North Adams Selected for Levitt Amp Music SeriesStaff Reports,
03:14PM / Tuesday, January 05, 2016 | |
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Wilco may not be in the city this summer, but there will still be music in the downtown.
A $25,000 grant from Levitt Pavilions, which will have to be matched with another $20,000, will bring 10 free professional public concerts to Colegrove Park.
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Berkshire Cultural Resource Center applied for the grant, one of 15 awarded this year to communities across the nation.
This is the second year of the Levitt Foundation's music series that seeks to bring communities together through musical performances and to reinvigorate the neglected public spaces where they occur.
In its grant application, BCRC stated "The Levitt AMP free music series will amplify this city's evolution, and provide celebratory events that instill community pride and illustrate the potential for a newly renovated greenspace in the heart of the city as a place to gather to hear live music."
Some 40 applicants entered the second round of grant making with the 25 semi-finalists determined by public online voting this past fall. North Adams maintained a high vote count that kept it near the top of the list. The 15 winners were selected by the foundation.
Colegrove Park was selected at the place for the series as a way to redevelop the long-neglected green space. A public park since 1904, it was used for many years as the main entrance to Drury High and its successor, Conte Middle School. But with the school's renovation into Colegrove Park Elementary, the somewhat hazardous and deteriorating concrete stairs were removed from the upper portion of the sloped lot. The lower decorative steps and the central garden circle were refurbished.
The park had been used long ago for a concerts, acting as greenspace in what had been a densely populated downtown of tenements and mills. The idea is to rejuvenate the park as a space for public gatherings and performances.
The Levitt grant will have to be matched by $20,000, expected to be raised locally and through in-kind donations.
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