, so you’ll only have to park your car once.

To quote the event’s press release, "artists at three historic mills, Eclipse, Beaver, and Windsor, will throw open their studios to welcome local visitors and tourists from throughout the Northeast. In addition, five storefronts on Main Street, Eagle, and Holden will be transformed into galleries, complementing the existing Gallery 51, a special Gallery 51 Annex, Papyri Books, Cup & Saucer, the Flatiron Art Space, North Adams Antiques, Widgets, Kronick Art Studio, and the Chapel for Humanity."

Things will be hopping at nearby Heritage Park, too, where artists will be showing at Northern Berkshire Creative Arts and the North Adams Historical Society. Wanna see costumed historical characters talking about history and the arts? Say no more; the historical society will be ready to oblige. To paraphrase the boast frequently offered by the young Ricky Nelson on the Ozzie and Harriet TV show of my childhood: We don’t fool around, man!

Some extra side events will be adding to the fun at the Beaver and Eclipse mills, like drumming, a children’s drawing wall, a printmaking demonstration, and an ongoing reading by local fiction writers.

And as an extra bonus, you can pick up a free pass to the town’s cultural crown jewel MASS MoCA at any of the Open Studios locations all weekend.