Great Barrington — BREAKING NEWS!!! I just heard that we received a $150,000 grant from the trustees of the Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick Trust. THIS IS INCREDIBLE! This generous donation will go a long way in helping us safely reopen the doors to the Triplex to the public. The Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick Trust, is a private charitable foundation established in 2004 by its namesake founders, who were known for their tradition of generosity and involvement within Berkshire County. Nothing gives us a greater sense of pride than to receive this grant. The words “the grant was approved knowing how important the Triplex is as an anchor in the community” is exactly how we feel about the Triplex. That it is an irreplaceable resource to the town of Great Barrington and all of the Berkshires. We cannot thank everyone at the Fitzpatrick Trust enough as this grant comes at an especially important time in our process of bringing the Triplex back to life.
In other big news this week, our Board of Directors met with Mackenzie Kruvant, Caroline Pratt, and Sophie Lavine, who volunteered to help us with the Triplex branding. For those of you who might not know exactly what “branding” entails, it has everything to do with the look and feel of a client’s project. For us, that means the inside and outside of the Triplex itself, the marketing, the signage, the website—essentially anything that has to do with how the Triplex presents itself. Between Mackenzie, Caroline, and Sophie, their clients include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, (last year’s Oscars), RCA. Barilla, J.P. Morgan, and the list goes on. Estelle Caswell, who was unable to be there for the entire meeting, completes this highly successful team of volunteers. Estelle takes ideas and transforms them into award-winning mixed media projects. Most recently, she was the creator, producer, and art director for Vox’s Emmy award-winning series “Earworm.” Her other clients include Planned Parenthood, Netflix, and FritoLay, among others. The women, all recent transplants from NYC, chose the Berkshires because of the lifestyle the area has to offer. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome them aboard as we work to create a Triplex that will be visually exciting, cohesive, and appealing to our community.
Speaking of visually exciting, Allegrone Construction, who started last week cleaning the theaters and literally stripping down Theater Two to fix some water leak problems, was delightfully surprised that, behind the sheetrock, some wonderfully mischievous and talented graffiti artists had left us a mural. We are now wondering what other secrets lie behind the walls. If anyone knows who did that graffiti, which had to have been done back in 1995 when the Triplex was under construction, please let us know. We want to thank them for this unexpected discovery.
Besides the professionals working on the inside of the Triplex to get it ready for our November opening, several of our board members, plus other “weekend warriors,” have been pitching in to help clean up the outside of the Triplex and our storefront. Hannah Wilkin, John Valente, and Matt Boudreau weed whacked, weeded the patio, and planted mums, while Russ Garrison, Luis Santana, and I cleaned up the storefront adjacent to the Triplex this past weekend.
Bill Shein, the founder and writer of The Berkshire Argus, a free newsletter that tells in-depth stories about our region, interviewed me and Managing Director Ben Elliott about the Triplex—where it is now and where it hopes to be—for his podcast. The Argus features long-form reporting and audio storytelling. Here is the link to the Argus home page, where the podcast about the Triplex will be prominently featured.
In closing, I would like to share a quote from Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from a donor who included it along with a $500 donation in cash to our Save the Triplex fund today, “for what you want, above all things, on a raft, is for everybody to be satisfied, and feel right and kind towards the others.” I can’t think of a better message to all of us in this community as we bond together to save the Triplex. For more info on the Triplex or how to donate, go to savethetriplex.org.
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