Welcome to Cooler Communities in the Berkshires!
A regional Cooler Communities event was piloted in the Berkshires in 2019 in collaboration with the Berkshire Earth Expo.
Following this success, the fifth annual Berkshire Earth Expo and Cooler Communities Challenge was hosted on the website of Berkshire Museum in the fall of 2020 and became our pilot program for other virtual events during the pandemic.
Showcased initially for a 14 day period in early November – yes, right during election time and COVID-winter really setting in – the program included a youth artists’ exhibition on climate change, student projects, workshops and webinars on ways to save energy, a community conversation about environmental justice, a movie and discussion with the filmmaker and more.
Organized by a small group of volunteers called Living the Change Berkshires the event attracted over 650 visitors who viewed over 2500 webpages.
As a result, Berkshire Museum kept the event online until the spring of 2023.
In August 2023, Living the Change Berkshires collaborated with the Berkshire Art Center and Cooler Communities on another youth art show.
Climate Visions of Berkshire Youth Artists is a jurored show featuring the extraordinary and powerful expressions of young people as they contemplate the future.
To see the memorable images, please visit this page on Living the Change Berkshires’ website.