Housatonic Has A Pulse

February 10, 2012
By Mickey Friedman

With all the horrendous things adults do to children, from forcing them to fight and kill in Sierra Leone, making them make soccer balls for pennies in Pakistan, abusing them physically and emotionally, there are still many adults who love and care for, teach and nurture their own kids and the kids of others.

In our town, I’ve heard from several parents about the great work Bettina Montano does at Berkshire Pulse in Housatonic.

In the old Barbieri Mill in Housatonic, Massachusetts, Bettina has been teaching hundreds of kids about music and dance and movement.

That’s the same Housatonic, Massachusetts you’ve been reading about in the local newspapers.

For a while now, the papers have been filled with articles about the man from Miami. Stephen Muss, we were told, was willing, no anxious, to spend hundreds of thousands on a master plan to reconfigure the old and ailing mills, the mills he didn’t own, to bring renewed hope to Housatonic. No ulterior motive, just a rare, pure and heartfelt gift from a man who had a galvanizing vision of new jobs, happy artists, and new tenants. A revitalization, a renovation, and a renewal. And, to prove his purity and silence the skeptics, Mr. Muss assured us he wasn’t interested in buying property in Housatonic.

But Mr. Muss’ grand and glorious hope for Housatonic, we were told again and again by journalists and local politicians and a bevy of interested parties, was dashed by the oh-so-unreasonable and recalcitrant Nick Kelley who just couldn’t melt his stubborn, selfish heart enough to trust Mr. Muss with his own eyesore of a mill. Mr. Kelley just wouldn’t work together for the benefit of us all.

Mr. Muss, oh so good; Mr. Kelley, well you get the idea.

So now I’m waiting to see who’s going to be the first journalist, politician, or interested party to declare that we were snookered. Fooled. Deceived. Misled. And/or emotionally scammed.

Because just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water …

It turns out Mr. Muss has just bought the former Barbieri Mill building from Dale Culleton, Linda Shafiroff, and Sarah Stiner (Jolly Roger Realty) for his artist wife, Sandra Muss. No doubt her name will appear on the bill of sale so that technically Mr. Muss may claim to have kept his promise. Though I imagine everyone in the know knows it’s his money. But one way or another, Berkshire Pulse will have to leave Mrs. Muss’ mill several months before its new space is available.

To be clear, all this is perfectly legal. And, believe me, I can well imagine it hasn’t always been easy for the Jolly Rogers to have to deal with a mostly unprofitable and quite possibly business-challenged nonprofit arts organization. It never is. Many of us artists don’t understand money. And there’s not a lot of money to be made providing arts education for the children of the middle class. Not like buying and selling real estate. So I’m certainly not suggesting a good guy/bad guy or good tenant/bad landlord scenario.

But I’m also guessing that even though they had to occasionally cope with late rent checks, the owners gained much by the extraordinary energy and life — not to mention the renovation — Berkshire Pulse brought to the building.

I’m also aware that when push comes to shove, this is America and money talks, and artists and dancers who teach our kids to dance invariably have to dance off into the distance. The Musses have the money. This, of course, is a very old story.

But what’s interesting to me about all this is how many people wanted to believe so very much that Mr. Muss was telling us a new story. A happy story. The out-of-town multimillionaire with a heart of gold. Giving us something we hadn’t been able to give ourselves.

I do not know Mr. Muss. And I can easily imagine that he is a generous man. And I have no problem believing he has given away parts of his fortune to many deserving people and to many deserving causes and concerns. But from the very beginning I felt his offer was misplaced. Too much, too soon, offering without asking. Because this was always about his idea of Housatonic.

The largest fault lies with ourselves. Because fixing up the present Housatonic and crafting a better Housatonic is about community. It’s not about magic. It’s never easy.

And the answer, more clearly than ever, is that outsiders have little to offer unless they’re willing to do the hard work of first becoming insiders. You know: live and learn. Ask. Listen. Someone smart once said patience is a virtue.

Meanwhile, it’s important to be reminded that Berkshire Pulse already offers community. By taking care of our kids today, Berkshire Pulse is creating a better tomorrow.

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Stephan Green of Clark & Green Architects has a vision of a new home and perhaps a happy ending for Berkshire Pulse: