Our Mission
Community Busk aims to enhance community engagement and economic development in the USA by inspiring and training small towns and municipalities to create dynamic downtown street arts/music festivals, modeled on the success of Berkshire Busk! in Great Barrington, MA. You can read more about Berkshire Busk! by going to www.berkshirebusk.com.
Our mission is two-fold, to help build place-making through the arts on a nationwide basis and to continue to produce our flagship annual Berkshire Busk! festival in Great Barrington, MA each summer.
Community Busk offers resources to help town leaders conceptualize and organize similar live outdoor arts events, throught assessments, workshops, training materials, and online sessions.
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Our Story
The origin and evolution of Community Busk, from Berkshire Busk! to a national initiative.
In 2021, Community Busk founder Eugene Carr observed the holes left by the Covid-19 pandemic in the community of Great Barrington. Local businesses were hurting, performing arts venues were unable to operate as usual, and loneliness and isolation ruled the public mood.
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An entrepreneur and musician himself, Carr took inspiration from an impromptu street performance with friends near a local establishment. After feeling the joy and connection even one musical performance brought to a communal area, Carr began to seek ways to create a more organized, regular series of performances to revitalize a post-covid downtown community.
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In the summer of 2021, the first season of Berkshire Busk! brought about 200 individual performances to downtown Great Barrington over the course of 10 weekends. The “busking,” or street performance, model allowed attendees to safely congregate, and allowed for an incredible array of performers to get involved. Musicians, dancers, magicians, circus performers and more connected with the local community by providing great entertainment at no cost.
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The loose, roaming structure of the busking festival has been an incredible addition to Great Barrington every summer since. Local and tourist attendees alike have the freedom to converse with their community on the street, see shows that may be out of their usual consumption habits. Best yet, their pocket money either goes directly to their favorite busker in the form of a tip, or to the local businesses that make Great Barrington a wonderful place to visit.
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In 2025, after five years of successfully running a busking festival, Community Busk Inc. became its own nonprofit organization with a national mission: to help provide guidance to other communities around the country on how they might benefit from creating a similar endeavor.
Non-discrimination & DEI
Community Busk does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations. These activities include, but are not limited to, hiring and firing of staff, selection of volunteers and vendors, and provision of services. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, clients, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients. Community Busk is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate and will take affirmative action measures to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
