TWT Talk: A Berkshire Tradition

Column reprinted from The Women's Times (Feb ' 09)

When Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez began considering “The Power of Women in the Arts” as the theme for the 2009 International Women’s Day (IWD) Conference at Simon’s Rock, she quickly realized that this was far too rich a topic to try to cover in a single day. “We have an incredible wealth of talented women in the arts in the Berkshires who ought to be recognized and celebrated for the powerhouse force they are,” she says of her desire to create a larger happening.

Similar impulses have spawned women’s arts festivals in the Berkshires before. In 1974, a one-day visual arts show was held at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. “There were about 70 or 80 women artists involved,” organizer Eleanor Lord told TWT in 1994. “We provided snacks and childcare. The kids made this huge, multi-colored tepee kind of structure out of yarn… We had programming going on all day and evening, including a very popular workshop where people could talk about the issues involved in being women artists. It was very small scale, very intimate.”

Twenty years later, Lord and others mounted a three-day event called Celebrate Berkshire Women Artists in the mostly-empty England Brothers Building in Pittsfield, Mass. Concurrently, we devoted most of an entire issue of The Women’s Times to the topic.

In what was then our traditional roundtable discussion cover story, we gathered a group of Berkshire artists to talk about their work. Judaic textile artist Wendy Rabinowitz spoke of her awakening to the feminine in her work after the birth of her daughters. Williams professor and artist Peggy Diggs shared her path to issue-oriented public art, describing the experience that led her to “get out of the gallery and into the streets.” In another story, dancer and choreographer Sandra Burton (another Williams professor) told of being “discovered” as a three-year-old, jumping rope, by a talent scout for a Fred Astaire dance studio. Visual artist Carol Beth Icard described her process of transforming hard-shelled gourds in to pieces of art and its impact on her life: “I started out trying to make a little money so I could nourish my children by staying home with them, and ended up, 20 years later, nourishing myself.”

This spring, the Berkshires will again be home to a celebration of women in the arts. Wrought from Browdy de Hernandez’s impulse, the First Annual Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts is a month-long celebration to be held in March. Presented by The Women’s Times, the festival boasts more than 60 events at 30-plus venues throughout Berkshire County, with offerings of film, exhibits, music, performance, talks and more. Events include diverse programming that ranges from the historical to contemporary, traditional to radical, political to apolitical. Venues run the spectrum from the Berkshires’ most established cultural organizations to new and improvised locations. There are opportunities for festival-goers to examine the role of women in the arts, celebrate the achievements of women artists or simply enjoy a diverse cross-section of artistic work.

Two signature events will anchor the Festival: the Eighth Annual IWD Conference, co-sponsored by Simon’s Rock and Berkshire Women for Women Worldwide. Speakers include Carol Gilligan, Karen Allen, Kristin Jones, Martha Richards and Susan Fisher Sterling, executive director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

When Browdy de Hernandez brought the Festival to The Women’s Times, we began looking at ways to broaden the scope and reach of the celebration. The result: a signature awards event called She’s Got Moxie! to recognize the individual contributions of four honorees (to be an-nounced in early February) and celebrate the power of Berkshire women in the arts. A gala and presentation of awards will be held on March 13 at Shakespeare & Company’s Founders’ Theatre.

Like its predecessors, this festival is the result of much collaboration. From the dozens of artists and cultural venues who responded to the initial call to participate, to the team assembled to produce the festival website, brochure and PR campaign, and the sponsors and advertisers signing up support it, the Festival has already grown larger than the sum of its parts. And what a pleasure to come together as a creative community during such otherwise difficult times! I extend my gratitude to Jenny Browdy de Hernandez for sharing her inspiration.

Please join in the celebration! You’ll find a Festival brochure inserted in this month’s TWT, and I encourage you to visit www.thewomenstimes.com for more details about the various Festival happenings, venues and partners.

Eugenie Sills
Founder and Publisher

Eugenie Sills is the founder and publisher of The Women’s Times. She can be reached at esills@thewomenstimes.com.