PITTSFIELD, Mass.—On Saturday, September 19, from 6 to 8 p.m., the Storefront Artist Project will host an artists’ salon with Northampton artists featured in RANGE and Pittsfield-area artists. Leslie Ferrin of Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield and Angela Zammarelli, one of the RANGE artists, will moderate. This event will be broadcast LIVE in several private Northampton residences; then, reproduced on VHS and made downloadable via the iTunes music store.

RANGE, a group exhibition featuring Northampton-based emerging artists that was organized in conjunction with the A.P.E. at Window, “calls across the geographic divide between Pittsfield and Northampton – cultivating a new communication for each of the towns’ emerging art communities – to extend the physical area where their work is seen.”

Ferrin Gallery was located in Northampton until 1979 -1999 when Ms. Ferrin and her business partner Donald Clark relocated to the Berkshires, first in Lenox and then to Pittsfield in 2007. This month, Ferrin Gallery features the work of other well-known established Northampton artists including pastels by RANGE co-curator, Elizabeth Stone to coincide with the show at Storefront Artist Project. Ms. Zammarelli, both an artist and curator, is based in Northampton but worked in Pittsfield in 2008. The two will use their direct experience of living and working in the two communities that are separated by a one hour drive and the geogrpahic divide of the area known as The Hilltowns, (where Ferrin currently lives), to generate a dialog between Pittsfield and Northampton artists. The Salon discussion will revolve around questions such as, "Is there is an east / west cultural corridor similar to the more known north / south one?" and "what is gained from an exchange project like this between communities of artists?"

The show and the as yet unplanned corresponding show of Pittsfield based artists A.P.E. grows from a series of meetings in early 2009 between artists and art organizers from the two communities. The SAP SALONS take place regularly as moderated discussions that pose questions and generate dialog within the visual arts communities.

RANGE Artists:

KATHY COUCH

JULIA HANDSHUH

MAT MATERA

TEDDY O”CONNOR

ALI OSBORN

LILY PEREIA

ANGELLA ZAMARELLI

Curators: Elizabeth Stone and Lisa Thompson

RANGE (which runs from September 5 to the 27th) and all of its related events are free and fully accessible to the public. The Storefront Artist Project is open Saturday and Sunday, from 12 to 5 p.m.