inness Events

In conjunction with A Walk in the Country: Inness and the Berkshires, the Clark is offering a wide range of programming for visitors of all ages. All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. For information and tickets, call 413-458-0524.

Saturday, February 5, 6:00–8:00 pm
Opening Gala: "Summer Romance in the Winter"
Celebrate the opening of A Walk in the Country with an elegant and romantic Victorian-style gala, inspired by the garden parties of the nineteenth-century Berkshire "cottage" owners. Live music and the Berkshires' finest delicacies will be featured. Dress is semi-formal, with creative costumes related to the theme encouraged. Tickets are $35 for members, $45 for non-members.

Special Events
Sunday, February 20, 10:00 am–1:00 pm
Berkshire Pancake Brunch
Join us for a family-style pancake brunch. The brunch is $12 for adults, $10 for children ($10/$8 members) and reservations are requested for the brunch, with three seatings (10:00 am, 11:00 am, and noon).

Sunday, February 20, 1:00 pm
Snowshoe Hike
After the pancake brunch, members are invited to bring their own snowshoes and join Hank W. Art, co-author of the children's exploring guide WoodsWalk on a snowshoe hike up Stone Hill.

Saturday, February 26, 1:00 pm
Berkshire Music Sampler
An afternoon of music by Berkshire musicians will include jazz performers, contemporary singer-songwriters, and traditional folk musicians. Admission is free.
1:00 pm–Pamela Wyn Shannon
1:35 pm–The Ladies Auxiliary Ukulele Orchestra
2:15 pm–Wintergreen
2:50 pm–The Flying Garbanzos
3:25 pm–Ben Kohn
4:00 pm–Adam Rothberg
4:35 pm–Bernice Lewis

Sunday, March 20, 2:00 pm
New England Literary Sampler
"A New England Literary Sampler" will feature works by famous Berkshire authors read by Thomas C. Daly, head of education at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Lectures and Gallery Talks
Sunday, February 6, 2:00 p.m
Opening Lecture "Inness and the Berkshires"
Lecture by guest curator Maureen Johnson Hickey

Thursday, February 10, 12:30 pm
"Inness Beyond the Berkshires"
Gallery talk by Sarah Lees, assistant curator

Sunday, February 20, 2:00 pm
Public Conversation with Steven Hannock, Michael Cassin, and Sarah Lees
Contemporary artist Stephen Hannock will give his perspective on painting the Berkshires today in a public conversation with Michael Cassin, curator of education, and Sarah Lees, assistant curator of painting.

Sunday, March 6, 2:00 pm
"George Inness's Berkshire Patrons"
Lecture by local historian and guest curator Cornelia Brooke Gilder

Sunday, April 3, 2:00 pm
"Why Study George Inness"
Lecture by Mark Simpson, curator of American art

HOP, SKIP, & JUMP ACROSS AMERICA: In Search of the Cinematic Landscape
In conjunction with the Clark's winter exhibition A Walk in the Country: Inness and the Berkshires, this film series will travel across America through a selection of films in which the landscape is an important character in its own right. Organized in triads, each group of films travels through time as well as space, from distant to recent past to something like the present. All films projected from DVD in the Clark auditorium.

Friday, January 14, 4:00 pm
Black Robe (1991, 101 minutes)
Bruce Beresford directs Brian Moore's adaptation of his novel about a Jesuit mission to the Huron Indians in the pristine wilderness of "New France" in 1634. Nature is the silent but sublime witness to this savage, shocking clash of civilizations.

Friday, January 21, 4:00 pm
The Yearling (1946, 128 minutes)
Post-Civil War Florida is the on-location backdrop for this classic family story of a young boy's love for a fawn. Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman star in Clarence Brown's film of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's novel.

Friday, January 28, 4:00 pm
All That Heaven Allows (1955, 89 minutes)
Rock Hudson is a landscape gardener and avatar of Thoreau (believe it or not!) who wins the heart of New England widow Jane Wyman, suffocated by suburbia, in Douglas Sirk's brilliantly expressionistic melodrama.

Friday, February 25, 4:00 pm
Days of Heaven (1978, 95 minutes)
Terrence Malick mixes stark terror and transcendent beauty in a wide-eyed depiction of farming on the Great Plains a hundred years ago, starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, and Sam Shepard. Shown with short The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936, 25 minutes)

Friday, March 4, 4:00 pm
Louisiana Story (1948, 79 minutes)
Robert Flaherty's exploration of bayou country was financed by Standard Oil, but resulted in a grand final masterpiece by the father of the documentary form. Shown with documentary short, The River (1938, 31 minutes)

Friday, March 11, 4:00 pm
The Straight Story (1999, 112 minutes)
Director David Lynch dials back his weirdness in this touching tale of an old man driving a lawnmower across Iowa to reconcile with his estranged brother. Richard Farnsworth stars, with superb support from Sissy Spacek and Harry Dean Stanton.

Friday, April 8, 4:00 pm
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, 165 minutes.)
The ultimate horse opera, the greatest Western of them all -- leave it to the Italians to sing the myth of the Wild West, in this breathtaking aria by Sergio Leone. Claudia Cardinale stars, along with Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and Charles Bronson.

Friday, April 15, 4:00 pm
The Last Picture Show (1971, 126 minutes)
The romance of the West is mostly played-out on the barren windswept flatland of 1950s Texas, in a stifling small town where a stellar ensemble cast looks for love and escape in Peter Bogdanovich's masterful rendering of Larry McMurtry's novel.

Friday, April 22, 4:00 pm
Thelma and Louise (1991, 127 minutes)
The road beckons again in this latter-day buddy picture with a feminist twist. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis plunge into the wide-open spaces of the modern West in Ridley Scott's iconic tale of life on the run.