Five Colleges, Incorporated: Museums10 and Veridian Village Announce Partnership

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Museums10 and Veridian Village at Hampshire College Announce Partnership, Shared Commitment to Lifelong Learning

Museums10, a partnership of 10 museums in Western Massachusetts, and Veridian Village at Hampshire College, a planned residential community for people interested in living on Hampshire College's campus, today announced a marketing partnership to expand upon the rich educational and cultural offerings of the Pioneer Valley.

As part of the partnership, Veridian Village will be a corporate sponsor of Museums10 and contribute $20,000 to underwrite marketing and programmatic support for the Museums10-sponsored BookMarks. Highlighting the Pioneer Valley's great literary traditions with a series of exhibitions and programs dedicated to bookmaking, printing, picture book art, literature, and literacy, the BookMarks initiative is supported in part by local booksellers, artists, area chambers of commerce, and the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Museums10 is an initiative sponsored by Five Colleges, Inc. Veridian Village is being developed by Beacon Communities Development LLC in conjunction with Hampshire College.

"From our neighbors, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the National Yiddish Book Center, to the other museums across the Pioneer Valley, Museums10 represents the best of what Western Massachusetts has to offer in terms of educational and cultural enrichment," said Pamela Goodman, president of Beacon Communities Development, the developer of Veridian Village at Hampshire College. "Museums10 demonstrates what is most appealing about the Pioneer Valley to potential residents. We know that the residents of Veridian Village will be active participants in the programming and events at these museums and in the overall intellectual vitality of the Amherst area."

"Veridian Village, with its goal of creating an environment of lifelong learning, is a perfect partner for Museums10 - a collective of museums committed to enhancing the offerings of art, books and history in the Pioneer Valley," said Tony Maroulis, Museums10 project coordinator. "We are happy to have the support of Veridian Village as we plan for BookMarks."

Taking its inspiration from the Valley's rich literary heritage, BookMarks will feature an inviting array of exhibitions, readings, performances, book signings, and demonstrations. Three weekends in the fall will offer programming shaped around three key themes:

The Art of the Book (September 20-23) kicks off the fall series with an exhibition at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum featuring the highly acclaimed work of the Leithauser brothers, who will be on hand to discuss their work and collaboration. The series continues on October 12-14 with Books Out Loud, which will include opportunities to hear noted authors read from their works at venues throughout the Valley; on November 15-18, the focus shifts to The Book: Past and Future, a look at where the book is headed in the digital age and beyond.

Related exhibitions being developed by the members of Museums10/BookMarks include:

At the Amherst College Museum of Natural History, The Stony Library of Edward Hitchcock is a recreation of the "Stony Library" by world famous Amherst College professor Edward Hitchcock in the 1850s. Consisting of a series of rock slabs that had been split apart revealing dinosaur tracks both as impressions on the underlying bed and as natural casts of the impressions on the overlying layer, the slabs were bound together to form a book. The fossil collections, from the Connecticut River Valley, are approximately 190 million years old.
Two exhibitions will be presented at the National Yiddish Book Center -- Alpha Botanica, a book of engraved alphabets by Sarah Horowitz and The People's Book: The Five Books of Moses in the Yiddish Imagination.

About Museums10

Museums10 is a partnership of 10 outstanding museums in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts: The Amherst College Museum of Natural History, Emily Dickinson Museum, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Hampshire College Art Gallery, Historic Deerfield, Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, National Yiddish Book Center, Smith College Museum of Art, and University Gallery at UMass Amherst. For more information about Museums10, please visit www.museums10.org.

About Veridian Village

Veridian Village at Hampshire College will be a new residential condominium community for people interested in living in the culturally rich setting of Hampshire's campus. Homeowners will be able to take advantage of educational programs and cultural events while living in Amherst. Veridian Village will offer approximately 120 condominiums including town-homes and single-level homes in small elevator buildings. Located off West Street across from Hampshire's main campus, the development will be designed for people who appreciate a strong sense of community. Careful attention will be paid to environmental design, resulting in a model of sustainable living. Homeowners will be considered members of the Hampshire College community and will be active participants in programs and events at all Five Colleges, as well as at the institutions of Museums10, including the National Yiddish Book Center and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, both located adjacent to Veridian Village at Hampshire. Veridian Village will attract people who will bring their varied life experiences to Hampshire's community, thus making Hampshire College an even better place to live and learn. For more information on Veridian Village, please visit www.veridianvillage.com.

Originally posted 4/26/07

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