Berkshire Museum

/Home/

Berkshire Museum
39 South Street (Route 7)
Pittsfield, MA 01201

Main number 413-443-7171
General inquiries and for advance ticket sales ext. 10
Education Department ext. 13
Membership ext. 34
Public Relations ext. 28
Little Cinema movie listings ext. 75


Contact form
http://www.berkshiremuseum.org/about/contact.html
MISSION

The mission of the Berkshire Museum is to enrich, inspire and educate through interactions with the arts, history and the natural world.
History:

In 1903, Berkshire Museum founder, Zenas Crane, was inspired by such institutions as the American Museum for Natural Science, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He wanted to blend the best of these establishments in a new museum for the people of Western Massachusetts. Thanks in large part to Mr. Crane himself, the Berkshire Museum’s broad and varied collections include pieces from virtually every continent, a mixture of the whimsical and the exemplary, important fine art and sculpture, natural science specimens, and ancient artifacts.

As the third-generation owner of Crane & Co, a paper manufacturer that was (and is) the official supplier of paper to the U.S. Treasury, Mr. Crane invested his wealth in his community. He sought out art and artifacts for the Berkshire Museum, and encouraged collections that would bring home to the Berkshires a wide cross-section of the world’s wonders. The Berkshire Museum became a “window on the world.”

Diverse Collections
Crane purchased many of the Berkshire Museum’s first acquisitions. Included is a sizable collection of paintings from the revered “Hudson River School” including works by Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Edwin Church

The Berkshire Museum holds 19th-and 20th-century sculptures by American and European artists who embraced the Romantic interest in heroic stories of the ancient past. They are primarily neoclassical sculptures in polished white marble, though select sculptures in aluminum, lead, and bronze are interspersed as striking accents.

The diverse collections enough also feature artifacts of ancient history and natural science – specimens from around the world and across the ages: fossil collections, a 143-pound meteorite, shards of Babylonian cuneiform tablets, samplings of early Mediterranean jewelry, and representations of the Berkshire’s ecosystems including local mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, plants, and minerals.

The Berkshire Museum is the repository for objects associated with the lives of well-known figures in American history. The first successful expedition to the North Pole by Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson in 1908-1909 was supported by Mr. Crane, and Henson’s whole-body arctic fur suit, the sledge that made the trip, and other equipment found a home at the Berkshire Museum. Here also are the writing desk of Nathanial Hawthorne and the musket believed to have belonged to Israel Bissell (a cohort of Paul Revere) who made a midnight ride to Philadelphia to warn that “The British are coming!”

As the years passed, the Berkshire Museum has been a leader in presenting some of the most interesting and accomplished artists from the United States and abroad: Gilbert Stuart, Rembrandt Peale, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Sully, Paul C?©zanne, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and John Singer Sargent. In the 1930s, the Berkshire Museum was the first to commission two site-specific mobiles (then a unique form of art) from Alexander Calder, who went on to become one of the most significant artists in the 20th century. In the 1950s, the Berkshire Museum was the first to display the work of Norman Rockwell, and also it did not shy away from displaying artists that challenged convention, such as Andy Warhol, Red Grooms, Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, and Nancy Graves.

The Berkshire Museum continues to add to the collections through purchase and gift. In the 21st-century, acquisitions have focused on artists with national and international reputations who have strong connections to the Berkshires: Gregory Crewdson, Peter Garfield, Helen Febbo, Morgan Bulkeley, Stephen Hannock, and others.

The Berkshire Museum’s collections are also on the go. Well-known institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mystic Seaport, the Smithsonian Institution, the Guggenheim, and the Tate Gallery have all borrowed from the collections. The Berkshire Museum also creates entire original traveling exhibitions that travel throughout the United States and Canada including Enchanted Museum: Exploring the Science of Art and Kid Stuff: Great Toys from our Childhood.

In 2008, the Berkshire Museum completed Phase II of an extensive renovation, funded by the capital campaign, “A Wider Window.” Completed renovations include the replacement of the copper roof, the new, 3,000-square foot Feigenbaum Hall of Innovation, the restoration of the fireplace and Stirling Calder fountain in the art deco Crane Room, a new visitor center, and improved circulation throughout the historic building. Most importantly, Phase II includes the installation of a heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system throughout the facility. The climate control system not only greatly improves the comfort of our guests year-round, but will also preserve the Berkshire Museum’s collections, allows more of the collection to be displayed for the public, and make possible exciting loans and exhibitions from other museums. Fundraising is ongoing for Phase III, to be completed in 2010, includes a new passenger elevator, improved accessibility, an education center and classroom, and visitor amenities.

Copyright ©2003, Berkshire Museum