A small museum in the Berkshires · 122 years
The Berkshire Museum of Art is a midsize art museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1903. We hold a permanent collection of approximately 4,200 objects, with a focus on American and European works on paper, 19th–20th century photography, and a small but unusual collection of post-war ceramics. Eleven galleries, open Wed — Sun, year round.
SECOND FLOOR
§ 03 · THE COLLECTION
Our permanent collection consists of approximately 4,200 objects, of which roughly twelve percent are currently on view across the eleven galleries. Below — four objects we'd point you to first, on a single visit. The full online catalog includes 2,840 records, each with high-resolution images, full provenance, and conservation notes; we plan to complete the remaining 32% by the end of 2027.
Hilma af Klint · 1913 · watercolour and graphite on paper · gift of Mrs. R. Hayes-Bryant
See in Room 03 · upstairs east
Shōji Hamada · c. 1958 · stoneware with iron glaze · purchased 1962
See in Room 06 · upstairs north
Elisabeth Hopkins-Adair · 1939 · oil on linen · WPA commission
See in Room 11 · upstairs west
Roy DeCarava · 1962 · gelatin silver print · gift of the artist
See in Room 05 · upstairs east
— 2,836 more objects are searchable in the online catalog. Browse the full catalog →
Free admission Friday evenings 5 — 8 pm, every week year-round. Cash bar in the atrium · live trio in Room 11 from 6.
Free
Drop in →Lead curator Dr. Rachael Mukherjee on the Hilma af Klint exhibition, the Stockholm loans, and the long history of dismissal. 90 minutes · Room 07.
$8
Book →Drop-in family workshop for ages 5 — 11. Paper, brushes, and a quiet room; led by educator Sayda Rojas. Materials included.
Free w/ admission
Drop in →Historian Dr. Owen Calderón on the New Deal artists' programme in western Massachusetts. Q&A after. Room 02.
$12
Book →Members-only pre-opening hours in Room 07 · A Quiet Room. Six works, two hours, no phones, no crowd. Capped at 14 attendees.
Member free
Reserve →The 14-object highlights tour, led by a member of our docent team. Runs every Sun at 3 pm, all year. Free with admission, no booking.
Free w/ admission
Drop in →§ 05 — ABOUT THE MUSEUM
The Berkshire Museum of Art was founded on November 14, 1903 by a small group of summer-resident artists and patrons, in a converted carriage barn on East Street that is still part of the museum today. We moved into our current main building — the 1908 Beaux-Arts Hendricks & Trotter Pavilion, designed for us as a museum from the start — in 1909, and have expanded the campus four times since: 1928, 1962, 1991, and most recently 2018, with the Quiet Room wing.
We are an independent, accredited museum with about 22 full-time and 38 part-time staff, plus a docent corps of 64 volunteers. We are governed by a board of 18 trustees. The current Director is Idongesit Okorie-Brown, who joined the museum in October 2022 after eleven years at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the current Chair of the Board is Constance Wei-Lin, an attorney in Pittsfield.
What we try to be is a small civic museum that actually works — open the same hours every week, free-on-Fridays year round, with curators who answer their own email, a docent team that knows what's on the wall, and a collection that's not too large to look after properly. We currently meet that standard most of the time.
§ 06 · BECOME A MEMBER
A museum membership gets you unlimited free admission, a reciprocal admission program at 22 partner museums, members-only early hours, and a 15% discount in the shop and café. Every membership directly funds the conservation work we do downstairs. Memberships are tax-deductible and renew once a year.