Pittsfield Community Guidebook

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The Berkshire Museum was closed for several months during the COVID-19 shutdown, and used the time to get work done on a long-term renovation project.
Local
businesses that
are thriving in
pandemic’s wake
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Wally, the beloved stegosaurus that stands guard outside the Berkshire Museum, got a makeover while the museum was closed for the COVID-19 shutdown.
By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
PITTSFIELD — There’s nary a
person, place or business that
has not been impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic in one
way or another.
From the mind-boggling
death toll to months’ long
shutdowns and the virus
variants, vaccination controversies
and face masks that
continue to linger two-and-a
half years after the start of the
pandemic in March 2020, it’s
difficult to overstate the impact
of the crisis on the global
community.
For Pittsfield businesses, the
impact of the pandemic has
varied, from those that were
shut down for months and
found rebounding difficult,
to essential businesses that
thrived in the early days and
now find new challenges facing
them.
“People were really respectful and really grateful
that we provided a safe place for them to visit.
We were very attentive to all the safety protocols
and really followed the CDC (Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention) guidelines, the commonwealth
guidelines, our local city guidelines — we
never went outside of that because obviously
health and safety is of utmost importance to us.”
— Hilary Ferrone, chief engagement officer for the museum
BERKSHIRE MUSEUM
For some businesses and cultural
institutions, the early
days of the shutdown meant
exactly that — their doors
were closed completely. The
Berkshire Museum was closed
for nearly half of 2020. And
when their doors did reopen,
it looked very different from
their pre-COVID days.
“We shut down in March 2020
and we reopened in August
of that year with limited admissions
so you had to make
reservations,” Hilary Ferrone,
chief engagement officer for
the museum, said. “There were
very clear paths walking one
way through the museum, we
were really attentive to distancing,
and each pod (of people)
that was allowed to come
in was just a group of six and
it had to be a family group, so
we wouldn’t have six strangers
in the same pod.”
While things differed from the
museum’s typical operations,
it worked, Ferrone said.
“People were really respectful
and really grateful that
we provided a safe place for
them to visit,” Ferrone said.
“We were very attentive to all
the safety protocols and really
followed the CDC (Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention)
guidelines, the commonwealth
guidelines, our local
city guidelines — we never
went outside of that because
obviously health and safety is
of utmost importance to us.”
The Berkshire Museum, located
at 39 South St. in Pittsfield,
is a unique museum offering
eclectic collections, from history
and art to science and
technology. The museum even
includes an aquarium with
live sea creatures and a touch
See BUSINESSES, page 28
26 • Pittsfield Community Guidebook Pittsfield Community Guidebook • 27