Community Calendar

Read + Hike Book Club is returning! Come discuss themes of ecology and humanity’s relationship with nature with other book and nature lovers in our reading and hiking club! Each month we will go on a leisurely hike with stopping points for book discussion. Some months will have guest lecturers. Participants may choose to come to all the meetings, some meetings, or just one!

May Book: The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

"We never know what is enough until we know what's less than enough."

I am honored and delighted to present “Would it be enough,” my first solo exhibition with the Sketchbook Gallery, Saugerties NY.

As a Hudson Valley-based abstract painter, much of my efforts are focused on creating paintings that encourage viewers to rethink how experiences shape who we are. My thoughts and imagination skirt the boundaries between past, present, and future encounters to seek meaning and purpose of joy and hope, as well as sadness and despair.

With these new paintings, I am inviting the viewer to consider how “enough” plays a role in how we feel, the decisions we make, and the person we continue to grow into.

“The theme of the exhibit came out of my thoughts of a parent who has outlived two of their children, of a people who continue to wonder when, and my understanding that received blessings should not come with guilt.”

I hope you can join in my conversation with Elizabeth Keithline at the gallery on Saturday, May 23 (from 2:00 to 3:00 pm) – it will be fun.

Ted

Join filmmakers Gary Bohan Jr. and Stephen Blauweiss for an entertaining multimedia presentation that will include several completed segments from their feature documentary Sharkey & His Pals. Sharkey was a sea lion with a sense of humor so uncanny and spontaneous, many considered him practically human. Trained in Kingston at a unique facility called Seal College, Sharkey starred on Broadway and worked with many entertainers and celebrities. His success resulted from the bond between him and his loving trainer, whose secret was showering Sharkey with kindness. This presentation will offer many surprises and laughs along with lots of show business history.

In 1985, 1986 and 1992 older community members from the Lee Senior Center worked with renowned multi-generational, multi-ability choreographer Liz Lerman to prepare for an Inside/Out performance called Still Crossing. In 1993 Lee Senior Center members danced in an off-site piece called HERE about the Housatonic River in partnership with the Housatonic River Initiative, a Lee-based nonprofit organization. Get to see exclusive videos of these seniors rehearsing, performing, and being interviewed and learn more about how these productions came together.

This is a free event that will be held at the Lee Council on Aging located at 21 Crossway Street in Lee. Lunch to follow.

Be sure to check out the "Jacob's Pillow in Lee, Mass." exhibit at the Lee Library during June 2026. The exhibit traces the long and often overlooked relationship between the internationally renowned dance hub Jacob’s Pillow, and the neighboring town of Lee from the early 1930s to today. The exhibit is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Lee Cultural Council, a local agency funded by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Explore how gay history is intertwined with Jacob's Pillow’s very beginnings, often hiding in plain sight. Speaker: Norton Owen, Historian & Founding Director of Preservation for Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Sponsored by Berkshire Pride and Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition.

This event is part of a June 2026 exhibit, "Jacob's Pillow in Lee, Mass." at in the Scolforo Gallery at the Lee Library. The exhibit traces the long and often overlooked relationship between the internationally renowned dance hub Jacob’s Pillow, and the neighboring town of Lee from the early 1930s to today.

This exhibit is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Lee Cultural Council, a local agency funded by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Read + Hike Book Club is returning! Come discuss themes of ecology and humanity’s relationship with nature with other book and nature lovers in our reading and hiking club! Each month we will go on a leisurely hike with stopping points for book discussion. Some months will have guest lecturers. Participants may choose to come to all the meetings, some meetings, or just one!

June Book: Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica Lee

Meet with board members and staff, and cast your vote at the annual board election. Featuring the lecture To Huyck and Beyond!: Understanding jack pine's southern range limit by Summer Research Fellow Mark Lesser, Ph.D.

Registration is encouraged but not required.

To conclude the month-long exhibit “Jacob’s Pillow in Lee, Mass.,” hosted by the Lee Library, the Lee Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a closing reception with three speakers from Lee: Alex Heddinger, Vinny Vigilante, and Bill Yehle. They will lead a discussion on marketing, tourism, and business relations between Jacob’s Pillow and the Town of Lee.

Alex Heddinger is the Director of the Lee Chamber of Commerce and a past Jacob’s Pillow intern and staff member. Vinny Vigilante is Director of Facilities, Safety & Security at Jacob's Pillow, and Bill Yehle is a former Production Manager at Jacob's Pillow. They will be joined by Lee business leaders and staff from Lee Town Hall.

Each summer, the connection between Jacob’s Pillow and the town of Lee comes alive in ways both ordinary and extraordinary. Marketing interns walk up and down Main Street asking shop owners if they can hang posters. Vendors from Lee have provided a vast range of goods and services over the decades. Performers, students, and interns stop for coffee, a meal, or an ice cream cone. Local businesses advertise in the festival program, hoping to catch the attention of visitors who travel through Lee on their way to Becket. These everyday interactions, repeated year after year, have built a long and layered relationship between the Pillow and Lee. What began as a simple stop along the road to the festival has grown into a partnership that links art, commerce, and community.

The exhibit at the Lee Library was researched and curated by Joshua D. Bloom and is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Lee Cultural Council, a local agency funded by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Read + Hike Book Club is returning! Come discuss themes of ecology and humanity’s relationship with nature with other book and nature lovers in our reading and hiking club! Each month we will go on a leisurely hike with stopping points for book discussion. Some months will have guest lecturers. Participants may choose to come to all the meetings, some meetings, or just one!

July Book: Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

Read + Hike Book Club is returning! Come discuss themes of ecology and humanity’s relationship with nature with other book and nature lovers in our reading and hiking club! Each month we will go on a leisurely hike with stopping points for book discussion. Some months will have guest lecturers. Participants may choose to come to all the meetings, some meetings, or just one!

August Book: When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World by Jordan Thomas