Shakespeare & Co. looks into renovating St. Martin’s building.

LENOX – Shakespeare and Company may be transmitting that it is willing to come off the stage and create a sculpture museum and/or an indoor ice skating rink in the old BPAC building on its campus, The Berkshire Beacon learned Wednesday.

In an email to Nicholas Puma, managing director of S&Co., Lynda Strauch, local businesswoman, wrote: “As you know, I have been talking with Tony [Simotes] about locating a sculpture museum in the St. Martin’s building.

(See adjacent Shakespeare skating rink story.)

This is the building that one sees as one drives into the campus.

During the era of the Lenox School for Boys, it served as a main dining hall, educational collaborative and offices for the headmaster and staff.

“Stanley Marcus has generously offered to contribute some of his work to get this started,” the email continues.

“The discussions have broadened out to include restoring the entire building and making it a magnet to draw visitors to your site.

“We have tentatively thought of calling it ‘The Shakespeare Center for the Arts.’

“In addition to our sculpture center, we thought it might include educational sites for theater, painting, dance and possibly a movie house.”

Estimated cost is $8 million for the museum.

Mr. Simotes responded in an email: “We are indeed interested in the renovation of St. Martin’s. We have a new board chair that wants to take a more comprehensive look at the entire campus.

“Now that we are on stable financial footing, we can look at our future with less stress.

“Thanks for thinking about our campus and financial health. We look forward to entertaining all ideas of how to secure The Berkshires as an even more desirable location.

“A group has been assembled to look into a museum piece of the campus, including a working group that includes Larry Gordon (architect), Stanley Lessler (lawyer/developer) and Elliott Morss (an economist with non-profit experience). Larry has already had a contractor estimate the costs of a basic restoration of St. Martin’s ($8 million).

“Supporters have been lined up for the sculpture museum with the idea of seeking non-profit status under 501c3 for this contribution.

“Other goals include working with Shakespeare on other aspects of the project to raise money from foundations such as Artplace and also wealthy individuals.”

“As a professional economist, I truly believe that renovating the building and filling it with art-related activities will be the lynchpin to get Shakespeare on a sound financial footing going forward,” Mr. Morss said.

Go to berkshirebeacon.com for cost breakdown on estimates for a museum.

Posted by George C. Jordan III on February 28, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry