Berkshire Taconic’s Arts Build Community (ABC) Incubation grants support the testing of new ideas to increase community engagement through the arts. Projects that serve Berkshire communities of color, youth, immigrants, or residents who have not felt included in the arts due to barriers such as transportation or cost, are eligible to apply. In 2025, $67,000 was awarded across 12 Berkshire nonprofits for ABC Incubation projects. 

Grantees Manos Unidas Multicultural Educational Cooperative and Pittsfield Senior Center’s Council on Aging shared their inspirations and process for their projects:

Manos Unidas’ Cosmic Butterfly Procession: Colorful Art on Parade Celebrates the Resilience and Creativity of the Immigrant Community

Manos Unidas is a Pittsfield-based community nonprofit established 28 years ago that uses education and the arts to create cultural awareness and unity. This year, co-founder Anaelisa Sophia Jacobsen was inspired to create a project that brought creativity, positivity and awareness to the local Latino and immigrant communities. Recognizing “the pain that our Latino communities are moving through right now,” she wanted to offer a new lens through which to view her community that demonstrated the hope, beauty, and resilience she sees, centering the people most affected by harmful narratives. She envisioned a creative process that could provide healing with “The Cosmic Butterfly Procession.”

Anaelisa, co-sponsor Cosmic Coarte*, and fellow artist-collaborators Jean Minuchin and Beth Fairservis designed a series of workshops leading up to the parade that provided safe spaces where people could be vulnerable and explore complex thoughts and feelings. To facilitate conversations, each stage of a butterfly’s growth and its global migratory pattern was used as a prompt. The larval stage invited people to consider what kind of nourishment and resources they needed to thrive—the chrysalis, what protections they required—the full-grown butterfly, what dreams they wanted to bring into the world.

Select workshops included writing, guided meditations, butterfly cape-making, and the creation of butterfly-shaped parade signs. The artworks were displayed during a colorful procession during Pittsfield’s First Friday in June, and children performed a short skit.    

One workshop participant, Katiria, an 8-year member of Manos Unidas, wanted to challenge herself to get out of her “safe zone" through art and connect it to the need in her community for compassion and understanding. Another participant shared that anyone who has migrated has undergone a transformation themselves and gone through a phase of needing protection and support. Aisha, an immigrant from Trinidad who became a U.S. citizen four years ago, is new to Manos Unidas. This project resonated with her, she shared, because she has experienced all the stages of being an immigrant and the long journey to achieve citizenship. 

Co-founder Anaelisa believes that arts experiences like The Butterfly Procession can embody resilience, pride and shared humanity as “the heart of who we are,” which, she says, “is more important than ever.”  

Pittsfield’s Council on Aging: Art Program for Seniors with Cognitive Challenges Engages Participants on a Deeper Level  

The Happy Club Heart to HeART art program at the Pittsfield Senior Center is the creation of Jennifer Reynolds, Director of Pittsfield’s Council on Aging. She noticed that seniors with cognitive challenges (dementia, Alzheimer's) and/or physical disabilities were responding to multi-sensory creative classes with a deeper level of engagement than during traditional recreational activities. She observed that hands-on, tactile, and varied creative activities gave seniors new outlets for personal expression and brought a sense of connection and calm to their lives. This inspired her and her colleague, Janie Bates, Supportive Day Program Coordinator, to “dream bigger” and expand their repertoire of programs. They chose immersive experiences that allowed for emotional and creative release—especially important for participants who struggle with speaking or writing and need to find alternative ways to connect with others.   

Art, music, dance, and crafts are uniquely suited to tap into the “whole person,” she says, and honor individuality in an uplifting environment.

Recent classes have included a terrarium-making class with Pittsfield Plant Connector, which allowed participants to gain a sense of purpose and pride; seniors brought home their terrariums to care for them. Creative writing is offered; facilitators listen to a story and write down the ideas of participants who can no longer write by hand and work with them to shape a final piece which is shared aloud with people at the center. A painting class yielded an art show of senior works displayed during Pittsfield’s First Friday celebration. 
 
Aimee Gelinas and the Tamarack Hollow drummers conduct a popular class at the center. The non-verbal, “shared language” of rhythm, Jennifer says, allows for emotions to be felt more deeply, reduces isolation, and can stimulate memory. “It is almost like they are traveling back in time,” she says of the seniors. The music “re-invites that joy, even at an elderly age.”   

Acknowledgements:

Research for this article included valuable firsthand insights and contributions from Emily Bronson, BTCF Senior Community Engagement Officer for Initiatives & Special Projects; Senior Center Council on Aging’s Janie Bates and Jennifer Reynolds; Manos Unidos’ Anaelisa Sophia Jacobsen, Jean Minuchin, Katiria and Aisha.