NORTH CANAAN — A sold-out crowd dressed to the nines attended a Gratitude Gala at the Colonial Theatre on Saturday, April 27 hosted by the Housatonic Youth Service Bureau (HYSB) honoring Lisa Carter, who is retiring next month as superintendent of the Region One school district.
During the second annual event, which featured cocktails and conversation, live and silent auctions and dinner and dancing, Carter was awarded the Nancy Bird and Linda Sloane Gratitude Award, named to honor two esteemed past board chairs.
Ashley Adkins, HYSB’s director of donor engagement, noted that the award, which was introduced during last year’s inaugural event, “profoundly expresses our commitment to honor those who exemplify our mission, vision and values…and Lisa certainly does all that.”
Taylor Rousseau, director of clinical services and programs for HYSB, with her parents, Dawn and Ron Rousseau.Debra A. Aleksinas
In announcing this year’s award recipient, the HYSB noted, “Lisa’s transformative leadership has shaped the educational landscape of our community, leaving a lasting impact on students and families alike.”
The Gratitude Award, which honors “those who have gone above and beyond in nurturing the well- being and potential of our youth,” according to HYSB, came as quite a surprise, said Carter, a former board member.
“I was so overwhelmed when I got the call from Kelly,” she said, referring to HYSB Executive Director Kelly Parker.
“I’ve worked with them in some capacity since I was a high school teacher and got to know the organization over time. They really care about our students and our district and they are a valuable part of our community.”
As she spoke, a steady stream of folks stopped by to offer congratulations and wish her well in her future endeavors.
Betsy Trotta and Alex Duncan of Salisbury check out the items up for auction.Debra A. Aleksinas
Although Carter is retiring from Region One, she said she will be taking on the role of Assistant Executive Director at EdAdvance in Litchfield. “I am looking forward to it. It will be a full-time commitment but will not demand as much of my time.”
Parker, who greeted guests as they entered the historic theater’s lobby via the red carpet, noted that all proceeds benefit HYSB’s clinical programs and services supporting the community’s youth and families.
“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year,” she explained, and all proceeds benefit HYSB’s clinical programs and services supporting the community’s youth and families.
Debra A. Aleksinas
HYSB staff, from left, Kelly Parker, Lynn Nichols, Jaimie Sadeh, Scott Lynch (volunteer), Taylor Rousseau, Marissa Kent and Shanet Baker.
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
Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.
Pearson first encountered the world of alternative publications — magazines filled with experimental writing, artworks in the form of a book, and samizdat literature — as a young writer living in Berlin just before The Wall came down in 1989. Later, in New York City, she spent a great deal of time with artists “who were always making and assembling, whose continuous art-making made the thin membrane between art and life even more porous,” she explained.
Pearson traces the idea of publishing to a 2001 exhibition of artist-poet Joe Brainard. That show led to “The Nancy Book,” Siglio’s debut title in 2008, and she’s never looked back. The book contains over fifty full-page reproductions of Brainard’s dazzlingly accomplished and witty drawings of the cartoon strip character, Nancy. It includes essays and contributions by Robert Creeley, Ann Lauterbach, Frank O’Hara, Ron Padgett, and other poets of great renown, all thrilled to celebrate and remember Brainard (sometimes called “a poet’s artist”) who died of AIDS in 1994. Pearson said, ‘My first project with Brainard was such a good experience, I kept going. “
Since then, Pearson, the sole proprietor of Siglio, has designed, edited, and published over 40 books and other printed editions. Her books are characterized by unexpected juxtapositions of texts and images and collage-like assemblages, as well as for carefully designed and gorgeously printed volumes. Her list includes many “rediscoveries” of unpublished manuscripts and little-known publications. At the same time, she has commissioned new work from an impressive array of artists and writers such as Christian Marclay, Sophie Calle and Cecilia Vicinua among others.
Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.Richard Kraft
Though most Siglio books feature work by artists and writers from the 1960s to today, one standout— “Tantra Song” (2011) — showcases vibrant 17th-century Indian tantric paintings collected by poet-ethnographer Franck André Jammes, their modernist feel echoing Hilma af Klint or Brice Marden. Siglio also frequently draws on the spirit of the Fluxus movement, reissuing works by figures like John Cage and Ray Johnson with editions that honor their playful, ephemeral, and poetic origins.
Siglio also excels at photo-narratives rooted in highly specific, often eccentric concepts. “Memory” (2020), by avant-garde writer Bernadette Mayer, reproduces her journal and daily rolls of 35mm film from a month in the Berkshires in 1971, capturing the texture of each day. “Call and Response” (2022), created during COVID lockdown by composer and visual artist Christian Marclay, pairs his photographs of London’s quieted streets with musical scores composed in reply by his friend Bruce Beresford—each image in dialogue with sound.
Siglio books are sold through it’s website (sigliopress.com), as well as museum or specialty bookshops. (The Lenox Bookstore represents a number of Siglio books; the newly opened Lakeville Books & Stationery has copies of “Tantra Song.”) In all cases, Pearson strives to make “two or three degrees of connection” with each book buyer, including a “special gift” — often a piece of printed ephemera — with each purchase.
