Stories from surrounding communities, closest first.
Lakeville Journal · Great Barrington, MA
Nearby: Great Barrington, MAGREAT BARRINGTON — Climbers of all ages and ability levels filled Berkshire Boulders on Friday, Nov. 6, as the new rock climbing gym celebrated its grand opening just north of downtown on Route 7. As the crowd began to build at 4 p.m., founder Nick Friedman said it was gratifying to see the long-planned project finally open to the public. “It’s a bit surreal but it feels good,” he said. “It’s this idea that’s been percolating in climbers’ minds for decades.” The type of climbing on offer is bouldering — a short but often powerful and technical form of the sport, usually practiced on walls less than about 14 feet tall. Mats cushion falls, and climbers use no harnesses or ropes. Beginners need only a pair of climbing shoes and some chalk, available to rent for $7, making bouldering a popular entry point to the sport. In addition to climbing, the gym offers a fitness room with exercise equipment, a shower, and a back porch and picnic tables overlooking the Housatonic River valley.
Lakeville Journal · Great Barrington, MA
Nearby: Great Barrington, MANow celebrating 40 years, Cowboy Junkies will perform Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The band is celebrating its long career with a triple-vinyl retrospective album called “Open to Beauty,” featuring a selection of songs from 2000 onward, including material from its most recent release, “Such Ferocious Beauty.” Initially, the band was inspired by the dark, spacious qualities of post-punk and goth groups such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division. But the musicians soon settled on an organic, rootsy country-blues sound with hints of psychedelia. Their hushed sound developed from playing quietly in their garage rehearsal space so as not to disturb their neighbors. Formed in 1985, the band made a huge impact on the indie rock scene with its second album, “The Trinity Session,” recorded with a single ambisonic microphone at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto.
Lakeville Journal · North Canaan, CT
Nearby: North Canaan, CTNORTHWEST CORNER — Libraries provide much more than books nowadays, and eligible Connecticut residents now have another resource available. All six libraries in the Region One school district are participating in Laptop ConneCT, a program that allows eligible residents to borrow laptops for long-term use. “It’s terrific,” said Meg Sher, executive director of the D.M. Hunt Library in Falls Village. “We’ve already given out two.” Laura Moran, director of the Douglas Library in North Canaan, spoke enthusiastically about the program, saying it has particularly benefited people over 65. “They are able to use it for such things as telehealth,” she said. “They are finding it easier to read because of a larger screen and keyboard than on their phones.” Each library has received an allocation of laptops through the statewide program. The Dell Pro 16 laptops run Windows and have built-in cameras for video calls, online classes, virtual doctor appointments and more.
Lakeville Journal · North Canaan, CT
Nearby: North Canaan, CT“I think art is the thing that allows us to feel there’s something in the universe that loves us,” said painter Peter Cusack in his new studio, a mid-19th-century stone church on Main Street in North Canaan. For Cusack, art has always been a way of reaching toward something beyond the physical world. That sensibility runs through “Eternal: New, Recent, and Near Distant Paintings,” his upcoming exhibition in the church, a setting that seems an improbably good fit. Cusack recently moved his painting practice from Torrington into the former church at 58 Main Street. The move came about somewhat unexpectedly, after a change in ownership made his previous studio untenable. “At first I thought it was just gonna be too much,” Cusack said. When he first saw it, the building still looked unmistakably like a church, with its vaulted ceiling, stained glass and architectural details intact. It had served as a place of worship for generations before closing roughly 12 years ago.
Lakeville Journal · Sharon, CT
Nearby: Sharon, CTSHARON — The median sale price of a single-family home in Sharon reached $710,000 for the 12 months ending Oct. 31. The median, which excludes condominiums, was 16% higher than the $610,000 recorded for the 12 months ending Oct. 31, 2025, and 5% above the $677,500 recorded for the corresponding period in 2024. Sharon’s record 12-month median was $880,000, which was for the year ending August 2024. Single-family home sales totaled 33 for the 12 months ending Oct. 31, down from 37 for the same period in 2025 and 40 in 2024. The town’s highest 12-month sales volume was 87, recorded for the 12 months ending in May 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Annual sales over the past decade have typically ranged from 30 to 60. Housing inventory was up in early November, with 33 homes listed for sale, including one condominium. Of those, 13 had asking prices above $1 million and 11 were listed below the $710,000 median sale price.
Lakeville Journal · Sharon, CT
Nearby: Sharon, CTSHARON — Residents can honor loved ones while supporting local emergency responders through two holiday fundraisers: the Sharon Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary’s annual Memory Tree and the ambulance squad’s “Lights of Love” display on the town Green. The auxiliary is accepting $5 donations for ornaments bearing the names of family members, friends and loved ones. The Memory Tree will be displayed at Town Hall from Nov. 25 through Dec. 31. Tina Pitcher, an auxiliary member and Sharon’s town secretary, said she proposed the fundraiser in 2014 after Sharon Hospital stopped offering a memory tree. The auxiliary uses proceeds from the tree and other fundraisers, including bunco games, to help meet equipment needs at the fire department and ambulance squad, Pitcher said. The group has four or five members who also provide food and coffee to firefighters and other emergency responders at incident scenes.
Lakeville Journal · Chatham, NY
Nearby: Chatham, NYFALLS VILLAGE — Is popcorn really corn? Young Region One students put their knowledge of farms and food to the test during a visit from author, environmentalist and educator Nancy Castaldo on Friday, Nov. 6. Castaldo held three sessions at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, beginning with children in pre-K through second grade. A Chatham, New York, resident who has written about 25 books on environmental subjects for young readers, Castaldo opened her “Good Farms = Good Food” presentation by describing the working farms she passed on her drive to Connecticut. “I saw one that had animals called alpacas,” she said. “And another one with cows.” She introduced the children to different kinds of farms, drawing them into the discussion with a series of true-or-false questions about where food comes from. “People eat most of the corn grown in the U.S. How many think that’s true?” she asked. A handful of children raised their hands.
Lakeville Journal · Torrington, CT
Nearby: Torrington, CTThe following information was provided by the Connecticut State Police at Troop B. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. North Canaan DUI A 21-year-old driver was charged with driving under the influence after a single-vehicle crash on Casey Hill Road early Nov. 3, state police said. Troopers responding to an automatic crash notification found that Samuel Green had been driving north near the intersection with Route 44 when his Ford F-150 struck a Frontier utility pole, left the road and came to rest atop a dirt mound, police said. Green, the vehicle’s sole occupant, had no reported injuries. He is scheduled to appear Nov. 13 in Torrington Superior Court. North Canaan possession of a controlled substance Police arrested a Torrington man in North Canaan on Nov. 8 for alleged possession of a controlled substance after a routine traffic stop investigating an equipment violation.
Lakeville Journal · Litchfield, CT
Nearby: Litchfield, CTThe gallery is really meant to create a very intimate relationship with the artist and the story behind their work. —Jennifer TerzianOn a recent crisp, fall afternoon in Litchfield, Jennifer Terzian welcomed a steady stream of collectors, artists, and art-world insiders into her jewel box of an art space on South Street, just off the town’s manicured historic Green. The occasion was an opening for Jenny Kemp, an artist noted for balancing fluidity and structure in her abstractions through repetition, variation, and gradual shifts in hue. Hers is exactly the kind of tactile, process-driven work Terzian champions at a subterranean space that feels less like a commercial art gallery and more like stumbling into an impeccably edited sanctuary of contemporary thought. “I don’t really consider myself a traditional gallerist,” explained Terzian, a Southern California native who moved to Connecticut in 2008.
Lakeville Journal · Kent, CT
Nearby: Kent, CTThere’s a corner of YouTube populated by real-time footage of high-dollar art sales from prestigious New York and London auction houses like Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips. Hundreds of thousands of viewers routinely watch with rapt attention, popcorn and cocktails in hand, as recognizable pieces from art history make their way to the upper echelons of grossly unattainable hammer prices. Pieces can often start with opening bids of tens of thousands of dollars and work their way up to multiple millions. Bidding increments alone can grow to sums unattainable for the average American family in several lifetimes. Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, Connecticut, wants to help make fine art more accessible. The 2026 version of the gallery’s annual “Cool and Collected” exhibition is subtitled “The Gift Edit” and features dozens of works by fine artists at prices that are much more in reach than an art-world outsider might expect. More than 30 artists contributed pieces to the show.
The Berkshire Edge · Catskill, NY
Nearby: Catskill, NYDarlin’ Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, N.Y. Written by Michelle Carter Directed by Katy Early “You are really important.” In this world-premiere production of Michelle Carter’s “Darlin’,” it is clear that some additional work needs to be done before a perfect performance is viable. There is much that is good in this show, but a few things are confusing and feel incomplete. At the center of the play is the relationship between a single mother and her daughter. The daughter is still only a very young teenager, with lots of room to grow. The actress in this role also plays her own grandmother, and this provides half of the confusion that reigns here. There is also a man in the play who does many things, including straightforward narration, which makes little sense as that is not his principal role in the play. It provokes the question: Who is he, and why is he saying these things, and to whom?
