tagged: Art, ArtBerkshires, Event, Ferrin Gallery, Gallery, North Street, Pittsfield, Press Release, Sienna Gallery

20/21: Modern Style and/+ Studio Craft launches on August 5

Posted by Kaitlyn in Arts & Culture, Events

The first in a series of exhibits and programs organized by ArtBerkshires linking
Mid-Century Modernism to Contemporary Art and Design through programs held
at galleries, museums and cultural venues from August – October in the Berkshires

ArtBerkshires is collaborative series of events and exhibits connecting
contemporary art and design in the Berkshires initiated by Leslie Ferrin, Ferrin
Gallery, Pittsfield and Sienna Patti, Sienna Gallery, Lenox.

ArtBerkshires kicks off this weekend with a pilot program, 20/21 Modern Style
and Studio Craft, focused on modernism in art and design in the Berkshires
from the mid-20th century to the present. This initial project is a collaboration
between galleries and museums, consisting of a series of exhibits and events
taking place August through October. The project’s launch weekend, August 5
through 8, includes tours, talks and receptions in Lenox, Stockbridge, and
Pittsfield. Among the talks are conversations with curators Jane Adlin of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Sarah Archer, director of Greenwhich House
Pottery, NYC and guest curator of 20/21 Modern Style and Studio Craft at The
Barn Gallery at Stonover Farm; Mark McDonald, a leading expert in modernism
and dealer of mid-century objects based in Hudson, NY; author and artist Mark
Shapiro of Worthington, MA; and ceramicist Ani Kasten, Takoma Park, MD.

The weekend’s itinerary includes private tours of Berkshire Museum andFrelinghuysen Morris House and Studio that highlight historic connections of modernism in the Berkshires.

“With ArtBerkshires, we are pleased to present a combination of venues and programs that focus attention on contemporary visual arts in the Berkshires,” says Leslie Ferrin, founder and co-owner of Ferrin Gallery. “We have fantastic museums, public collections, and a lively community of working artists in this area. We chose 20/21 Modern Style and Studio Craft as our first joint project to bring awareness to the continuity of modernist design from the 1950s to the present, and to demonstrate how it is reflected in artwork being produced and collected today. The artwork by the artists presented as part of this project is connected in some way to the fifties; sometimes that line is direct, as in period objects by artists whose lives spanned that time period, Tom Patti, Karen Karnes and Wendell Castle. In other cases, contemporary artists such as Mark Shapiro and Ani Kasten are working in modern style by drawing inspiration from that time period. It’s our expectation that this project will make it easier to understand the connections and explore the role of the Berkshires in the modernist movement and how that connects to the artists working within therealm of studio craft.”

Berkshire Museum played a pivotal role in American modernism, explains
Stuart Chase, the Museum’s executive director, “Berkshire Museum was
founded in 1903 by Zenas Crane, who, throughout our first decade, donated
many rare artifacts and artworks that formed the basis of our permanent
collections of natural history and fine art,” says Chase. “Another key era was the
1930s, when the Museum became the first public institution to purchase work by
Alexander Calder in 1933, and the first to commission public work by Calder in
1936. In 1937, artist and collector Albert Eugene Gallatin donated five important
abstract works to the Museum, before donating 15 more in 1943. These holdings
made the Museum a major player in American Modernism.” Visitors can see
Berkshire Museum’s Calder collections on their own, but on August 7, the
Museum’s Director of Interpretation, Maria Mingalone, will personally lead a tour
of the Museum’s storage vaults, focusing on the A.E. Gallatin holdings and other
modernist works from the collection not currently on view in the galleries.
The Frelinghuysen Morris House, another participant in the 20/21 Modern
Style + Studio Craft launch weekend, is a masterpiece of modernist architecture.
The house and studio of abstract artists George L.K. Morris and Suzy
Frelinghuysen, the house is filled with art and objects by these artists and their
peers from that era. Mark McDonald will lead a private tour of and conversation
about the house and its furnishings with Kinney Frelinghuysen, director of the
house and programs, a painter and the nephew of Suzy Frelinghuysen, on
Sunday, August 8th at 11:30. McDonald, a noted expert and dealer of objects
from this period also lent period jewelry and furniture to exhibits at Sienna
Gallery and The Barn Gallery at Stonover Farm, where a domestic vignette of
vintage objects from the 1950s and ’60s arrayed with contemporary art, has been
staged in a repurposed barn. This bohemian scene evokes the Berkshires’ long
legacy as a haven for artists and arts enthusiasts. Guest curator Sarah Archer
will discuss the Barn Gallery installation during a conversational brunch at
Stonover Farm on Saturday, August 7.

20/21 Modern Style + Studio Craft kicks off on Thursday, August 5 at 7 p.m.,
with a conversation with Mark Shapiro at Ferrin Gallery, continuing Friday,
August 6 with an opening reception at The Barn Gallery at 5 p.m. Following is a
complete list of launch weekend events, which can also be found at
www.artberkshires.com
The Berkshires, the western-most county of Massachusetts, is a primarily rural
region adjacent to Connecticut, Vermont, and upstate New York. The area is
known for cultural attractions such as Tanglewood, Jacob’s Pillow, MASS MoCA,
and The Clark Art Institute. Equidistant from metropolitan NYC and Boston, it is
home to a lively cultural community of producing artists and designers working in
all media.
For more information on ArtBerkshires and to RSVP in events related to 20/21
Modern Style and Studio Craft go to contact at ArtBerkshires.com or
artberkshires@gmail.com. For phone inquiries contact Leslie Ferrin
413.442.1622 or Sienna Patti 413.637.8386.
AUGUST 5-8 OPENING WEEKEND
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Private Press Launch Opening
Wednesday, August 4
5:30 – 7:30 pm Modern Martini
Sienna Gallery, Lenox, MA
Sponsored by Berkshire Mountain Distillers and Rural Intelligence

Thursday, August 5
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Conversation and Reception:
Mark Shapiro, artist and writer
Bottles and Other Muses – solo show of ceramics
Author and editor of “Karen Karnes, A Chosen Path”
Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA

Friday, August 6
5:00 -7:00 pm
Opening Reception:
20/21 Modern Style and Studio Craft – group show of art + object + design.
The Barn Gallery at Stonover Farm, Lenox, MA

Saturday, August 7
10:00 – 12:00 pm
Conversation and Brunch:
Sarah Archer, Guest curator and Director of Greenwich House Pottery
The Barn Gallery at Stonover Farm, Lenox, MA
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Conversation and Tour:
Maria Mingalone, Director of Interpretation followed by tour of collection storage.
Modernism in the Berkshires – Alexander Calder, A. E. Gallatin and Berkshire
Museum
Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
4:00 – 6:00 pm
Conversation and Reception:
Sarah Archer: Modern Style in American Studio Ceramics – Karen Karnes to
Jonathan Adler 1950 – 2010.
Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA

Sunday, August 8
10:00 – 11:15 am
Conversation and Brunch:
Jane Adlin, Associate Curator of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and
Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Jewelry of Alexander
Calder.
Sienna Gallery, Lenox, MA
11:30 – 12:30 pm
Conversation and Tour:
Mark McDonald and Kinney Frelinghuysen at the Frelinghuysen Morris
House, Lenox, MA.
2:00 – 4:00
Conversation and Reception:
Ani Kasten – Contemporary Ceramics
Presented by Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA at Kasten Fine Art, Stockbridge, MA

LOCATIONS:

Ferrin Gallery
437 North Street
Pittsfield, MA 01201
413.442.1622
info@FerrinGallery.com

Sienna Gallery
80 Main Street
Lenox, MA 01240 USA
413 637 8386
info@siennagallery.com

The Barn Gallery at Stonover Farm
169 Under Mountain Road
Lenox, MA
413-637-3344
barngallery@stonoverfarm.com

Kasten Fine Art
17 Willard Hill Rd.
Stockbridge, MA 01262
978-369-0278

Berkshire Museum
39 South Street
Pittsfield, MA 01201
(413) 443-7171

Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio
92 Hawthorne St.
Lenox, MA 01240
413.637.0166
info@frelinghuysen.org