River Hill Pottery

The now well established and much anticipated annual North Adams Open Studios, to be held this year on the weekend of October 16-17, started modestly in 2005. Initally it started at the Eclipse Mill and has expanded to become a city wide event. There will be an awards ceremony celebrating the event on September 16 at the Eclipse Mill Gallery.

Julie Seitel, a theatrical lighting designer, while working on a show at Williams College began to rethink some of the "practicals" as works of art. She has asked the artists; Richard Harrington, Brian Jewett, Marjorie Minkin and John Powell to join her in a light themed exhibition "Illuminati" which opens at the Eclipse Mill Gallery on July 31.

When Mass MoCA opened a decade ago artists migrated to North Adams attracted by large, cheap loft spaces. For the second season that growing arts community is trying to revitalize the business district through a city wide project known as DownStreet. Artists hope that their commitment and sweat equity will start to pay off.

Julie Seitel, a lighting designer for the Williams College Theatre Department did a fabulous job curating and installing the Second Annual Berkshire Salon. The survey of work by 55 artists launches the season for the North Adams based Eclipse Mill Gallery.

Last year MCLA and the City of North Adams combined to turn vacant downtown stores into the seasonal galleries called Down Street. The programming has been expanded to include 27 museums and galleries. The fun begins on Memorial Day Weekend with the Berkshire Salon at the Eclipse Mill Gallery and the 10th Anniversary Ball at Mass MoCA. Let the games begin.

Over a Beer and Burger we learned a lot about the artist, Phil Sellers, who with his wife Gail runs River Hill Pottery in the Eclipse Mill. This year he is chairing the annual North Adams Open Studios slated for October 17 and 18.

The annual season of exhibitions for the artist run Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams, Mass. has gotten a jump start with "Young at Art" a survey of work produced by Drury, Mt. Greylock, and BArT students. This leadoff project co presented with North Adams Open Studios will be followed by the second annual Berkshire Salon on the Memorial Day weekend.

The Second Annual Berkshire Salon, a non juried invitation for all Berkshire based artists to participate launches the season for the Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams Mass. The 2008 Berkshire Salon was a great success and it is anticipated that even more artists will participate this year.

The beginning of winter is marked by theatre, music and dance throughout the world, but perhaps nowhere is it more heartfelt than here in the Berkshires. This Thanksgiving let us give thanks to our arts community and then get out and enjoy their offerings. Your guide awaits.

A broad range of work by 27 artists is on view in the Eclipse Annual Exhibition. The annual Open Studios event will occur during the run of the show from October 17 through October 19.

The Eclipse Mill in North Adams includes the Eclipse Mill Gallery which has just opened its second show of the season "Off the Wall: Art of the Eclipse in the Third Dimension." There is also the Ralph Brill Gallery which is about to open "Nude & Naked" and River Hill Pottery which is participating in "Off the Wall." Visitors to the gallery also enjoy browsing through books offered by bookseller Grover Askins. There's a lot to take in with one stop on the way to and from Mass MoCA.

Some 47 artists from the Berkshires, New York State, Vermont and Cape Cod are participating in the first annual Berkshire Salon at the Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams.

The 2008 season of the artist run Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams opens on May 23 with an open invitation for regional artists to participate in the Berkshire Salon.