© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

North Adams And Utica Receive $25K For Concert Series

This is a list of all the communities who won 2016 Levitt AMP concert series awards.
Facebook: Levitt Pavilions

North Adams, Mass. is one of 15 communities across the country awarded thousands of dollars to host a free summer concert series.Colegrove Park in North Adams will be the site of 10 free concerts this upcoming August through October, thanks to a $25,000 grant from Levitt Pavilions. Founded in 1973, the national nonprofit aims to empower communities to transform neglected public spaces into thriving destinations through the attraction of live music. The Berkshire Cultural Resource Center at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts applied for the grant. Jen Crowell is the center’s director.

“It looked like a really fitting event for North Adams,” Crowell said. “There are a lot of things that we do weekly or monthly during the summer in this cultural mecca of New England so it made of lot of sense to go for something like this.”

Online voting determined the top 25 communities, of which Levitt Pavilions picked 15 with the strongest applications. North Adams was second in online voting behind Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The Northern Berkshires enjoys other weekly summer events at Windsor Lake and Noel Field along with larger concerts at MASS MoCA. But Crowell says this series will include a diverse mix of music from out-of-town performers in a free festival-like atmosphere. She says late summer and early fall were chosen to include the MCLA community.

“To have it during a period of time when the MCLA students are here,” she said. “MCLA is a really vital part of the North Adams community and so we really didn’t feel like it was right to only do it during the summer.”

According to the grant application, North Adams’s Colegrove Park was designated in 1904 and enjoyed a fountain, tiered lawns, grand marble stairways and even a bandstand. Urban changes in the 1950s and 1970s left the park unused. Earlier this year, the dormant school next to the park reopened as Colegrove Park Elementary School thanks to a roughly $30 million renovation. Now more than 300 children go to class there.

“I’ve always looked at Colegrove Park like the backyard or green space for the downtown,” said Mayor Richard Alcombright. “It’s hugely accessible. From the corridor it’s walkable. It’s a beautiful little spot and particularly with the beautiful school above it on the hill, I really want to resurrect the park as a nice community green space.”

Alcombright says the concert series grant is the impetus to do more work on the park where he envisions outdoor movies and theater. 

“We’re going to look to bring electrical power into the grounds and then I’ll start seeing if I can raise money for either a permanent half-shell or a portable stage that we can move around the city for different performances,” Alcombright said. “We really want to make it a friendly place for the overall community and this concert series is really wants going to spark these next steps.”

The grant will need to be matched by $25,000 expected to be raised privately. Rutger Park in Utica, New York, was also awarded a concert series grant. Other communities include Frederick, Maryland, Denison, Texas and Carson City, Nevada.

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
Related Content