Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Raising money for Historical Society? A piece of cake!

SHARON —  Liz Shapiro, director of the Sharon Historical Society, exceeded even her own expectations with the Taste of Sharon on Friday, July 2, and Saturday, July 3.

The fun began with a Friday evening cocktail party and cake auction, with 26 pastries in the live auction and nine more in a silent auction. Some of the cakes were classic recipes, such as a traditional Southern dessert called a Lane Cake, a chocolate cake made from the prized recipe of donor Lucinda Winsted’s mother, a chocolate-whiskey bundt cake by Mary Kirby and a holiday-themed lemon cake by Frederick Peters decorated with berries to look like an American flag.

Unexpected treats included graphic designer Stephen Greider’s cheeseburger in paradise cake (a sheet cake decorated with frosting to look like a beach, topped with two rounds of yellow cake sandwiching a round of chocolate cake; red, green and yellow frosting swirls represented the condiments on the cake-burger); a Barbie cake by artist K.K. Kozik, with a doll popping out of a dome of cake designed to look like a pink princess gown; and a layer cake decorated with flower blossoms, from the Pink Cloud Gallery.

Expert baker Patsy Stroble, a Sharon resident and former owner of the beloved Stroble’s bakery in Kent, made an orange walnut torte with Grand Marnier and a bittersweet chocolate glaze; its four layers of orange walnut cake were soaked with the liqueur, interspersed with orange marmalade and topped with homemade candied orange slices.

The top-selling cake was by Lynn Kearcher, head of the Sharon Lake Association, who created an edible “Ode to Mudge Pond.� The auction list described it as “a moist butter cake wrapped in a ribbon of white chocolate with vanilla buttercream layers interspersed with layers of apricot buttercream, decorated with a thin blueberry reduction to symbolize the lake, and candied waterlilies.� The final bid: $190.

“I was stunned,� Shapiro said of the results of the auction, which also included several antique and decorative items, including a Jasperware pitcher and plate, four pencil drawings of nautical scenes and two woven coverlets from the 1940s or 1950s. A guided trip to the top of the clocktower in Sharon was auctioned off for $200.

The cakes alone brought in $2,000, bringing the total raised on Friday to $3,000 for the Historical Society.

Saturday was devoted to fun and games, and history tours of the houses on the Green. Six residences were open for tours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Shapiro and other Historical Society volunteers organized a scavenger tour on the Green, and participants were invited to take a history quiz.

Lakeville Journal

Latest News

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

Left to right: Hannah Wheeler, Matin Malikzada and Yonah Sadeh.

D.H. Callahan

On Monday, Oct. 26, a group of students, teachers and local residents gathered at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville for a screening of the new short documentary “Matin.” The film tells the story of Matin Malikzada, a seventh-generation Afghani potter making a new life in New Milford, Connecticut. The film was made by local filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, creator of the Video Wall at the David M. Hunt Library, and Berkshires-based potter Hannah Wheeler, who were both present for the screening, along with Malikzada himself.

As a member of the seventh generation of his family to master the art of pottery, Malikzada had done things the way his family had for over a century. Istalif, the village where his family has lived for generations, was known throughout Afghanistan for its pottery, with wares sent across the country for use as everyday cups, bowls, plates and other vessels. The pottery-making families of Istalif gathered clay from the same mountain, about 30 to 45 minutes away by donkey. Every July, they would head north toward the Uzbekistan border to gather ishkar, a plant they processed by hand to make their signature glazes.

Keep ReadingShow less
film

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.

L. Tomaino

When Meg Sher came to Falls Village in 2006 from Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she grew up, she never imagined she’d someday be the executive director of the David M. Hunt Library.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps it makes sense.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, conducts the audience at a performance.

Steve Potter

For Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, music from centuries past is anything but a relic. It is a living, breathing art form, full of drama, emotional complexity and, occasionally, surprises. As the regional choral and period-instrument ensemble launches its 23rd season, Gevert is once again bringing forgotten masterpieces into the present.

“Early Music has been my lifelong passion and the focus of my specialization in Europe and South America,” Gevert said. “Bringing this repertoire to our audiences in a nuanced way that does justice to its incredible depth, intensity, and beauty is deeply important to me.”

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music’s 35th season opens with “Saluting the Clarinet” featuring clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein.

Provided

For 35 years, cellist Yehuda Hanani has been inviting audiences to experience classical music in unexpected ways. As founder and artistic director of Close Encounters with Music, Hanani has built a concert series that goes beyond the music itself, exploring connections to literature, history, politics and the human experience.

This year, Close Encounters celebrates its 35th season with “Celebration & Discovery,” a seven-concert series that opens Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Seeing isn’t always believing. Sometimes it’s the lack of a defined picture that can be the most compelling. And when Alex Harvey of Shinbone Alley sings his supernaturally charged sea shanties and street ballads, the unseen will be downright scary. On Oct. 30, the historically inclined storyteller and performer will create a spooky evening of forbidden tales and yarns through a carefully chosen series of songs at Spencertown Academy of Arts.

The repertoire for the performance is a bit fraught. Over the years, Shinbone Alley has explored the world of folklore through music. Though the group usually features two musicians, Harvey, a multi-instrumentalist and singer, will be performing solo. That is, of course, unless you include the spirits.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield
Vieux Farka Touré
Proivded

Desert winds rarely blow into the Berkshires, but on Nov. 5, they will carry the Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa music to Race Brook Lodge.

That evening, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, often called “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” and Moroccan musician Samir LanGus will play at the lodge’s Event Barn in Sheffield, Massachusetts, at a benefit for the foundation Touré directs.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.