The greatness of Great Barrington is that it can be many things to many people. It can be that sleepy New England town with its luxurious shops waiting to embrace you. It can romance you at its sexy restaurants. It can smell of rocks and earth beneath your hiking boots. It can edify and enlighten with its dedication to the arts, and it can humble you with the way its people approach their community's (and the nation's) problems with resoluteness and compassion. Great Barrington is at once in the middle of nowhere and the middle of everywhere.
Great Barrington Insider Scoop
Ken Roht, Artistic Director for the Daniel Canter of Bard College at Simon’s Rock“In January, our Daniel’s Art Party started nurturing relationships in the arts and with many other Berkshires organizations. I have found an open-minded curiosity about taking part in new, community-engagement projects. My goal is to continue to find creative ways to bring all of us together as a vibrant and unified community, making unique and joyful performing arts projects. Personally, I’ve come to love Great Barrington’s Goodwill store. Such incredible finds! And I’ve finally settled on Rubi’s as my favorite morning coffee destination.”
Alan Chartock, President and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio
We have lived in the Berkshires for 40 years and in Great Barrington since 1985. We love it! It’s a phenomenal town and has virtually everything you could want. I can’t think of another place like it. Railroad Street is the best place in the whole world. It’s become a little West Village. The Mahaiwe Theater is fantastic. You’re a 15-minute walk to Lake Mansfield. You’re a half an hour from Jacob’s Pillow and Tanglewood. When people think of the Berkshires, what they picture is everything we’ve got.
Gwendolyn VanSant, CEO and Founding Director of Multicultural Bridge
For 10 years Multicultural Bridge has been bridging the gap for underserved communities here in Great Barrington and throughout the county. The community has shown that it cares and what we’ve done is all preparation to have the even tougher conversations around things like racial inequality and police activity. It’s important to build up muscles around these conversations. Part of what we focus on is the tension between visitors and second homeowners and people that live here and help to show that it’s not all white and it’s not all affluent. We are starting to use the legacy and local history of W.E.B. Du Bois as something everyone can come together around to have conversations around unchecked racial tension and lack of understanding.
Amparo Vollert, Architect and board member at the Great Barrington Rudolph Steiner School
“There are many aspects that I think makes Great Barrington a wonderful place to live and raise a child. The beauty of the natural landscape, which both expands the mind with its breathtaking mountain views and intrigues the senses with anything from the bursting colors of a native wildflower to the velvety moss growing on a rock. I’ve discovered that every season, with its particular light, colors, sounds, and even temperatures, has inspired me on levels I never imagined.
H Emerson Blake Editor-in-Chief at Orion magazine
“Orion moved here from the city in 1996, in the knowledge that this is a community that wants to take care of one’s own place. Communities set the tone for our culture and our culture sets the tone for how we treat our environment. The South Berkshires have a history of seeking community identity. Wendell Berry said that any understanding of human values starts with the land. There are more community supported agriculture projects here than just about anywhere in the country. They’re enacting the ideals of human values that start at the community level.”