Tdf Berkshires
Cultural Tour
July 23 - 28, 2006
Sponsored by TDF




This 5 day, 4 night tour of the Berkshires includes: Coach bus transportation, accomodations at The Williams Inn, tickets to 5 performances and admission to numerous museums.    
 
Trip Price: $1,499.00 (Double Occupancy), details below.



Tdf Travel invites you to join our sixth annual cultural excursion to the beautiful Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts, where reserved seats await you for 5 performances at:  Tanglewood, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, The Barrington Stage and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. (Please note:  specific performances for all venues except Tanglewood will be confirmed after the 2006 seasons are announced in late March.). We visit the picture-perfect towns of Williamstown, Lenox, and Stockbridge, and see a broad scope of the works of great American artists, including  the Clark Institute, Bennington Museum and  Norman Rockwell Museum. Our trip is paced so that you have a morning cultural activity, time to refresh at the hotel, and then a featured performance in one of the Berkshire's charming towns. Our hotel, the Williams Inn, where we spend four nights, is in the heart of picturesque Williamstown. A New England treasure, the Williams Inn has colonial charm and a full spectrum of modern amenities such as an indoor heated swimming pool, sauna, and spa. Once again our trip will be escorted by our knowledgeable guide, Karen Goodman.






1.  Sunday, July 23     Take Off
We meet our guide and depart from midtown New York City (30th St. & 7th Avenue) at approximately 9:00am, traveling aboard a comfortable private motor coach for the 3-hour trip to Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. After a picnic lunch (included) on the beautiful 250 acre grounds, we enjoy today's performance  of selections from Mozart featuring Susan Graham, Hei-Kyung Hong, Kevin Tarver, and John Relyea.  They are accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of by James Levine. Following the performance, we travel to Williamstown where we check in at the Williams Inn. Surrounded by scenic mountains and farmlands, picturesque Williamstown is the quintessential Berkshire village, a wonderful blend of natural beauty, small town charm, and heightened cultural awareness. It's no wonder that Williamstown is called "the Village Beautiful." Home of the venerable Williams College, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country, this community offers much to refresh the mind, renew the soul and stir the imagination. This evening our welcome dinner is at our hotel. (Lunch) (Dinner)



2.  Monday, July 24     Stockbridge
After breakfast at our hotel we visit the renowned Clark Institute, founded by Robert Sterling Clark, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune, and his wife Francine. Though probably best known for the many examples of Renoir, Monet, Degas, and French 19th century works, the collection, which spans the Renaissance through the late-nineteenth century, continues to grow by purchase and gift. American artists, including Frederick Remington and Winslow Homer, are also well represented.  Following the tour you will have time for lunch on your own in Williamstown and the opportunity to relax before the afternoon’s activities.  
This afternoon we travel to Stockbridge to visit Chesterwood, the early 20th century country home of sculptor Daniel Chester French. In 1875, at the mere age of 25, he was commissioned to create the celebrated sculpture, The Minute Man, in Concord, Massachusetts. We visit his studio where he sculpted the extraordinary seated Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. French's genius transformed Chesterwood from a traditional farmscape of New England to both a celebration and devotional workshop of art. Over 500 pieces of sculpture are collected at Chesterwood and French's original studio. We then have free time for dinner on our own before our second included performance this evening at the Berkshire Theatre Festival (Performance tba – 2006 schedule will be announced in March). At 78 years old, the Berkshire Theatre Festival has the unique distinction of being the longest running cultural organization in Berkshire County and one of the first established regional theatres in the United States. The Stanford White's building, sporting a new balcony and seats, an inclined orchestral floor and a refreshed lobby, continues to wear its years with great distinction.  
(Breakfast)  



3.  Tuesday, July 25     Museums in New England
This morning, after breakfast, we venture to Vermont to visit the Bennington Museum, one of the finest regional history and art museums in New England. The museum houses the largest public collection of Grandma Moses paintings and memorabilia, along with the Grandma Moses Schoolhouse she attended as a child. The museum has an unsurpassed collection of Bennington pottery, an extensive array of American glass from the 19th to the early 20th century, American paintings and sculpture, and American furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries.  We arrive back in Williamstown for lunch (on own) and time to relax.  
 
This afternoon, we travel to the town of Stockbridge described by Norman Rockwell as "the best of America, the best of New England." We visit the Norman Rockwell Studio and Museum. Unquestionably one of America's most beloved and successful illustrators, Norman Rockwell took care to ensure that his work and legacy are well remembered at this 36-acre site, just minutes from lovely downtown Stockbridge. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of a visit to this Museum is the 19th-century carriage house, which was Rockwell's actual studio. It was transplanted from the village to these grounds in 1986 and offers an intimate glimpse into the world of the artist. It is furnished exactly as Rockwell had it, and gives one the strange feeling that the artist has simply stepped out for a moment, and may pop back in at any time.    
 
We continue to Lenox, described by LIFE Magazine recently as "Currier and Ives lovely." A century ago, many of America's wealthiest families were attracted to Lenox by the clear air and commanding vistas. They built magnificent summer mansions and called them cottages. At Edith Wharton's Berkshire home, The Mount, we see a fine example. The Edith Wharton Restoration was founded in 1980, and was established to return the estate to its former grandeur reflecting the life, times, art and ideas of Edith Wharton. Our tour combines literary, historical, biographical, and design aspects of Edith Wharton's life and writings. As part of the current restoration visitors will see Edith Wharton's bedroom suite, the "Private Sanctum" where she wrote some of her most important works. We return to Williamstown where we have dinner on your own followed by our third performance at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.  Nestled in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, the Williamstown Theatre Festival is a summer-long celebration of theater that brings together a vast and impressive array of artists and offers audiences varied cultural experiences. Every summer, WTF presents approximately two hundred performances of classic and new plays.  Since the Festival was founded in 1954, many WTF productions have transferred to Broadway, Off-Broadway and to regional theatres around the nation.    



4.  Wednesday, July 26     Williams College Museum of Art
This morning we visit the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). One of the finest college art museums in the country, the museum houses 12,000 works that span the history of art. Within the broad range of time periods and cultures represented, the collection emphasizes modern and contemporary art, American art from the late 18th century to the present, and the art of world cultures. In addition to displaying works from the permanent collection, the museum organizes loan exhibitions of outstanding works from other collections. Following we have time for an early lunch (on own).  
 
This afternoon we travel to Pittsfield for our fourth included performance, a matinee at the Barrington Stage Company.   From 2003-2005 The Barrington Stage Company produced three world premieres including the acclaimed musical hit The 25th Annual Putnam Valley Spelling Bee.  The company has had an amazing eleven years, beginning with winning the Elliot Norton/Boston Theatre Critics Award in its very first year for The Diary of Anne Frank.   We have a farewell dinner at a local restaurant before our fifth and final included performance at Jacob’s Pillow.  Visitors will not see Jacob (an obscure Biblical reference), or a Pillow (a nickname for the large, glacier scarred rocks), but they will see Dance, as it is presented nowhere else in the world.  (Breakfast) (Dinner)  



5.  Thursday, July 27     Hancock Shaker Village
We check out of the hotel and spend the morning at Hancock Shaker Village, an outdoor history museum of Shaker life on 1200 acres in the scenic Berkshire Hills. The Shakers were founded in England in 1747. Their frenzied religious dancing inspired their somewhat pejoratively applied nickname. The twenty restored historical buildings in the Hancock Shaker Village are a vital link to the past of America's most successful communitarian society, showing their practiced harmony with the land and their passionate dedication to producing simple yet elegant furniture and dwellings. After the visit we begin our journey back to New York, stopping for lunch (included). We anticipate arriving in New York at approximately 6:00pm (Breakfast) (Lunch)





This engaging experience includes:

  • Round trip private coach transportation from New York
  • 4 nights accommodations at Williams Inn in Williamstown, MA
  • Breakfast daily; 2 dinners; 2 lunches
  • Tickets for five performances
  • Admissions to: Clark Art Institute, Chesterwood, Norman Rockwell Museum, Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Edith Wharton's home
PROGRAM PRICES  
Per person (double occupancy) from New York: $1,499.00  
Single Supplement: $265.00