Take a Walk with Van Gogh

More information from Brook Farm Inn about the Art Walk…

  On Saturday May 24th and Sunday May 25th 11-5, Lenox, Massachusetts will open its art season with a new logo as we all walk along with the cheerful fellow carrying the Van Gogh.  We will be walking along Main or Housatonic or Church Street enjoying the wide array of works in the 15 participating galleries 

Brook Farm Inn is a short distance from Steepletop, in Austerlitz, NY.  Edna St. Vincent Millay lived there, and the home is still as it was in her day.  The Society sponsors artists-in-residence, and is restoring her gardens, and hopes to make the home into a museum for visitors.  Part of the grounds are available for visitors to walk, although most of the property is usually closed to the public.  However  this Saturday, May 17th, is the first of two Open Days, from 10-4.  In addition to the gardens, Millay’s writing cabin will be open. It should be a great day.  And a great book about the poet is Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford

On Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, there will be an Art Walk in Lenox, Massachusetts. Our many galleries will be exhibiting and having receptions.  One you won’t want to miss is DeVries Fine Art.  Andrew DeVries is a wonderful sculptor, and his reception is from 1:00-4:00 on May 24th.  We at Brook Farm Inn plan to attend!

Brook Farm Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts, is close to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.  This wonderfully restored theater, one of the Berkshires’ best attractions, has announced its program for May through December, and there’s something for everyone. Judy Collins will be performing June 1st, then there’s Renee Fleming, more classical music, Paul Taylor Dance Co., and some summer special screenings, like “West Side Story,” “Oklahoma!,” and “The Graduate.” Also not to be missed is the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series — Saturday afternoon simulcasts from the Met. So go to “Area Attractions” on our homepage and then click on “Mahaiwe” for the entire program. 

Here in the Berkshires, visitors have so many opportunities to enjoy musical performances. And one of the ways to enhance your enjoyment of the performances, is to attend Dr. Jeremy Yudkin’s Summer Music Seminars.
Jeremy is Professor of Music at Boston and Oxford Universities, and is a captivating lecturer. He’ll make the Tanglewood concerts come alive as never before for you. We’ve attended his lectures and can recommend them firsthand. The Tanglewood lecture series starts June 28th and goes through the summer at the Lenox Library, but you can sign up now. In addition, Jeremy will be doing a lecture on June 14th entitled “The Best Bits: Beethoven’s Genius in a Few Measures.” Phone us at 800-285-7638 for more information on that one.

  The Berkshire Bach Society, under the direction of James Bagwell, will be presenting ORFEO ed EURIDICE on Friday May 9th.  The semi-staged “Opera In Concert” will be performed at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington begining at 8pm.  Tickets are available at the Mahaiwe box office or by contacting the Berkshire Bach Society at 413 528 0100. 

Lenox, MA: Jun 4–7  ·  Berkshire Invitational Croquet Tournement will be held at the Lenox Croquet Club.  For more information contact David Ekstrom at 413-443-4957 or drekstrom@hotmail.com .  The event is sanctioned by the United States Croquet Association.  One of the competitors, who will be staying at Brook Farm Inn, describes the event as “cutthroat croquet.”

The Close Encounters With Music Company will be presenting “GYPSY!” on Saturday, May 24 at 6PM. The performance will be at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA. The works of Bizet, Haydn, Monti, Ravel and Brahms will be featured. Yehuda Hanani is artistic director. The theater is only a 20 minute drive from Brook Farm Inn in Lenox, MA, and promises to be a great evening of musical entertainment.

You may have been reading or hearing lately about the financial difficulties of The Mount, famed estate of the author, Edith Wharton. Brook Farm Inn is within walking distance of this treasure in Lenox, Massachusetts. A tour of the mansion and gardens are a must for every visitor to the Berkshires, and many wonderful events take place there as well. So Brook Farm Inn is offering to buy admission for guests who book a stay of at least two nights, between May 9th and June 12th. We hope it will not only contribute to the fundraising efforts, but introduce visitors to this historic and literary landmark.

Here in Lenox, Massachusetts, one of the local treasures is Ventfort Hall, an 1893 Gilded Age “cottage,” built by the sister of J.P. Morgan. You can take tours, and also enjoy historic exhibits and events there. During the month of May, there are a number of events, and it’s within walking distance of the Brook Farm Inn bed and breakfast. On Saturday, May 10 there’s a Mother’s Day Celebration, and on Saturday, May 17, the New England Baroque Soloists will perform. So, a Berkshires getaway is a great idea for Mother’s Day.

Lenox Massachusetts: To follow up on yesterday’s blog comments about National Poetry Month, we’d like to quote a poem that was written about Brook Farm Inn by an appreciative guest of our bed and breakfast. It says more about the inn, and our Berkshires ambiance, than we could ever say.

BROOK FARM
There is poetry here.
Lovers of words
have pressed it into the wood floors
with their feet;
it has escaped their red, prolific tongues
and floated on the silence
hanging in the room’s air
during afternoon readings, settling
lightly into corners, stirred
and in motion again each time
a writer’s ghost swishes by,
or a young girl pauses, carefully
selecting a book from a nearby
shelf. There is
poetry here, there is no
escaping it or exorcising it
from this Inn, no matter whom
the keeper; little do they know
it went up with the beams,
was mixed and troweled
with the plaster, and flows freely
through the windows on warm summer
evenings. In winter, its heat
is in the fire
making the parlor walls glow, the books
on the shelves leaping
with the flames.