Are you going to be Lounging here tonight>?
Although we have been a bit quiet on the matter, the county-nay, the region’s biggest art party is coming to the P-Field this weekend!!!

IS183 Art School of the Berkshires will throw it’s annual blow-out and fundraiser -RADIOACTIVE BODEGA tommorrow at East Coast Refinishing. Preparations have been ongoing for months and have involved artists and art minded individuals from across the county in its execution.

Very little has eeked out, as to how the large industrial space will be converted, except that a suspended van is involved and quite a bit of welding. But PCOM’s Jay Elling is on-site today documenting the last minute preparation and giving you PCOM readers the sneaky peek!

Tickets for the dance party are $50 and include chocolates by Chocolate Springs, hors d’oeuvres by Kate Baldwin Caterer and drinks sponsored by Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Domaney’s Discount Liquors and Pittsfield Breworks- that’s right, open bar. And in that vein, Abbot’s Limousine and Car Service is offering a discounted rate of $20 (tip not included) one way rate for trips to and from the party.

Don’t have tickets yet?! Click here to buy or call IS183 @ 413.298.5252 x100, or get them night of f East Coast Refinishing.

This event is critical to the health of the art school as it is the source of almost 1/3 of the contributed income IS183 needs to operate its outreach, after-school and scholarship programs, which serve numerous Pittsfield students and employ many Pittsfield artists.

ABOUT IS183

In the summer of 1991, IS183 Art School opened its doors in what continues to be its historic landmark home, Citizens Hall, in Stockbridge. Some 50 community citizens signed up for art classes that first year. Eighteen years later in the summer of 2009, IS183 Art School welcomed almost 500 students to its studios in this same facility, over a two month period.

From absolute beginners to seasoned professionals, the programs at IS183 offer a wide range of artmaking opportunities, regardless of means. Last year almost $10,000 in need-based scholarships were awarded. Further, IS183 employed over sixty five faculty artists and served over 1,200 students of all ages—children, teens and adults, from the Berkshires and beyond—in year-round classes, workshops and intensives with local, regional, national and international faculty in Ceramics, Fiber Arts, Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Photography, Jewelry and Mixed Media.

ABOUT EAST COAST REFINISHING

In 1999, when Pete and Claudia Melle purchased the vacant Lipton Steel plant on Industrial Drive in Pittsfield, they had a business plan to convert the cavernous 28,000 square feet into the largest surface refinishing and painting company in Western Mass.

The raw site was perfect, with 30 foot ceilings, electric cranes and space large enough to
accommodate giant 18 wheelers. They installed a huge, 800 square foot paint booth,  one of the largest in the state. Five years later East Coast Refinishing has a reputation for excellence on a large and artistic scale.

Many regional artists have iron, steel and stone scale finished or refinished at East Coast. Since taking up residency they opened another business, Surface Stripping Technologies, for specialty sandblasting and polishing, and share the old building with Powers Industries, a start up steel fabrication and welding company and Keith Hadsell’s Custom Cabinetry, a fine woodworking shop. East Coast is a model of resurrecting a brown field, bringing jobs and life to the community, and supporting local arts.

Art is necessary. So is supporting it.