The Berkshires

The hills drew wealthy summer residents from the 1800s and the cultural institutions followed. Tanglewood in Lenox has been the Boston Symphony's summer home since 1937, with concerts in a shed open to a lawn where most of the audience sits outside. MASS MoCA in North Adams occupies twenty-six buildings of a former electronics factory - about a hundred thousand square feet of gallery, enough to show work at scales no conventional museum can, including a Sol LeWitt wall drawing retrospective installed for twenty-five years. The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown holds a strong French Impressionist collection in a rural setting, and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge holds his studio, moved to the site.

What you actually see

• Tanglewood - the Boston Symphony's summer home since 1937.
• MASS MoCA - twenty-six factory buildings converted to galleries.
• The Clark - Impressionists in a rural campus.
• Rockwell's studio - moved to the museum grounds in Stockbridge.

When to go

June to October; Tanglewood runs in summer, foliage in October. Several days.

Honest expectations

Sites are spread across a wide area and need a car. Summer festival season fills lodging at high prices. Tanglewood lawn seats mean sitting outdoors whatever the weather. Winter closes much of the programme.

Nearby

The Mohawk Trail runs north; the Hudson Valley is west.