From now through the end of February, check out a community art exhibit at the Great Falls Discovery Center, curated by Exploded View. The exhibit includes work by regional artists in multiple media exploring maps, the significance of place, and movement across boundaries. It asks questions such as: Where do you live? Where are you from? Where do you dream? How do you find your way? Where are your borders? Do maps lie? 

During these two months, you may also come upon members of Exploded View working in various corners of the building. Exploded View is a dynamic group of women artists and writers working together to create original performance and exhibition. 

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Montague Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

The Great Falls Discovery Center is located at 2 Avenue A in Turners Falls. For directions, hours, and more information about the Discovery Center, visit greatfallsdiscoverycenter.org.

With the announcement of the closing of Wilson’s Department Store in downtown Greenfield, it feels like the end of an era for the town. Wilson’s has been a landmark business for about a century and in recent times has drawn in customers to shop at one of the last old-time department stores in the region. While the closing of the store is a [...]

Now through December 31st, Salmon Falls Gallery in Shelburne Falls is hosting 16 different glass artists, all who are part of the Vermont Glass Guild. Their works fill the 2 featured exhibit spaces and cover an array of techniques including hot (furnace-worked), lamp (torch or flame-worked), warm (fused/slumped), as well as samples of [...]

Colrain, Massachusetts is a beautiful town in northern Franklin County, just below the Vermont line. The town draws many artists who seek inspiration from its natural beauty. There are so many artists, in fact that each year they all come together to host Crafts of Colrain Open Studio Tour. Grab a map and a friend and take a tour around [...]

It’s time for the wonderful annual Ashfield Fall Festival. This Saturday, October 12th and Sunday, October 13th, Ashfield’s Main Street will be filled with crafts, food, and music from 10 am to 5 pm on both days. 

Check out more than 50 local exhibitors including, Tom Kuklinski woodworking, Ed Branson hand-blown glass, and Walter Cudnohufsky watercolors. View the full list of arts and crafts vendors here. They will be stationed on the town common or the Upper Town Hall.

You’ll find lots of tasty autumn treats at the festival, such as home-made pumpkin donuts, apple pie, and applesauce sundae. Get your savory fix as well with warm chili, burgers, crawfish pasta, or vegetarian and kids options, too.

Bring the kids because there will be tons of entertainment and games, including the pumpkingames! Check out the full lineup of performances, as well, here. Don’t miss out on this amazing community event, with the backdrop of the beautiful fall foliage. 

For more information go to www.ashfieldfallfestival.org.

This Saturday and Sunday, September 21 and 22, check out the Old Deerfield Fall Craft Fair. Held on the lush and beautiful grounds surrounding Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, MA, the Fall Craft Fair features 150 artisan craft booths from all over the area. You will find every kind of craft from fiber to pottery to jewelry and more! Plus, specialty food offerings, live music, and free craft activities for all ages, provided by Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association. You can also stop by the Yankee Candle booth, one of the festival’s long-time sponsors, to find beeswax candles, enter to win a raffle prize, and get a $20 off coupon. 

The craft fair hours are Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is $7 for adults and children 12 and under are free. Visit www.deerfield-craft.org for more information and to view the list of crafters. 

For the past 35 years, the Charlemont Reggae Festival has been bringing good music and good vibes to our beloved Charlemont in the hills of Western Franklin County. This Saturday, August 17th, spend the day at the Charlemont Fairgrounds and join the loving community of people who come out for the reggae festival. There will be food vendors [...]

Johnson Hill Farm is up on a hill, nestled in a Hollow surrounded by the rolling hills of Buckland, Massachusetts. This Saturday and Sunday, the farm will host a few more visitors than normal for its annual [...]

Do you want to be transported to medieval times? This weekend you can at the Mutton and Mead Medieval Festival in Montague, Massachusetts. Started in 2011, the Mutton and Mead Festival is a highly anticipated annual event, where medieval England comes alive in Western Massachusetts. Once a year, the fictitious Mutton and Mead Tavern hosts their town’s summer festival and festival goers are brought back to the 13th century.

Children and adults alike are bound to find something that intrigues them at the Mutton and Mead Festival. The schedule is filled with events for Saturday and Sunday, June 15 and 16 from 10 am to 6:30 pm. See the joust where brave knights on horseback compete on the field of honor. Play games of skill and shoot a round of archery. Meet medieval characters such as Robin Hood and Maiden Marion. Explore the enchanted forest. Plus, enjoy many more comedy, stunt, and Shakespeare acts. View the full lineup here.

Local vendors from around the valley will be there as well, selling artisanal crafts, costumes, art, body products, tarot card readings, and more. Come hungry because there will also be lots of food for sale, and of course ales and mead too. See the full list of vendors here.  

The Mutton and Mead Festival is a project by the Knighten Guild. For directions to the festival, to purchase tickets, and for more details, visit their website.

For the 10th year in a row, Shelburne Falls local theatre company, Piti, will hold their sweet performing arts festival, Syrup! This year, the festival will take place at the Shelburne Buckland Community Center in Shelburne Falls, with the benefit of having two stages for their performances. The�two-part event is scheduled for Saturday, March 9th and 23rd. This years Syrup festival will feature world class performances for all ages, a syrup tasting, free Real Pickles, and more.

Help Piti kick off the festival at 11 am on Saturday, March 9th, with a pancake brunch. Admission is free, just pay for your organic buckwheat pancakes and sample different local syrups. At noon, enjoy selections of Greatest Bits Volume 1 played by Carrie Ferguson. Then at 2:30 pm, Piti Theatres Olde Coleraine will return after a 3-year hiatus, a musical about Colrain at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. At 3:30 pm, experience the clown performance of award-winning Alex the Jester. After his performance, Alex will lead a workshop called Primal Talk: Non-Verbal Stuff Made Fun for teens and adults about communication tools. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for students/seniors, and $5 for kids for the performances and $15 for the workshop.

Two weeks later come back for Day 2 of Syrup on March 23rd, an afternoon of works in progress showings and syrup tasting at The Barn at 31 Water Street in Shelburne Falls. This event is only for those aged 15+ and admission is free. The works to be shown include Narieka Maslas clown/dance piece and Jonathan Mirins Canary in the Goldmine a staged reading of the story of how him and his wife and production partner developed microwave sickness/electrical sensitivity.

Buy your tickets in advance and get more information at http://ptco.org/festivals/syrup/. Email info@ptco.org to register for the workshop. Have a sweet time at Syrup!

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