Berkshire Museum To Offer Lecture By Raya Ariella And Booksigning With Leo Nash

11:12AM / Monday, December 03, 2007Print Story | Email Story

Raya Ariella, Climate USA Coordinator for Climate Crisis Coalition, will speak at the Berkshire Museum in Downtown Pittsfield on Saturday, December 8 at 3:30 p.m. Her topic will be â€œGrease Cars: Alternative Transportation in the 21st Century. Ariella will discuss her own journey to fueling her car with peanut oil. Visitors will learn how to make the switch to â€œgrease carsâ€ themselves, as well as simple ways to lessen their impact on the earth. Preceding the lecture, the Berkshire Museum Shop will offer a booksigning event with A. Leo Nash, author and photographer of Burning Man: Art in the Desert, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. The program is presented in connection with the Festival of Trees On the Move and is free with Festival admission. Raya Ariella grew up in North Egremont on a small farm and has worked locally on environmental issues and projects, including the Art of Recycling project in Great Barrington. She now works at the Climate Crisis Coalition in South Lee where she helps people to understand and act on the urgency of climate change. Raya still lives in North Egremont where she raised her son, grows much of her own food, and drives a car that runs on recycled fryer oil. Leo Nash is a writer and photographer who lives in Oakland, Calif. A regular creative participant in Nevadaâ€™s famed Burning Man Festival, Nash documented the event in words and photographs in his new book, Burning Man: Art in the Desert, published by Harry N. Abrams ($29.95). In his San Francisco Chronicle review critic Kenneth Baker wrote, â€œNashâ€™s moody pictures, all in black-and-white, evoke the sort of creative madness that he and others say propels them into the desert.â€ Nash will sign copies of the book, available for sale in the Berkshire Museum Shop next door to the museum at 31 South Street. The lecture is offered in conjunction with the 23rd Annual Festival of Trees on view through December 31, 2007. 200 decorated trees celebrate this year's theme "On the Move" as tree designers look to planes, trains, and automobiles for inspiration. Highlights of the 2007 Festival include displays of vintage wind-up toys from the private collection of Victor Reiling, model trains, and antique skis, skates, and sleds from the Berkshire Museumâ€™s collection. The Festival of Trees is sponsored by Legacy Banks Foundation. The Berkshire Museum is located at 39 South Street on Route 7 in Downtown Pittsfield. The galleries are open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays noon to 5 p.m. The Berkshire Museum Shop is located at 31 South Street in Downtown Pittsfield, and is open during Berkshire Museum hours. The Berkshire Museum will be closed for construction from January 1 through late March, 2008. For more information, contact the Berkshire Museum at (413) 443-7171, ext. 10, or visit www.berkshiremuseum.org

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Pittsfield Cannabis Cultivator Plans Dispensary

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
12:57PM / Friday, December 26, 2025

PITTSFIELD. Mass. — A cannabis cultivator and manufacturer has opted to sell its products on site in Downing Parkway.

The Zoning Board of Appeals this month approved a special permit for J-B.A.M. Inc. to operate a dispensary out of its existing grow facility. There will only be changes to the interior of 71 Downing Parkway, as there will be less than 500 square feet of retail space in the 20,000-square-foot building.

"My only concern would be the impact, and really would be traffic, which I don't think is excessive, the odor, if there was one, but that doesn't seem to be an issue, and I think it's a good location for a marijuana facility," board member Thomas Goggins said.

The company's indoor cultivation site plan was approved in 2019, an amendment to add manufacturing and processing in 2021, and on the prior day, a new site plan to add a retail dispensary was approved by the Community Development Board.

J-B.A.M. cannabis products are available in local dispensaries.

The interior of the facility will be divided to accommodate an enclosed check-in area, front entrance, retail lobby, secure storage room, offices, and two bathrooms. There are 27 parking spaces for the facility, which is sufficient for the use.

No medical or recreational cannabis uses are permitted within 500 feet of a school or daycare, a setback that is met, and the space is within an industrial park at the end of a cul-de-sac.

"The applicant desires the restructuring of the business to be more competitive in the industry with the ability to grow and sell their own cannabis products so they have more financial stability," Chair Albert Ingegni III, read from the application.

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