Community Calendar

The Berkshire High Peaks Festival launches its 17th season with Moonlight Sonatas, the Festival's annual Faculty Concert, on Saturday, July 25 at 7 p.m. at The Tannery at The Darrow School in New Lebanon.

Before spending two weeks mentoring gifted young musicians from around the world, the Festival's internationally acclaimed faculty takes the stage together for an evening of chamber music featuring works by Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, and Kreisler.

The program concludes with a complete performance of Antonín Dvořák's Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81, one of the most beloved and enduring masterpieces in the chamber music repertoire.
The faculty includes Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani; mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Grammy-nominated New Budapest Orpheum Society; violinists Ari Isaacman-Beck of the Dalí String Quartet and James Stern; violist Anthony Devroye of the Avalon String Quartet; pianists Alexander Shtarkman of the Peabody Institute and Max Levinson of Boston Conservatory at Berklee and New England Conservatory; pianist Tatiana Lokhina; and cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman.

Presented free to the public, the concert offers a rare opportunity to hear internationally acclaimed artists perform together in an intimate setting as the Festival begins its newest chapter at The Darrow School.

Saturday, July 25, 2026
7:00 p.m.

The Tannery at The Darrow School
110 Darrow Road, New Lebanon, NY

Free admission. More information: CEWM.org

Welcome to the Lake George Games Expo - Summer Event 2026! Join us at the Fort William Henry Conference Center for a day filled with fun and games. Try the best games from our local game developers and meet other game enthusiasts. There will be panels and speakers in the Glens Falls room from 12pm onward on how to make games! Cosplay is welcomed. No outside food is allowed in the conference center.

Don't miss out on this exciting new event!

Join Museum Educators weekly, June - August 2026, for artmaking activities for all ages inspired by the American Stories: Revolution to Rockwell exhibition. Explore the galleries and then get creative. Everyone is welcome.

For more information, visit https://www.nrm.org/events/list/?tribe_eventcategory%5B0%5D=795&hide_subsequent_recurrences=1

Circus & the Bard: The Next Chapter bounces back July 16–26 at 11:30 am and 2:30 pm at the Tina Packer Playhouse!

Co-created by Allyn Burrows, Robin Eldridge, and Pedro Reis, Co-directed by Allyn Burrows and Pedro Reis

Shakespeare & Company and Spirit of the Circus reunite for a playful mash-up of jaw-dropping circus acts paired with Shakespeare’s beloved characters. When high-flying feats meet the Bard’s words, sparks fly, laughs abound, and something truly magical happens.

Tickets are $35 for adults, $22 for ages 13-22, and $15 for ages 3-12. Tickets are on sale now at shakespeare.org, or by calling the Box Office at (413) 637-3353

Join us on Wednesday, July 22, and Thursday, July 23, for relaxed, sensory-friendly performances.

What is a Sensory-Friendly Performance?
Sensory-friendly performances are adapted to be less overwhelming and to welcome individuals with a range of sensory needs, including people who are neurodivergent; those with cognitive, social, or physical challenges; first-time theatergoers, and others. These performances offer pre-show materials such as story synopses and “what to expect” guides, along with reduced-intensity lighting and sound, dimmed house lights, and clear theater maps. Performances are relaxed; audience members are free to come and go, and total quiet is not expected. These shows are open to all patrons.

In “Pretend till it Hurts”, Matthew Gilbert presents a series of sculptures and textile drawings that depict fatal stories with a dark sense of humor.

Blending cartoon logic with gothic imagery, Gilbert projects themes of abandonment onto crumbling architecture. The plush materials and whimsical details soften the otherwise catastrophic subject matter, adding theatrical melodrama that is both sincere and deprecating.

I propose to exhibit a selection of works from my recent series Apart. This is an ongoing body of work that reflects the tension between us as individuals and the systems that define our world. I constantly wonder how I as an artist can effectively respond to the daily injustices people experience. Growing up surrounded by the propaganda of a dictatorial regime, I resist the urge to follow that path, instead focusing on a more nuanced response.

As an immigrant from communist Czechoslovakia raised by Holocaust survivors, my personal history was shaped me to inhabit a particular vantage point—an observer of society, neither fully belonging to the world I live in nor to the one I came from. This dual perspective fuels my perception of global events, particularly the alarming resurgence of totalitarianism and its implications for us all.

The notion of civilizations collapsing, strikes a passionate chord within me, especially now, as we are powerlessly watching the awful human consequences and devastation of the middle east by cruel imperial whims.

I hope that my work, driven by a conviction that we can and must learn from the past, trying to prevent the repetition of its darkest chapters reminds the viewer of how art and joy can form meaningful modes of resistance.

I find comfort in direct interaction with materials - painting, drawing, and collage—through which I express my observations and emotions. Each mark is a contemplative act, a quest to transform feelings of helplessness into a resonant expression that speaks to me. My creative process unfolds organically, driven by intuition and a desire to uncover the unseen and the unexpected. I explore both the accumulation and subtraction, reflecting the fluidity and subjectivity of my personal experiences and insights.

In my art I’m dedicated to forging these new pathways, blending the poignant realities of our global challenges with the enduring beauty and potential for renewal that each new day brings.

Join Museum Educators weekly, June - August 2026, for artmaking activities for all ages inspired by the American Stories: Revolution to Rockwell exhibition. Explore the galleries and then get creative. Everyone is welcome.

For more information, visit https://www.nrm.org/events/list/?tribe_eventcategory%5B0%5D=795&hide_subsequent_recurrences=1

Join Museum Educators weekly, June - August 2026, for artmaking activities for all ages inspired by the American Stories: Revolution to Rockwell exhibition. Explore the galleries and then get creative. Everyone is welcome.

For more information, visit https://www.nrm.org/events/list/?tribe_eventcategory%5B0%5D=795&hide_subsequent_recurrences=1

ON TUESDAY'S HARLEM SWINGS and HOPS!

FREE Beginner/Intermediate Lindy Hop Dance Class -1 hour. 7pm - 8pm

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A GREAT Taste and Experience of Harlem Culture! Harlem's signature cultural dance is the world famous Lindy Hop. While nearly a 100 year old dance it is still enjoyed enormously today worldwide - as far as China, Spain and even parts of Africa!

Come on and join us on Tuesday eves so you can experience and learn this exciting cultural dance art form. You'll hear some swinging jazz classics and how to do this swinging dance to some music of today too. No partner necessary, wear comfy shoes. All ages welcome!

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Schedule subject to change; donations accepted. Please check our Facebook page day of for last minute updates The Harlem Swing Dance Society | Facebook

Join Museum Educators weekly, June - August 2026, for artmaking activities for all ages inspired by the American Stories: Revolution to Rockwell exhibition. Explore the galleries and then get creative. Everyone is welcome.

For more information, visit https://www.nrm.org/events/list/?tribe_eventcategory%5B0%5D=795&hide_subsequent_recurrences=1