SHARON — The Housatonic River Commission threw a bit of a party Saturday afternoon, Sept. 7, at Housatonic Meadows State Park in Sharon.
The event was a celebration of the river’s designation as a Wild and Scenic River.
The federal status became official in 2023.
The Housatonic River Commission is composed of members from the seven towns included in the 41 mile Wild and Scenic stretch of the Housatonic: New Milford, Kent, Sharon, Cornwall, Falls Village, North Canaan and Salisbury.
Commission chair Bill Tingley thanked the organizations and agencies that worked with the Housatonic River Commission to protect the river, including the National Park Service, Housatonic Valley Association, Northwest Hills Council of Governments, FirstLight, and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Tingley also thanked the volunteers of the Housatonic Meadows Preservation Action (HMPA) for their work on the park after DEEP, in 2021, removed some 100 trees, 75 pine and 25 century oaks, deemed hazardous.
After a subsequent outcry, DEEP, in consultation with the HMPA, began planting new trees on October 2022, and the Connecticut General Assembly passed legislation to oversee DEEP’s hazardous tree removal policies.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) with Lynn Werner of the Housatonic Valley Association at the Housatonic River Commission’s Sept. 7 event.Patrick L. Sullivan
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) was on hand, and in brief remarks praised “the people willing to help protect these resources” for future generations.
Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (D-5) also attended, and noted that the Fifth District contains not one but two Wild and Scenic Rivers (the other being the Farmington).
“This is a big deal,” Hayes said. “This is like an insurance policy.”
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) could not attend, but Tingley read a letter congratulating the commission on achieving the Wild and Scenic designation.
State Representative Maria Horn (D-64) was also on hand.
Music was provided by Hudson Crossing.
Contemporary chamber musicians, HUB, performing at The Clark.
MASS MoCA is known for its 20th-century holdings spread throughout a sprawling complex of industrial brick buildings. Installations by Sol LeWitt and James Turrell have permanent homes there. Just down the road in Williamstown, the Clark features masterworks by Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, John Singer Sargent and Claude Monet.
But what visitors might not immediately associate with those established names is how deeply both institutions invest in art happening right now.
On Saturday afternoon, a panel of young artists discussed their relationships with art, identity and technology as part of MASS MoCA’s “Technologies of Relation” exhibition, which opened that evening. The artists represented a broad range of cultural backgrounds, drawing on ancestry while exploring the future of art and technology.
The work itself ran the gamut: wax relief paintings, stained glass, interactive video and sculptural installations. One immersive piece automated the traditional Armenian practice of reading fortunes from coffee grounds. Particularly striking were Roopa Vasudevan’s hand-drawn QR codes and Taeyoon Choi’s large-scale weavings of binary code.
Opening the same night was Zora J. Murff’s “RACE/HUSTLE.” Through photographs, paintings and installations, Murff explores the wide-ranging and sometimes violent implications of being Black in America today. Each piece — whether confronting the rise of white supremacy or examining stereotypes imposed on Black communities — carries razor-sharp visual commentary designed to unsettle.
Pelenakeke Brown’s “Reverb” (detail) at Mass MoCA. D.H. Callahan
On Sunday, the Clark continued the contemporary thread. A small exhibition of work by Raffaella della Olga, titled “Typescript,” features intricate patterns created using a typewriter on varied paper surfaces. The effect seems almost impossible until viewers watch a video of della Olga loading her typewriter with 140-grit sandpaper and typing in a hypnotic rhythm. Though the typewriter is considered obsolete technology, she continues to find new applications for it, completing some of the works in recent months.
Next door in the Clark auditorium, HUB New Music performed works written specifically for its unusual instrumentation: violin, cello, clarinet and flute. While that combination may not stand out to casual listeners, relatively little classical repertoire exists for it. The ensemble regularly commissions composers to expand the possibilities.
The results were striking. From the opening notes of Francisco del Pino’s “Passacaglia,” the quartet’s command and layered repetition pulled unexpected emotion from the audience.
After three pieces came the world premiere of Daniel Wohl’s “Mirage,” a roughly 25-minute work accompanied by digital blips, static and electronic textures evoking radio transmissions and UFO lore. Hearing four virtuoso musicians extract entirely new sounds from traditional instruments echoed the weekend’s larger theme: old tools made new again.
Like della Olga’s typewriter, Vasudevan’s QR codes or Murff’s charged imagery, the performances demonstrated that contemporary art often grows from familiar materials — reimagined.
The old masters will always draw visitors to these institutions. But when living artists command equal attention, this quiet corner of the Berkshires feels less like the middle of nowhere and more like a creative epicenter.
D.H. Callahan is a voice actor, creative director and trail steward. He lives with his artist wife in West Cornwall, Connecticut.
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