June 16, 2025: Renaissance in perspective

Today, we are getting a very intimate tour of an institution with someone who has seen the move of its evolution to the point where an exhibit was just created to cover the 5 decades of his tenure with them. Norton Owen began as a student at the festival, but now fills a position that was made for him: Preservationist, a title he gets to add to that of curator, archivist, dancer and more that he’s engaged with at Jacob’s Pillow. We get a personalized tour of the archives at the Festival with the Man himself and learn about his impressive tenure and the development and expansion of the archive and its attached exhibition space. We’ll also hear about the award he’s being honored with at the gala that marks the start of the festival and even delve into the depths of the archive itself to see some of the amazing costumes, film, posters and more marking the history of the festival and beyond for posterity. And Monte brushes the sand off of his recorder to hang out with Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed explains how scientists are using the Pandora Galaxy Cluster as a lens to check out more heavenly phenomenon.