Berkshire Summer Festivals
Williamstown/Stockbridge/Lenox/Bennington
July 17 – 22, 2005
Sponsored by tdf




This 6 day 5 night cultural tour of the Berkshire mountain area includes the following: Round trip private coach transportation from New York, coach at disposal throughout tour, 5 nights accommodations at Williams Inn in Williamstown, MA, breakfast daily, 2 dinners, 2 lunches, tickets for 5 performances and admissions per itinerary.  
 
Trip price: $1659 (double occupancy), details below.



Join our fifth annual cultural excursion to the beautiful Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts.  Since the 19th century the Berkshire area has been one of America’s premier summer vacation destinations, and today the Berkshires offer visitors a rich and varied array of first-rate music, theatre, dance, sculpture and art.  We visit the picture-perfect towns of Williamstown, Lenox, Bennington, and Stockbridge, and see a broad scope of the works of great American artists, from American impressionists at the Clark Institute to emerging sculptors and painters at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.  In the evenings reserved seats await us for five performances at renowned cultural centers including the Williamstown Theatre Festival (schedule to be announced), the Berkshire Festival Theatre (schedule to be announced), Shakespeare and Company (Shakespeare’s King John), Tanglewood  (Piano soloist Peter Serkin with the Boston Symphony conducted by James Levine), and at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (a contemporary ballet).  Our trip is paced so we have a morning cultural activity, time to refresh at the hotel, and then a late afternoon excursion with a featured evening performance in one of the Berkshire's charming towns.  Our hotel, the Williams Inn, where we spend five 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.  This is one of our most popular tours and has sold out regularly, so please register early.    
 






1.  Sunday, July 17     New York/Lenox/Williamstown
We meet our guide and depart from a central location in midtown New York City at 9:00am, traveling aboard a comfortable private motor coach for the 3-hour trip to Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  The 250+ acre property includes the Tanglewood Music Center, the Seiji Ozawa Hall, the Leonard Bernstein Campus, and a number of smaller studios, classrooms, and performance spaces.  After a picnic lunch (included) on the grounds, we enjoy today's Boston Symphony afternoon concert featuring piano soloist Peter Serkin and conducted by James Levine.  After the performance, we continue on 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.    



2.  Monday, July 18     Williamstown/Stockbridge
After our daily 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, this outstanding 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.  We return for lunch (on your own).    
 
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 The Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts.  In 1922, right here in the Glendale section of Stockbridge, he sculpted the extraordinary seated Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, first creating smaller models and then graduating to the imposing work we know today.  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.  Following our visit there is free time in Stockbridge for dinner (on your own - our guide will have a list of suggested restaurants) followed by an evening performance at the Berkshire Festival Theatre (schedule to be announced).  Now in its third century, the Stanford White designed theatre, sporting a new balcony and seats, an inclined orchestral floor and a refurbished lobby, continues to wear its years with great distinction.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a member of the National Trust.  Following the performance we return to our hotel in Williamstown.    



3.  Tuesday, July 19     Bennington/Pittsfield/Williamstown
This morning, after breakfast, we venture to Bennington, 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.    
 
After lunch on your own you may wish to explore Williamstown at your own pace, or you may join us for a visit to Arrowhead, the18th century home of Herman Melville, one of America's most celebrated authors.  From 1850 to 1863, Melville lived, farmed and raised a family near Pittsfield, having escaped the bustle of New York to practice his craft in the home he named Arrowhead.  It was in this modest home, now being restored, that he completed one of the towering masterpieces of American literature, Moby Dick.  During his years here, Melville also wrote such acclaimed works as Pierre, The Confidence Man and The Piazza Tales.  He developed many important literary friendships here, notably with author Nathaniel Hawthorne.    
 
Tonight we attend a performance at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.  The first season in 1955, performed at the Adams Memorial Theatre at Williams College, was an immediate success, playing nightly to packed houses.  Since then, it has met with non-stop critical acclaim.  Rex Reed described one production as "The most electrifying theatrical event of the summer." The Boston Globe raved, "Miracles every summer since 1955," while Newsweek called it "the best of all American summer theatres" and People magazine rhapsodized that "The showbiz capital of the US may, for once, be on neither coast.  The Williamstown Theatre Festival could boast the most powerful concentration of acting talent any place this summer."  This is the festival’s first season with its new artistic director, the Tony Award winning actor and director, Roger Rees.   This season's play schedule is to be announced in April.  



4.  Wednesday, July 20     Williamstown/Stockbridge
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.    
 
Then 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.    
 
There is time for an early dinner (on your own) before this evening’s visit to the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.  Visitors do not see Jacob (an obscure Biblical reference), or a Pillow (a nickname for the large, glacier scarred rocks), but they do see Dance, as it is presented nowhere else in the world.  Ted Shawn, the noted 20th century modern dancer, bought the 18th century farm in 1930 to rehearse his Denishawn dance company and toured the United States with his unique folk and ethnic approach to dance, eschewing staid European mannerisms and trying to educate the whole country about the possibilities of dance.  Tonight's performance features a contemporary ballet performance.  



5.  Thursday, July 21     North Adams/Williamstown/Lenox
This morning we visit the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) in North Adams.  Open to the public since May 1999, Mass MoCA is an extraordinary project that converted a 27-building historic mill complex in the Berkshire Mountains into a multi-disciplinary center for visual, performing and media arts.  More than a static display hall, Mass MoCA provides space, tools, and time for artists, cultural institutions, and businesses working in sculpture, theater, dance, film, digital media, and music.  New work is created in partnership with cutting-edge technology and new media companies.  International in scope, Mass MoCA presents exhibitions and performances by renowned artists and cultural institutions, but it also is a place where the process of creativity is explored; rehearsals, art fabrication shops, and production studios are open to public view, and the lines between `backlot' work and front-of-the house are deliberately blurred.  We return to Williamstown for lunch.    
 
In the afternoon we visit 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 have an early farewell dinner at a local restaurant followed by a performance of Shakespeare’s King John at Shakespeare & Company.  Founded in 1978, Shakespeare & Company aspires to create a theatre of unprecedented excellence rooted in the classical ideals of inquiry, balance, and harmony; a company that performs as the Elizabethans did - in love with poetry and the mysteries of the universe.  With a core of over one hundred artists, the Company generates opportunities for collaboration between actors, directors and designers of all races, nationalities and backgrounds.    



6.  Friday, July 22     Hancock Shaker Village/New York
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.    





This engaging experience includes:

  • Round trip private coach transportation from New York
  • Coach at disposal throughout tour
  • 5 nights accommodations at Williams Inn in Williamstown, MA
  • Breakfast daily; 2 dinners; 2 lunches
  • Tickets for Tanglewood (Boston Symphony)
  • Tickets for Berkshire Theatre Festival
  • Tickets for Williamstown Theatre Festival
  • Tickets for Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
  • Tickets for Shakespeare and Company
  • Admissions to Mass MoCA
  • Admissions to Williams College Museum of Art
  • Admissions to Clark Art Institute
  • Admissions to Bennington Museum
  • Admissions to Chesterwood
  • Admissions to Norman Rockwell Museum Hancock
  • Admissions to Shaker Village
  • Admissions to Edith Wharton's home
  • Admissions to Herman Melville's home
PROGRAM PRICES  
Per person (double occupancy) from New York:$1659  
Single Supplement:$375