County arts alliance is focused on housing and transit needs

BY MATT MARTINEZ

The Berkshire Eagle

Ten arts organizations in the Berkshires announced a partnership Tuesday to advance support for infrastructure, transportation and housing needs in the county.

The recently formed Berkshire Arts and Culture Alliance first convened on Oct. 31, 2024, after leaders at its member organizations met to discuss shared challenges and interests. It has met once every two months since, said Pamela Tatge, creative and executive director of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and will soon begin meeting monthly to unify the voices of the institutions and seek resources to bolster the local economy.

The alliance’s agenda thus far prioritizes development of housing for full-time and seasonal workers, greater intra-county and statewide transportation options and collective infrastructure improvements. Other efforts include research into climate resiliency, enhancing safety measures on cultural campuses and joint marketing efforts to attract visitors.

“Moving forward, it’s our intention to provide public and private sector leadership a platform to address pertinent to issues facing the county that involve the interests of arts and culture,” wrote Chad Smith, president and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “We look forward to doing all we can to ensure that our region remains the premier cultural destination in our country.”

Tatge said the alliance’s efforts are an extension of their overall role in the local economy— a tourism industry that generates around $1.5 billion of economic impact annually in Berkshire County.

“We appreciate what we mean to the creative economy in Western Mass., and what we mean to the whole economy of Western Mass. ... we need to be at the table, and we want to use our creativity and our proven ability to innovate to serve the goals of our county,” Tatge said in an interview with The Eagle.

Member organizations include Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Tanglewood, the Clark Art Institute, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Shakespeare and Company, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Norman Rockwell Museum and Williamstown Theatre Festival.

The roster of founding member organizations represents 3,100 full and part-time employees, a collective operating budget of $212 million annually and programming which draws over 1.7 million visitors to the county, according to the release.

The alliance is the first effort of its kind since the formation of Berkshire Creative in 2007, when local cultural organizations partnered across business sectors to measure and grow the creative economy’s impact in Berkshire County. That organization, previously chaired by Norman Rockwell Muse-um Director Laurie Norton Moffatt, consolidated with 1Berkshire in 2015.

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