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Danielle Mailer with her 12 foot aluminum mountain lion outside of the Scoville Library.
Peter McEachern
On Saturday, Sept. 27, Salisbury Family Services (SFS) will hold a benefit dinner and barn dance, honoring artist Danielle Mailer. Taking place at Stillwater Farm in Salisbury, this festive fundraiser will feature cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, and lively barn dancing — all in support of the critical services SFS provides.
Founded in the mid-1930s during the Great Depression, Salisbury Family Services has been a lifeline for residents of Salisbury and the surrounding villages of Amesville, Lakeville, Lime Rock, and Taconic for nearly 90 years. What began as an effort by local women to mend clothes and provide food has evolved into a professional social service agency offering confidential support for housing, food, childcare, medical needs and more.
This year’s benefit celebrates Danielle Mailer, a nationally recognized visual artist and longtime local resident whose vibrant work and generous spirit have left a lasting impression on the Northwest Corner. Known for her bold, figurative style and large-scale public installations, Mailer has brought color and life to communities throughout Connecticut and beyond.
“I suspect that they honored me because they think I’ve given back to the community in various ways,” said Mailer from her studio in Goshen. Mailer just began her tenth year as a teacher at the Salisbury School. Prior to that, she taught at Indian Mountain School for 15 years. “So that’s, what? That’s 25 years of teaching in the community,” said Mailer with a laugh.
Alongside teaching, Mailer will also be honored for her artistic contributions to the area. If you’ve driven through Torrington and seen the undulating sea of fish on the backside of Staples (“Project Fishtales”) or delighted in her playful blue lion outside of the Scoville Library, you’ve seen her art do what it does best: transform public space into something personal and joyful.
Mailer has shown in major galleries, had retrospectives at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut, and helped shape The Tides of Provincetown, a traveling tribute to her hometown of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Currently, she’s getting ready for the unveiling of a large-scale ballerina she created for the Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory in Torrington on Oct. 3.
Some of Mailer’s work will be on view and for sale at the event on the 27th. Proceeds directly support the SFS’s ability to provide emergency assistance and essential services to those in need.
“I readily donate my art to lots of things because I think that’s something art can do — to support the different community events that are very necessary to keep the town humming, said Mailer. “And I am really flattered. It’s been really fun to be honored.”
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.salisburyfamilyservices.org
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TRIFEST, a new three-day festival featuring work by international filmmakers aged 25 and under.
Brian Gersten
Great Barrington’s Triplex Cinema will soon roll out the red carpet for a new generation of filmmakers. TRIFEST, a new youth film festival, is set to showcase the creativity and voices of young storytellers from across the globe.
The three-day festival, running from Sept. 19 to 21, will feature 44 short films from filmmakers aged 25 and under, representing over 17 countries. Categories include narrative, documentary, animation, and experimental films. In addition to screenings, a variety of industry panels and conversations are scheduled with internationally renowned filmmakers and producers, including Peter Becker, president of Criterion Collection; Hamish Linklater (“The Big Short,” “Nickel Boys”); Tony Gerber, Emmy and PGA Award-winning documentarian (“We Will Rise,” “War Game”); and first-time feature filmmakers Zia Anger (“My First Film”), Carson Lund (“Eephus”), and Haley Elizabeth Anderson (“Tendaberry”).
TRIFEST founder Nicki Wilson led the charge to save the Triplex from the threat of closure back in 2023 when its future was in limbo. As a longtime arts advocate and film lover, Nicki explained “I could not imagine living in a town without a theater.”
Wilson and other community members formed the grassroots non-profit Save The Triplex in an effort to keep the theater open and operating.
The group successfully purchased the theater in the summer of 2023. Soon after, Wilson identified another opportunity.
“I’m working nonstop trying to get submissions from Williamstown and North Adams, and Sheffield, and I’m getting submissions from China, India, Germany, Ukraine — and I thought, well, wouldn’t it be interesting for the Triplex to actually start an international youth film festival?” she said. “It would be inspirational and educational to the younger people in our area, but at the same time, it would be interesting for all of us to see what younger people were making around the world. It just seemed like a perfect fit for the Triplex.”
Tickets are $10 per program, $20 for evening shows, or $45 for a 3-day pass. Tickets are available at trifest.org and thetriplex.org.
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Elizabeth Gilbert
Sep 17, 2025
Aly Morrissey
Author Elizabeth Gilbert spoke to a sold-out crowd at The Bardavon in Poughkeepsie on Sept. 10 during an event presented by Oblong Books, celebrating the release of her new memoir, “All the Way to the River.”
Grace McLean co-wrote and stars in “Penelope.”
Shervin Lainez
The Ancram Center’s 10th Anniversary Season continues this fall with “Penelope,” a cabaret-style musical based on Homer’s “The Odyssey,” told from the point of view of Penelope, Odysseus’ long-suffering wife. With music and lyrics by Alex Bechtel and a book by Bechtel, Grace McLean (who also stars) and Eva Steinmetz (who also directs), “Penelope” runs Sept. 19-21 and 25-28.
The show tells a story you think you know. In Homer’s poem about Odysseus’ return home after the Trojan War, Penelope is a minor character. She is trapped at home, lonely and isolated, yet she runs the city of Ithaca and fends off suitors.
“She is meant to be a paragon of fidelity,” said Paul Ricciardi, Ancram Center co-director, “but this version is a refreshingly feminist take on the Greek epic. And this Penelope has a lot to say.”
With genre-bending songs and a powerful narrative, presented in an intimate cabaret setting with a live band that doubles as a Greek chorus, the show reframes the ancient tale to bring the mythological Penelope to vibrant life with 21st century resonance.
McLean is a multi-hyphenate actress, singer, writer and teacher, and a breakout star of “Suffs,” the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical about the American women’s suffrage movement. This is the first time she is featured in a play she wrote herself. With humor and insight, she casts a spell that illuminates the myriad meanings in the classic text — waiting and loneliness, as well as determination and resilience.
This show promises to be a mesmerizing and unforgettable theatrical love letter to all who wait and hope.
The Ancram Center season continues on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. with Mary Murfitt’s “Framed: The Murder of Beulah Simons.” This is the second production of Ancram Center’s 2025 Play Lab series, which provides theatre artists of all practices the time, space and resources to develop new, innovative projects. “Framed” is based on true events: an Ancram love triangle in the early 1940s that ends with a murder, and a questionable trial that leads to the conviction of a young farmhand.
Every fall also brings a new edition of “Real People Real Stories,” Ancram Center’s signature storytelling program. Since 2016, this celebrated series has provided a forum for area residents to share humorous, poignant and surprising true tales about themselves. The production, at 3 p.m. on Nov. 22, will cap the 2025 season.
For tickets, visit www.ancramcenter.org
Richard Feiner and Annette Stover have worked and taught in the arts, communications, and philanthropy in West Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, and New York. Passionate supporters of the arts, they live in Salisbury and Greenwich Village.
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