Clark Art Presents Concert By Davone Tines With Ruckus

11:15AM / Monday, October 20, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute welcomes the return of renowned early music band, Ruckus, for a new concert performance featuring acclaimed bass-baritone Davóne Tines on Friday, Oct. 24.

The group will present a new program, "What is Your Hand in This?," as part of a national tour leading up to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The performance takes place at 7 pm in the Clark’s Manton Research Center auditorium.

In a biting exploration of American revolutionary music, they time-travel through four centuries of reimagined songs, hymns, and ballads, along with a newly commissioned work by composer Doug Balliett and Tines. It’s an ideal meeting of artistic sensibilities, as Tines—whose eye-opening programming, vulnerable performances, and powerhouse vocals are “redefining the rules and rituals of classical music” (San Francisco Classical Voice)—meets the visceral might of Ruckus, known for combining a baroque band’s questing spirit with the grit, groove, and jangle of American roots music as “the world’s only period instrument rock band” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Tickets $25 ($20 members, $16 college students, $5 children 17 and under). Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. For tickets and more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. No refunds.

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Williamstown Select Board Evaluates Town Manager

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:39AM / Wednesday, October 28, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — In 2022, the town still was recovering from the twin blows of a global pandemic and a lawsuit that exposed disturbing allegations against the town's police department.

The latter ultimately led to the resignation of the police chief and the town manager. To replace the manager, the Select Board at the time turned to Robert Menicocci.

Menicocci represented a break in style from his immediate predecessor, who was a more prominent voice in town government. That prominence, in part, was a product of the times: When town boards and committees were not meeting in-person and access to town hall itself was limited at the height of the pandemic, the manager's voice in Zoom meetings was more front and center.

In his four years in the corner office, Menicocci has helped shepherd the police department on its path to certification and helped the town weather the fiscal storm of skyrocketing costs linked to inflation – particularly sharp increases in the cost of health insurance that hit hard for a labor-intensive endeavor like municipal government. All the while, he has been a little more taciturn, while always willing to participate, when appropriate, with responsive answers in discussions of the Select Board and Finance Committee.

On Monday, the current Select Board – completely turned over from the 2022 edition – pushed Menicocci to be more of a cheerleader for the town.

"Do you see your role more as a behind-the-scenes guy and our role is to be out in public?" board member Matthew Neely asked Menicocci during the board's review of the manager's job performance. "Or is there more of a role for you in that? So many people, if I say your name, they're like, ‘Who?'

"I would have assumed your role would be more public facing as well, and more, for lack of a better word, leading the charge as opposed to running day-to-day operations. I feel you're strong running day-to-day. But something we all wish is we had a little more of a proactive [manager] …. Since we need development, need all these things in town so much. … I'd love to see more outward energy, I guess.

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