About Us
Fostering a vibrant jazz community in the Berkshires through performance, education, and collaboration.
Our Mission
Our mission is to be a contributing force in building cultural diversity, art education, and economic growth in the Berkshires. We are dedicated to the awareness, preservation, and advancement of the uniquely African American art form known to all as jazz, which has evolved into a collection of various styles, including straight-ahead, fusion, Latin, be-bop, smooth, jazz blues, swing, Dixieland, Afro-Cuban, chamber jazz, and more. We bring to the Berkshires both top-name performers and new entrants from the various stylings.
Our History
Jazz in the Berkshires became a registered 501(c)3 in 2022. Jazz in the Berkshires Director Daphne Bolden, a decades-long jazz aficionado who lives in Williamstown, recognized the need for robust jazz programming in the Berkshires. As a result, she reached out to the Clark Art Institute to partner with Jazz in the Berkshires to create an accessible performance venue for everyone—including the thousands of students in the Berkshires, from college to grade-school level, both in public and private schools. From the very start, our programming has received extraordinary support, with standing-room only audiences. And we have attracted so many young people! We plan to expand our single-night concerts to multi-day festivals over the next few years, and we are reaching out to the music-loving community for monetary support through donations, grants, and sponsorships to reach that goal.
