The Berkshires

We will be spending a week in northwestern Massachusetts.  On our way the first evening, we went to Jacob’s Pillow, a world renowned dance venue, to see a most “unusual” performance, definitely not on our usual agenda.  The dancers were very good but the show was not what we expected.

We drove the narrow, dark roads of Mass. to our AirBnB in Chester. The house is over 170 years old.  The next morning we went to a Farmer’s Market in Great Barrington.  There Anna Lee had one of those weird coincidences.  She was buying a necklace from a jeweler and one thing led to another.  She mentioned where we lived and then where she was originally from. This young woman was from Denver, lived in South Denver and graduated from East High (all facts from Anna Lee’s life).  The world is small and charming sometimes.
 

In the afternoon we went to the Norman Rockwell Museum.  We have been here before and it is worth a return visit.  The featured exhibit was a collection of fantasy adventures from the early days of the character up to  recent times.  The works are excellent and the stories they tell have meaning in the past as well as in today’s times.  As always, the Four Freedoms Hall is the centerpiece of the museum.  In the middle of the hall was the jacket worn by the model for Freedom of Speech.\

 

Rockwell left The Saturday Evening Post to work independently.  He was involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s and chose to portray Ruby Bridges integrating a Southern School under escort of Federal Marshals.  Rockwell used several models for the child, finally selecting a neighbor of his.  A video in the exhibit gave the true background story including that Ruby was in a classroom alone, ate alone and could not play with other children.  Another work depicts a black family moving into a white neighborhood.  The children have no problem playing with each other but a face in a window in the corner of the work tells a different story.

We wanted a taste treat and got a bonus.  A copy of Rockwell’s painting The Runaway is in the outdoor café.  We had fun placing ourselves as if in the picture.

The trails near the museum is filled with Land of Enchantment, a sculpture garden.  We wandered about interacting with the pieces.

Bennett wanted to try out Zadie's camera so he took this picture of a rare Rockwell landscape (Rockwell was not a landscape painter).

The painting is of the Hoover Dam and that its construction took land and resources from the Native People.