African art featured in gala for Northwest Center

LAKEVILLE — CMHA’s Northwest Center for Family Services’ annual benefit always offers something out of the ordinary: a night in the Caribbean, a classic 1950s-style school dance, even last year’s performance of a Gail Sheehy play with the late Jill Clayburgh in one of her last appearances on stage. On June 4, the Northwest Center fundraiser will take guests to Africa at An Evening Under the Stars On Safari, in what Priscilla McCord, who is in charge of events at the center, says will be the largest and most unusual gala yet.Under a huge tent — the largest she has ever had to rent, according to McCord — African crafts, textiles and sculptures from New York City’s Hemmingway Gallery will be displayed amid flowers from Kamilla Najdek (of Kamilla’s Floral Boutique, on Main Street in Millerton), who will feature the proteus (national flower of South Africa) and tall savanna grasses from Old Farm Nursery in Salisbury. Brian Gaisford, owner of Hemmingway Gallery, is both a businessman and a philanthropist. He organizes photography safaris to animal parks and sanctuaries, funds a school in Zululand and imports and sells art and sculpture from the Shona people of Zimbabwe, the latest African art to enter museums and private collections in the United States. All the work he brings will be for sale in a “duty free” shop and again on Sunday in a first-ever follow-up estate sale. Forty percent of Gaisford’s proceeds will go to the Northwest Center, because Gaisford thinks it’s “a terrific cause.”The gala will be held at John and Lisa Steinmetz’s Black Flag Farm on Dugway Road in Salisbury. Tim Cocheo of Number 9 Restaurant in Millerton will offer a menu of masala-encrusted beef, fish wrapped in banana leaves and chakala salad, a spicy South African dish. Salisbury Wines will furnish liquor and wine.Of course there will be a live auction, with top items including a Hemmingway safari, some African art, even a stay in a house in the south of France. And there will be dancing, with music from Swamp Yankee, the band led by Darren Winston when he’s not selling rare books at his eponymous shop in Sharon.On Safari will be at the Steinmetz’s Black Flag Farm on Saturday, June 4, at 6 p.m. Tickets are $150 per person. McCord says more than 225 have already been sold. Call her at 860 435-2529, ext. 114, to reserve. Event and auction updates are at www.cmhacc.org.Community Mental Health Affiliates owns and operates the Northwest Center for Family Services, which has offices in Winsted and Lakeville. The Lakeville office just completed a move from its longtime office at 315 Main St. (Route 41/44) to a new location just down the road, at 350 Main St. (Route 41/44).

Latest News

Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

Keep ReadingShow less
Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

Keep ReadingShow less