
The nave of the Grand Palais after restoration, 2012. Photo © 2015, Rmn-GP-Grand Palais201
It’s not like most of us have the opportunity to visit all the great museums even without COVID-19. But it is possible these days to get a “next best thing” tour of world culture thanks to the internet.
Let me be clear at this point that I’m not a great art connoisseur and have not been to most of the world’s great museums (yet). But I would like to learn more, and as the new year begins I feel a bit of an urge to learn and see new things; while the online museum experience has a lot of flaws, it also is better than sitting around the house watching cat videos on YouTube.
Let’s begin by saying frankly that most museum virtual tours are disappointing, for many reasons. Generally the art works are all presented as being the same size, so that a wall-size painting such as Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” (at the Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu) looks the same size online as “Maternal Caress” by Mary Cassatt, which is about 10.5 by 4.5 inches.
Many museums offer virtual “walking tours” and Google street view visits to museum galleries, but they’re usually poorly lit, distorted and nausea-inducing if the camera pans around too quickly.
You are also unable to access many virtual tours unless you download Adobe Flash, which I have had some bad experiences with and won’t allow on my computer.
Google tries very hard to put its fingerprint on most of the world’s museums and cultural heritage sites through its Google Arts and Culture website. There you can find links to many museums and lots of activities, most of which are geared to young people. There are games and puzzles, and there are short videos of indie pop culture icons such as Grimes and Fiest talking about famous works of art, modern and ancient.
Most of it I found uninteresting or overwhelming but there are some glimmers of excellence. The one I liked best and that I’ll recommend to you here is a tour of the Grand Palais in Paris. If you go to the actual museum website, you just get the usual short teasers about their current shows.
But if you go to the Google Arts and Culture page on the Grand Palais, you get interesting history and photos of the creation of the building —which combines sculpture and classical architecture and a glass dome and an outdoor colonnade — for the Universal Exposition of 1900.
The photos and the history (in English) are clear and easy to absorb. For World War history buffs, there is an entire text and photo section on the conversion of the space (which is huge, on the scale of Grand Central Station) into a hospital for wounded soldiers.
There are four “views”of the exterior of the building, including a view of Paris from the roof. Unlike the dizzying videos in which a camera pans around a site, here you click on arrows that bring your progressively closer to whatever details you’d like to focus on.
And of course there are photos and short explanations of the photos and paintings in the museum’s collection.
No doubt there are many other excellent tours of art and architecture on the internet.
But in a three-hour search of the internet this morning, the website for the Grand Palais was the one I felt most like recommending. It was a nice mix of architecture and art; and it was a virtual journey to Paris, which is a city I’d like to visit if I had the time and money and there wasn’t a worldwide pandemic.
To visit the Google Arts and Culture tour of RMN-Grand Palais online, go to https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/rmn-grand-palais.
In case you’re wondering, RMN stands for Réunion des musées nationaux.
HVRHS sophomore Wyatt Bayer will suit up for the Mountaineers' varsity baseball team.
FALLS VILLAGE — With the arrival of warm weather, so too comes a new season of athletics at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
The Mountaineers will field teams in five different sports for the spring season: baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis and track and field.
Baseball gets the varsity season started with a scrimmage March 31 at home against Wolcott Technical High School. The Mountaineers will be coached by Bobby Chatfield this year. The last time most HVRHS varsity players took to the diamond was in August 2024 when Housy Juniors won the Babe Ruth League District 4 Northwest Connecticut summer baseball championship.
With a surplus of baseball players this year, junior varsity baseball returns to HVRHS. The JV boys, coached by Russell Sears, will get the season started April 5 on the road against Shepaug Valley High School.
Softball starts April 5 as well with a home game against Shepaug Valley. Coaches Pete Foley and Kaleigh Selino led the team to a 13-9 record and a trip to the Class S tournament last year. The Mountaineers will need to establish a new hurler on the mound after graduating star pitcher Anne Moran in 2024.
Boys and girls tennis begins April 7. The boys, coached by Jeff Tripp, will travel to Lakeview High School for the first meet of the season. At the same time, the girls, coached by Don Drislane and Mo Kirby-Dore, host Lakeview on the newly refinished courts at HVRHS.
The lacrosse season begins with a rematch of last year’s Western Connecticut Lacrosse Conference girls championship game. HVRHS, coached by Laura Bushey, will travel to play the reigning champs St. Paul Catholic High School in Bristol April 9. St. Paul defeated HVRHS 13-12 in a riveting league final last May.
Track and field is set to start April 22 with a home meet against Lakeview High School. HVRHS, coached by Alan Lovejoy, has a number of decorated athletes returning to the track this year including Kyle McCarron, Ava Segalla and Anthony Labbadia, each of whom competed in the CIAC State Open meet last June. Many more returning runners and jumpers gained state-level experience last year at the CIAC Class S meet in May.
Fans of fine art filed into the Sharon Historical Society’s gallery on Saturday, March 15, for the opening reception of student works from the Northlight Art Center in Amenia, New York.
Northlight was founded in Sharon by Pieter Lefferts in 2010 and later moved to Amenia. This is the 14th year of the annual student exhibit.
“It’s an invitation for people who may never have thought that they might be included in an art exhibit,” said Lefferts about the show that includes 34 works created by a dozen artists. Lefferts added that visitors will see a range of abilities and individual expression.
“I like to draw out innate expression,” Lefferts said. Lefferts said there were 34 pieces as he had hung them all the day before.
Several works on display were inspired by local subjects. For example, Kathleen Kulig’s “Grand Dame of the Orchard” depicts an actual old apple tree found at a friend’s home.
“I’ve actually picked apples from that tree,” Kulig said.
Kathleen Kulig with her “Grand Dame of the Orchard” painting.Leila Hawken
Artist Cathleen Halloran’s acrylic on paper painting titled “Eleven Eleven” is a loving remembrance of her dog, Maddie, whose death was imminent as Halloran created the painting, an expression of her subject’s magnificent spirit.
Variety is evident in artists’ ages, mediums, experience and subject matter.
“It’s always a pleasure to see how the artists grow every year, a fascinating variety,” said Historical Society President Chris Robinson as he dished out the wine and other beverages in the reception area.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit the historical society, although not all works are for sale. The exhibit will be open until Friday, May 9, during historical society hours. For additional information, go to www.sharonhist.org.
Coinciding with the gallery show, the Sharon Historical Society’s current exhibit is worth a visit. Titled “Family Collections,” the exhibit shows collective Sharon memories found in the artifacts left by ancestors, remembered now in part by what they left behind. Each is a clue to the town’s historic past, spanning two centuries.
Tess Marks as Little Sally and Jackson Olson as Officer Lockstock in the Housatonic Musical Theatre Society production of "Urinetown."
Last week’s Housatonic Musical Theatre Society production of “Urinetown” featured strong performances and superb choreography.
The remodeled auditorium at Housatonic Valley Regional High School made a big difference as well. New seats were a welcome addition, and the increased technical capability meant that the show was flawless from a production point of view.
The difference was so noticeable that director Christiane Olson thanked the taxpayers of Region One for supporting the recent school improvements project in brief remarks before the start of the matinee performance Saturday, March 15.
Katelin Lopes and Andy Delgado were powerful as the star-crossed lovers Hope Cladwell and Bobby Strong.
Jackson Olson got a lot of laughs with his deadpan take on Officer Lockstock, often in tandem with Tess Marks’ wide-eyed Little Sally.
The entire cast hit all the right buttons, not the easiest thing to do with a show that contains multiple layers of satire.
The orchestra, led by Tom Krupa, was rock solid.
And Amber Cameron’s choreography was seamless. The cast looked like they’d been dancing together all their lives.
Race Brook Lodge
Tucked away on Under Mountain Road in Sheffield, Massachusetts, The Stagecoach Tavern dates back to the mid-18th century and offers fine dining in an enchanted setting. It also serves as the portal into the Race Brook Lodge, which harbors unique spaces for entertainment, lodging and wellness.
Intimate outdoor gathering areas are illuminated by strings of lights. A cluster of mid-century bungalows can be rented by guests who come to spend the weekend and attend concerts and retreats, which typically take place in the barns farther back in the woods.
This magical vision springs from the mind of David Rothstein, who purchased the property in pieces between 1990 and 2000, a continuation of his idea to create a place where like-minded people can congregate to enjoy cultural happenings in an idyllic setting.
Before acquiring the Race Brook Lodge, Rothstein, now 90, managed The Music Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts, the premier outdoor music venue in the Berkshires during the 1970s, which he purchased with his former wife, Nancy Fitzpatrick, whose family owned the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge.
In its heyday from 1970 to 1979, The Music Inn featured a who’s who of iconic performers of the era like Ike & Tina Turner, B.B. King, James Taylor, Muddy Waters, The Byrds, Ravi Shankar, Joan Baez, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, The Eagles, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Cliff, Toots & The Maytals and The Allman Brothers.
“Music Inn was the last outpost of the counterculture, which had evolved as a result of the groundbreaking evolution of jazz as the first integrated music genre that ultimately paved the way for Rock ‘n Roll,” Rothstein said.
Race Brook barn at nightLety Marcos
This history goes even deeper. Prior to the Music Inn, the buildings were known as the Berkshire Music Barn, and featured performers like Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk and the Modern Jazz Quartet. The property also featured The Lenox School of Jazz, The Lenox Arts Center, Toad Hall Moviehouse, and The Great Riot Alley Memorial.
As a student of modernist architect Louis Khan, Rothstein absorbed Khan’s ideas of “open frame” or a space without barriers. It’s a concept he used at the Music Inn that carries on at Race Brook.
Race Brook’s music programmer, Alex Harvey recalls how he came to do a retreat with Qi Gong master Thomas Drodge and noticed a Louis Khan poster on the wall. He spent a morning and afternoon talking with Rothstein about art, performance and community in a way he’d been dreaming about for a long time.
“When I saw the poster, I asked David about it. He told me that he was one of Khan’s assistants, and he actually drafted some of the buildings I’d studied. So, before I knew he had the Music Inn, he was a superstar to me,” Harvey said.
Harvey also met the current proprietor Casey Fitzpatrick — David and Nancy’s son — and the two hit it off, realizing they shared a common interest in global music. Armed with a deep Rolodex, thanks to his many years as a performer and ethnomusicologist, Harvey soon began programming shows at Race Brook.
When booking, Harvey looks for artists who can offer something beyond the typical performance.
“We had Alash, who are one of the more renowned Tuvan throat singing ensembles,” Harvey said. “With their energy, they change the weather of the room. It’s a participatory feeling. I loved reading the reactions online; was it a concert or a ritual? That’s what we’re interested in.”
“We have Beausoleil coming up on April 5. When they start playing, you feel transported to a hooch house in Eunice, Louisiana. They create a sense of place, and that’s what really excites me,” he added.
Sunder Ashni singing at Dia de los Muertos.Lety Marcos
There are regularly scheduled programs, like Jazz brunches every Sunday, and at times Race Brook Lodge is open to other groups who book shows like the recent “Almost Spring Weekender” a DJ’d house party produced by Edo Moore.
Ideally, Harvey books fully immersive weekends with music, workshops, and enjoyment of the spaces, whether hiking nearby trails or inside the barns.
“One of my favorites is the Dia de los Muertos weekend which has an open mic to the dead,” Harvey said. “It’s art as a form of medicine and healing. It’s kind of like Brooklyn Academy of Music meets Esselin.”
For elevated musical and wellness experiences in an idyllic Berkshire setting, Race Brook Lodge offers something for everyone. See their site for information on all that they offer: rblodge.com