Berkshire Community Land Trust Name Executive Director

08:15AM / Friday, February 27, 2026Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Berkshire Community Land Trust (BCLT) announced the promotion of Operations Director Beth Carlson to a newly created Executive Director position.

Carlson, a partner in Silo Media, initially got involved with BCLT and the Farmsteads for Farmers initiative through events, video, and graphics projects. She became the Campaign Manager for Farmsteads for Farmers in 2023 and became Director of Operations in 2024. On November 1,2025 she began full-time in the new Executive Director role.

"We are thrilled that Beth has stepped into the role as our first executive director,"Board member Sarah Downie said. "She brings experience, enthusiasm, great communication skills, and optimism to our organization. We feel very lucky that she moved into this new role and look forward to a successful and invigorating future with her at the helm."

Carlson served as president of the Dewey Memorial Hall Board until recently and is credited with leading the team that brought the organization through COVID and a revival. She is a founding board member of the W. E. B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy. Her Silo Media projects were mostly for nonprofits and involved fundraising campaigns, social media, and consulting.

Carlson began full-time in November. Expressing her passion for the mission of the CLT, she stated:

"Affordable access to land is critical to the health of our local communities. Land speculation had concentrated ownership in fewer and fewer hands. Placing land into a community land trust and making it available in perpetuity for workforce housing, farming, local retail, and light manufacturing can revitalize the local economy."

Executive Director of the Schumacher Center for New Economics and founder and Board Member Emeritus of Berkshire Community Land Trust, Susan Witt, worked closely with Carlson and encouraged her continued involvement and role expansion with BCLT.

"Thanks to the commitment of a volunteer board and the help of great part-time assistants, BCLT and its sister organization CLTSB has achieved much in its 46-year history. But it is now time for a full-time executive director to build the organizations to their full potential. Grounded in the Berkshires with skills honed in the non-profit community, Beth Carlson is the right person at the right time for this task," Witt said.

A reception celebrating the recent acquisition of River Run Farm and welcoming Carlson to the new role will be held in the spring of 2026. The event will also honor David Fix, Schumacher Center Director of Operations, for his years of work assisting the board of directors and maintaining governance and supporting operations for both organizations.

The Community Land Trust movement was founded in 1969 by Civil Rights Activists Bob Swann, Slater King, and others to return land and prosperity to Black communities in the South.

In 1980, Susan Witt and Bob Swann moved to the Berkshires to found what is now the Schumacher Center for New Economics. They simultaneously established the Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires (CLTSB). In 2015, CLTSB founded the sister organization, Berkshire Community Land Trust (BCLT), to expand its capacity to hold multiple types of land.

Today, CLTSB/BCLT holds over 130 acres in community trust, providing homeownership opportunities to 23 families and two local nonprofits with residential and office facilities. Nearly 100 acres of that land are productive farmland supporting two thriving agricultural businesses that strengthen our local food system and economy.

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

Greylock Youth SummerFest

Come join in on the wealth building fun! August 3-8. Click for event details. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:17AM / Friday, August 21, 2026

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director.

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said.

View Full Story