New director’s love affair with city on-going

NORTH ADAMS — Inkberry’s new executive director, Jill Gilbreth, began her love affair with the city several years ago when she came out from Boston to visit the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The visit eventually led to another one, then the purchase of an artist’s loft at the Eclipse Mill and an association with the literary non-profit on Main Street.

“I was really interested in seeing installation art,” Gilbreth said Wednesday afternoon in the cozy, but spacious Inkberry offices on the second floor of the Empire Building. “After going to the museum, I ended up going downtown and eating lunch at the Appalachian Bean (now the Cup and Saucer). I really loved the city and the hills.”

Gilbreth replaced Rachael Barenblat, co-founder and executive director of five years, in August. Barenblat, who remains on the board of directors, is pursing her studies as a rabbi.

Gilbreth recalled that she first discovered Inkberry as a graduate student at Emerson College.

“It was at a time when I was getting ready to graduate,” she said. “I was missing the mountains and wasn’t sure if I wanted to go home to the Southwest or explore moving to Western Massachusetts. I found Inkberry and began to investigate the possibilities. I was excited to find a literary non-profit and a place where there is so much going on in the arts community.”

After reading about the creation of the Eclipse Mill, she called developer Eric Rudd and was put on the waiting list for a loft.

“I was in Colorado when I got the call, saying I was no longer on the waiting list,” she said. “I was having a good time with my friends, but I ended up moving here.”

Having received her master’s degree in creative writing from Emerson, Gilbreth began teaching writing and composition classes at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and joined Inkberry as its program administrator in the spring of 2005.

“I began volunteering here at Inkberry a little over a year ago,” she said. “At the time, I had no idea that Rachael was going to leave. There was just this great synergy between the two of us. I was having a great time helping out, and when I started, I had no idea there were two or three well-known authors in the area.”

She said her interest in Inkberry was sparked by her involvement with a similar organization in Boston, Grub Street, a non-profit writing center that connects emerging writers with more experienced ones.

“I was able to be involved with Grub Street when it was growing,” she said. “I was able to learn about things like developing programming and fundraising.”

She officially took over as executive director in August and is looking forward to the literary group’s future with high hopes. She and board member Linda White are busy planning a $5,000 fund-raising campaign for The Write Stuff creative writing program at Conte Middle School. (See related story, left)