The Rapoza Center for the Arts is operating on Summer Street until renovations are complete at its permanent home in the former McBride Funeral Home.
ADAMS, Mass. — The Rapoza Center for the Arts challenges all to tap into their inner artist.
"Everybody has creative energy in them and it comes out in all different ways," owner Robin Rapoza Hauser said. "I want to help be on outlet for people to unleash that and by offering workshops and long-term courses at different price points, I am hoping to be able to be open to a wide range of people."
Originally from southeastern Massachusetts, Rapoza Hauser and her husband, John Hauser, stumbled upon Adams some years ago and found it to be the perfect place to open up their art center.
"We were on our honeymoon out here in the Berkshires and we just went to North Adams for the first time and one day we drove south," Rapoza Hauser said. "We ended up in Adams and we just fell in love with the town’s adorableness. It was just beautiful."
The two walked by the Steepleview Realty office on Park Street and saw the former McBride Funeral Home posted, which they eventually purchased.
The Liberty Street funeral home is being renovated but in the interim, the two opened up a location on 98 Summer St. this past summer.
Rapoza Hauser said she named the center after her father who, too, was a creative spirit.
"After my father had passed away in 2014, John and I got together and decided that we were going to open what I wanted to open for many years -- an arts education center," she said. "We decided to name it after my maiden name, which is in remembrance of my father Robert who was also a very creative man."
She currently is the sole instructor at this time and has pulled from her many experiences as an artist, teacher, actor, and even improv comedian to inform her courses.
"I have worn a million different hats and anything can be creative," Rapoza Hauser said. "I have been a teacher and have worked with children for more than half of my life ... I have worked in communities at many different income levels and with children from all different backgrounds. I want to be able to give art education a boost."
Current courses include drawing, watercolor, jewelry making, and improv comedy among others at different price levels.
Folks can sign up for these courses at the center, their Facebook, or on the future website.
Rapoza Hauser said they also offer drop-in workshops Monday through Friday. In the morning there is a preschool session between 9:30 and 11:30 when parents and guardians can create with their children. From 3 to 5:30 there is an after-school session and children ages 6 to 12 are invited.
People can sign up that day and the workshops cost $10 an hour.
Rapoza Hauser said different workshops and classes will be implemented this spring and summer as new faculty is brought on board.
She also looks to help the business community around her and organized the holiday walk this Christmas.
"I wanted to help in whatever way I could so I talked to all of the neighboring businesses and put it out there," she said. "It was a way to get everybody in the Christmas spirit."
They plan to hold more of these walks throughout the year.
Rapoza Hauser said she encourages everybody to explore their creativity and noted that her teaching method aims to break down art into its simplest form.
"There is no such thing is you can’t teach an old dog new tricks," she said. "I have a way of teaching that breaks down the technique into the very smallest things ... if you know what circles and squares are you can do as a sculptor does and carve away at the details with a pencil."
Rapoza Hauser said she is excited for the future of the art center
"It is for the love of art that is the number one reason I do this," she said. "I am an artist who is a teacher and I love teaching so I am really looking forward to what this year brings."
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A Rare Bird: Koperniak Stands Out in Triple-A
By Frank MurtaughThe Memphis (Tenn.) Flyer
With Major League Baseball’s September roster expansion just around the corner, Berkshire County baseball fans will be watching to see whether 2016 Hoosac Valley High School graduate Matt Koperniak gets the call from the St. Louis Cardinals. Heading into Tuesday night’s action, Koperniak had 125 hits this summer for the Cards’ Triple A affiliate, the Memphis (Tenn.) Redbirds. He is hitting .309 this season with 17 home runs. In his minor league career, he has a .297 batting average with 56 homers after being signed as a free agent by St. Louis out of Trinity College in 2020. This week, sportswriter Frank Murtaugh of the Memphis Flyer profiled Koperniak for that publication. Murtaugh’s story appears here with the Flyer’s permission.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- I’ve interviewed professional baseball players for more than two decades. There are talented players who, honestly, aren’t that interesting away from the diamond. They’re good ballplayers, and baseball is what they know. There are also very interesting baseball players who aren’t all that talented. Now and then, though, you find yourself in the home team’s dugout at AutoZone Park with a very good baseball player who has a very interesting story to share. Like the Memphis Redbirds’ top hitter this season, outfielder Matt Koperniak.
That story? It began on Feb. 8, 1998, when Koperniak was born in London. (Koperniak played for Great Britain in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.) “My dad was in the military,” explains Koperniak. “He was in Italy for a bit, then England. But I have no memories of that time.” Matt and his family moved back to the States — to Adams, Mass. — before his third birthday.
Koperniak played collegiately at Division III Trinity College in Connecticut, part of the New England Small College Athletic Conference. He hit .394 as a junior in 2019, but beating up on the likes of Tufts and Wesleyan doesn’t typically catch the eye of major-league scouts. When the coronavirus pandemic wiped out his senior season, Koperniak received an extra year of eligibility but, having graduated with a degree in biology, he chose to sign as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I’ve always loved baseball,” says Koperniak, “and it’s helped me get places, including a good school. My advisor — agent now — was able to get me into pro ball, so here we are.” He played in a few showcases as well as for the North Adams SteepleCats in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, enough to convince a Cardinal scout he was worth that free agent offer.
The Redbirds hosted Memphis Red Sox Night on Aug. 10, the home team taking the field in commemorative uniforms honoring the Bluff City’s Negro Leagues team of the 1930s and ’40s. Luken Baker (the franchise’s all-time home run leader) and Jordan Walker (the team’s top-ranked prospect) each slammed home runs in a Memphis win over Gwinnett, but by the final out it had become Matt Koperniak Night at AutoZone Park. He drilled a home run, a triple, and a single, falling merely a double shy of hitting for the cycle. It was perfectly Koperniak: Outstanding baseball blended into others’ eye-catching heroics.
“It’s trying to do the little things right,” he emphasizes, “and being a competitor. The Cardinals do a great job of getting us to play well-rounded baseball. Everybody has the same mindset: How can I help win the next game? You gotta stay in attack mode to be productive.”
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