[PITTSFIELD, MA] Seeing Rainbows, a trans-led and operated organization whose mission is to build sustainable and supportive trans community through producing and presenting liberating art and experiences by and for trans and other marginalized peoples, has received a targeted grant from Greylock Federal Credit Union in partial sponsorship of the its Mutual Aid Fund. This project prioritizes direct aid to trans and nonbinary people, including support for gender affirming clothing, food, and other basic needs. With this grant, Greylock also becomes the first local institution to provide financial support to this Berkshire-based trans organization. The $500 grant is also the first institutional support for the organization’s mutual aid fund, which has thus far received individual donations.

[HOUSATONIC, MA] Seeing Rainbows, a now-three-month old Berkshire non-profit with a mission to produce and present liberating art and experiences by and for trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people in our region is partnering with the beating heart of the Berkshires’ creative arts community, Berkshire Pulse, to offer a monthly Trans Dance Class to members of the community.

[PITTSFIELD, MA] The new 100% trans-led and operated Berkshire arts nonprofit, Seeing Rainbows, has received its first ever grant as it approaches the two month anniversary of its founding. The $1,000 Seed Grant, from the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, also known as the Grassroots Fund, in support of Seeing Rainbows’ Berkshire Trans Hikes program. The Grassroots Fund recognized the alignment of Seeing Rainbows’ their guiding practices: Rooted Innovation, Shifting Power in Decision-Making, Equity in Participation, and Centering a Just Transition. In addition to funding, the two organizations hope to continue to build a relationship in alignment for building social, economic, and environmental justice in our region.

[PITTSFIELD, MA] Seeing Rainbows, a trans-led art organization, has received its nonprofit 501(c)3 status less than a month after filing. Drawing from community initially discovered through Berkshire Trans Group, Seeing Rainbows received a generous temporary sponsorship from the support group’s fiscal sponsor (Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition) to bridge the gap as it awaited word of its own nonprofit status.

[PITTSFIELD, MA] The barely three-week old, trans-led and -operated organization, Seeing Rainbows, greets this summer season with extraordinary momentum. The group, committed to “producing and presenting liberating art and experiences” by and for the local trans community, has launched with an array of programs already in place. The first salon workshop, billed as “Salon: A Seeing Rainbows Co-Creation Workshop Experience” launched at The Foundry in West Stockbridge earlier this month, and will reprise the event on Monday, July 15 at 7:00pm. Salon is an open event, where the organization invites the broader community to co-create in an intentionally anti-racist and anti-discriminatory setting.

[PITTSFIELD, MA] A new star coalesces in the glittering firmament of Berkshire cultural organizations. Seeing Rainbows, Inc. — a corporation awaiting 501(c)3 status — has begun operations to “collaborate to build sustainable and supportive trans community by producing and presenting liberating art, performances, installations and other experiences by and for queer / trans / Jewish / BIPOC / disabled / fat / other marginalized persons, on unceded Mohican lands and the Berkshires and beyond…” This mission statement encapsulates the organization’s core goal of centering anti-racist inclusion at every step of the artistic process, from incubation and curation to planning and execution.