Living history

Living history
Donna Drew

The 250th anniversary of Henry Knox’s 300-mile march of cannons from Fort Ticonderoga through South Berkshire to Boston was celebrated with great hoopla Saturday in Alford and Great Barrington. Shown, from left, are Bernard Drew of Great Barrington, author of “Henry Knox and the Revolutionary War Trail in Western Massachusetts” (McFarland, 2012) and former associate editor of The Lakeville Journal and Millerton News. Center is Tim Abbott of North Canaan, executive director of Housatonic Valley Association and an enthusiastic re-enactor. Right is Leigh Davis of Great Barrington, Berkshire 3rd District representative to the General Court in Boston.

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Stissing Center announces expansive 2026 season
The opening of the 2026 season at The Stissing Center on Jan. 31 will feature Grammy winner Rosanne Cash(pictured with John Leventhal).
Vivian Wang

There’s something for everyone at the Stissing Center for Arts & Culture, the welcoming nonprofit performing arts space in the heart of Pine Plains, New York. The center’s adventurous 2026 season is designed to appeal to all audiences, with a curated mix of local and visiting artists working across a range of disciplines, from bluegrass to Beethoven, from Bollywood to burlesque.

The season opens Saturday, Jan. 31, with Spark!, a multimedia concert that will also preview the center’s fifth year of presenting performances that inspire, entertain and connect the community. Spark! features Grammy Award-winning Rosanne Cash, one of the country’s preeminent singer-songwriters, whose artistry bridges country, folk and rock with a distinctly literary strain of American songwriting.

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American Mural Project names new executive director

Jennifer Chrein is the new executive director of the American Mural Project.

Provided

When Jennifer Chrein first stepped inside the cavernous mill building on Whiting Street in Winsted and looked up at the towering figures of the American Mural Project, she had no idea what she was walking into.

“I had been invited by a friend to attend an event in May 2024,” Chrein recalled. That friend, she said, had a ticket they couldn’t use and thought she’d enjoy it. “I didn’t know anything about AMP. I didn’t Google it — nothing.”

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Stanfordville author debuts children’s book inspired by real-life horse

Author Karen Belove and her horse, Sally, the inspiration for the titular character of her debut children’s book.

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Karen Belove, of Stanfordville, said her first children’s book wrote itself one day after more than a decade of thinking about it.

Belove’s debut book, “Cotton Candy Sally Finds a Home,” is a heartfelt tale about the trials of youth and horse training. It follows Cotton Candy Sally, a horse born in Iowa and later sold to a facility in New York City, and a young girl named Kara as she navigates adolescence and the death of a parent.

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‘Conversant’ opens at Troutbeck
Natalia Zukerman

Visitors gathered at Troutbeck in Amenia for the opening of “Conversant” on Friday, Jan. 16, a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist E.E. Kono, presented in collaboration with the Wassaic Project. Kono, an alumna of the Wassaic Project’s Winter Residency program, created a series of luminous egg tempera paintings inspired by Troutbeck’s landscape, history and legacy as a site of social and intellectual exchange. The works incorporate silverpoint, locally sourced pigments and recurring clematis motifs, referencing the estate’s history as a gathering place for artists, thinkers and social reformers. The exhibition will end with an artist talk on April 19.

Natalia Zukerman