field Talks
Introduction Team
Friday, Oct 23
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM / Opening Night
Maggie Mailer
Maggie Mailer is a painter whose work explores landscape as the overlap between inner and outer states of being. Her work connects painting, words, and movement as terrain in which the creative process and human activity walk and talk together.
In 2002 she founded The Storefront Artist Project, an ephemeral Artist Residency program in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which ran from 2002 – 2012 and engaged artists working in storefronts in real time. The project explored art-making as nonstop performance, blurring the line between inside and outside, and extending the city’s idea of itself. The project is credited with jumpstarting the revival of the city of Pittsfield, and has been used as a model for the regeneration of other cities across the country.
Her work has been featured in The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, and Art New England, and she has received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, A.R.T. Grant.
She currently makes paintings that read like novels, and is working on making a novel that looks like a painting. She lives and works in The Berkshires with her family, dogs, and invisible friends.
Maira Kalman
Dr. Rebecca Caine
Dr. Rebecca Caine (Ezekiel Emanuel, Tony Coles, Vardit Ravitsky) is the Medical Director of Primary Care Services at Berkshire Health Systems and a general internist with more than 20 years of experience caring for patients with complex medical conditions. In her role, she supports primary care practices across Berkshire County and is helping lead BHS’s efforts to expand access to primary care through team-based care, provider recruitment, and new training models. Dr. Caine is passionate about building strong, trusting relationships between patients and their care teams and strengthening primary care for communities across the Berkshires.
Friday, Oct 23
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM / Opening Night
Ella Baff
Ella Baff is an independent consultant who works with a wide range of cultural organizations, artists, presenters, producers, educators, philanthropists and funders. She served as executive director of Jacob’s Pillow from 1998 to 2015. Then she worked as Senior Program Officer for Arts and Cultural Heritage at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York, where she was responsible for grantmaking to museums, performing arts, multidisciplinary, and culturally specific arts organizations. She has received several awards in the cultural field including the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the Ministry of Culture of France; the Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals; and Dance USA’s Trustee’s Award. She has received Honorary Doctorates from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and the College of the Holy Cross.
Maira Kalman
Saturday, Oct 24
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM / Break: 10:30–10:45 AM
Mike Beck
Mike Beck is the co-executive director of the Berkshire Botanical Garden, where he has worked since 2014.
Bill Goldstein
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Letty Cottin Pogrebin is an author, activist, and national public speaker. A founding editor of Ms. Magazine, she has published twelve books, most recently, Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy. Her essays and op-eds have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Time magazine, and The Nation. Pogrebin is also a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, several feminist NGOs and intergroup dialogues working toward mutual understanding and shared goals, some comprised of African-Americans and Jews, others of Jews and Palestinians. Over the past five decades Pogrebin has received dozens of awards, among them an Emmy for her work on Free To Be, You & Me, Marlo Thomas’s ground-breaking children’s record, book and TV special. Just last month, the Appleseed Foundation honored her with its 2026 Pillar of Justice Award for her lifetime commitment to the advancement of equality, justice, and peace.
Leigh Davis
Leigh Davis made history in 2024 as the first woman elected to represent the 3rd Berkshire District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Taking office in January 2025, she represents 18 communities across the House’s largest geographic district. In her first term, she was named a “Lawmaker to Watch” by The Boston Globe and a “Politician to Watch in 2025” by MassLive. One of her most significant first-term achievements was the passage of the Trusted Adults Act, signed into law by Governor Maura Healey in July 2026. A strong advocate for rural communities, Davis focuses on EMS reform, housing, education, transportation, agriculture, mental health services, and environmental sustainability. Her legislative initiatives include rural bridge repairs, microtransit, peer-run respite centers, and farm-to-institution partnerships. She also champions Berkshire artists and cultural organizations, recognizing their vital role in the region’s economy and identity. Before joining the Legislature, Davis served two terms as Vice Chair of the Great Barrington Selectboard.
Lillian Lennox
Lillian Lennox is the founding director of LifeBreath Institute, which offers mental wellness resilience trainings to frontline professionals and organizations. With a master’s degree in counseling psychology and over twenty years of experience in community mental health in the Berkshires, she specializes in bringing contemporary psychology together with holistic approaches to prevent and heal vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, burnout, moral injuries, and PTSD. She is presently writing a book that explores how ancestral trauma often surfaces within families and communities, while offering skills-based strategies to heal and restore well-being.
Mary Mott
Mary Mott began her twenty-five year career in advertising in New York and then San Francisco. She eventually moved on to Sun Valley, Idaho, where she continued her passion for writing through a weekly column and radio show. She also spearheaded the area’s first year-round performance theater and Shakespeare festival. Almost twenty years ago, she and husband Gordon fell in love with an old farmhouse and created a home in the Berkshires. Continuing her passion for writing, she moved into performing her words. Over the last several years, she has done four one-woman shows in the Berkshires and Sun Valley. She currently serves on the board of The Berkshire International Film Festival and field.
Hunter K. Runnette
Hunter K. Runnette is the Founder of Field, launched after building a writers’, ideas, and thinkers’ festival in the Berkshires over the last four years. Rooted in a deep commitment to community, his work reflects ongoing collaboration with local cultural institutions including BIFF, Jacob’s Pillow, The Mount, and Chester Theatre Company – efforts aimed at protecting and thoughtfully sustaining a region he is grateful to call home.
He is currently focused on producing theatre with Eye Patch Productions, following years as an actor in New York City, Philadelphia, and Bucks County. Hunter and his husband ow reside in Lenox after spending 15 years on a 250-year-old organic farm, where they cared for more than 1,500 animals and devoted themselves to land conservancy projects across the United States and Canada. Before graduating from Villanova University, Hunter spent his high school and college years volunteering at Philadelphia’s iconic Giovanni’s Room bookstore. He credits that experience with shaping his values and instilling a lasting commitment to openness and authenticity.
Bernard Schwartz
Bernard Schwartz, field’s director of programming, is a veteran curator who has produced public humanities events, cross-disciplinary performance works, and exhibitions at major arts and advocacy organizations such as the Library of America, Theatre for a New Audience, Tanglewood, DIA: Arts, and 92NY. He oversaw the WIT Festival in the Berkshires on behalf of the Authors Guild Foundation in 2024 and 2025.
Marcus P. Smith is an historic preservationist, public historian, and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. His work centers on preserving and interpreting historically African-American communities and heritage sites through community-driven approaches. At the Du Bois Freedom Center in Great Barrington, he serves as Deputy Director, leading programming and interpretation initiatives since 2023. He is the founder of the Black Grassroots Heritage Preservation Network, a national digital storytelling initiative that highlights Black-led preservation efforts across the United States. He has been honored with the 2026 Mars History Tellers Award.
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