Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College
Spring 2026 Course Schedule
Registration opens Tuesday, March 10 at 10:00 a.m.
Need help deciding what to sign up for?
- Many course description pages, linked through the course schedules below, include a video introduction from the instructor. Click on the course names below for full descriptions and instructor bios.
- If a course is full, you can join the waiting list by calling 413-236-2190.
- Hiking classes have a separate registration page found here.
- Come to our Spring Tea Party and Information Session on March 11 at 2:00 p.m. This program is free but registrations are required. Click here for more info!
Where are classes held?
- Our schedule includes courses held online and in-person. See listings below for locations.
- All indoor spaces are ADA accessible unless noted otherwise.
Course cost:
- $60 for one class
- $110 for 2 classes
- $150 for 3 or more classes
Most courses held online are recorded so if you miss one, or your schedule doesn't work for a particular course, you can access the recordings and watch the class sessions on your own time. Note: in-person classes are not recorded.
(Note: you need to be an OLLI at BCC member to register for courses. Membership information can be found here.)
Also available this spring:
Online courses through Osher Online. This program is offered through the Osher National Resource Center (NRC) at Northwestern University. These classes are delivered by the Osher NRC via Zoom, with participants from all over the country. These courses are not recorded. Registration is separate from our spring courses.
We offer lectures and workshops in addition to courses, and more are added to the calendar all the time!
Learn more by looking at our event calendar.
2026 Spring Semester Course Schedule
-- Click on the course names below for full descriptions and instructor bios. --
See a printable .pdf of the Spring 2026 course schedule.
Monday
Instructor: Corey Chapman | Tai Chi Easy(TM) is a class combining a beginner friendly Tai Chi form with the ancient eastern Qigong practice methods. Fluid movements, Deep Breath Work, Self Applied Massage and Mediation. |
Instructor: Gordon Josephson | 5 physician instructors will provide presentations in a variety of medical topics of particular relevance to the OLLI demographics, including topics such as “Advances in Understanding Dementia”, “Autism”, “Atrial Fibrillation in Older Patients”, “Early recognition of Cardiac Amyloidosis” and “Living Longer”. |
Instructor: Tom Hodgson | The Ken Burns/Sarah Botstein PBS
documentary "The American Revolution" explores issues that many of us
may find surprising, compelling, and resonant. Each of our seminar style
meetings will focus on one of its six 2 hour episodes. Come ready to share your
thoughts! This class is part of OLLI's Rev250 Project celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. |
Instructor: John McComish | Today's Headlines is a moderated discussion course that provides an opportunity to voice your opinions on national and international issues. Serving as a guide and provocateur, the moderator will introduce selected topics drawn from a variety of newspapers and the internet. Lively discussion is the centerpiece of this course. |
Facilitator: Richard Eason | This course will look at the rise and fall of the Inca Empire. It will detail the stunning rise and fall of Incas, the largest civilization in the Americas, and their achievements in art, architecture and transportation. |
Instructor: Leyn Burrows | Students will learn to use their basic personal skills of hearing, seeing, touch and speaking through the practice of distancing, kicking and punching to maintain their safe through spacing. |
Tuesday |
Instructor: Nancy Bonvillain | Indigenous peoples constitute only 5% of the global population but they protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity. We will discuss the role that Indigenous communities play in this vital endeavor, beginning with the groundbreaking Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 and moving into the current experiences. We will also consider the contested participation of Indigenous peoples in the UN Conference of Parties on climate change. |
Instructor: Daniel Schenker | We will look at several writers from the 19th through the 21st centuries who considered the impact of modern technologies on American society. Please note: no class on 4/21 |
Instructor: Katherine Kidd | The Ken Burns/Sarah Botstein
documentary which aired on PBS in the fall explored many issues raised by the
events of the American Revolution that were not taught when most of us studied
American history in high school and college. Each class session will focus on one of the six two-hour
episodes of the documentary, supplemented by a wide range of materials provided
by PBS Learning and each OLLI seminar leader. This class is part of OLLI's Rev250 Project celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. |
Instructor: Nancy Seguin | Let’s explore the hills and landscapes where Massachusetts meets Connecticut on six guided 2-hour hikes designed for moderate skill levels. |
Instructor: Steven Somkin | This course, based on the book An Immense World by Ed Yong, will explore the physics and physiology of the astonishing variety of animal senses that, hopefully, will impart a humility that befits our status as guardians of the Earth. |
Instructor: Linda Steinmann | During this course, we will watch and discuss a number of Iranian films from the 1970s to the present. Scholars have dubbed this rich creative period the “Iranian New Wave.” By examining this cinematic history we will discover much about the people of Iran, their culture, and the events that influenced these artists and their films. |
Instructor: Chuck Hotchkiss | This meditation experience (not so much a course as an unfolding) invites you to become acquainted with your own mind: its potential for full attention and gracefully being with things just as they are. Basic tools will be offered, and then practiced. We’ll also consider what sorts of difficulties interfere with well-being and ease in our daily lives. We’ll explore gentler ways of occupying our worlds. |
Wednesday |
Instructor: Deborah Reinisch |
A good story is a story
well told. In this class, we will look at how design, camera, sound, editing
and performance create the meaning and the emotional impact of a good movie. We
will look at classic films, old and new, to develop a deeper appreciation for
how a movie works and why, in the end, our affection for it endures.
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Instructor: Buck Beasom | The age of Battleships spanned less than 80 years. For much of that time they were either not ready for prime time or well past their prime. Yet in their brief history they were the symbol of both national pride and national humiliation and an enormous drain on national treasuries. This course follows the development of the Battleship from the first ironclads to the giants of World War II. |
Instructor: Don Barkin | “Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry,” W. H. Auden wrote in his elegy to W.B. Yeats. Many of the best poets of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries have been Irish. The “madness” of religion and politics, as well as a rich tradition of talk and song, inspired these generations of writers. We’ll read poems by Yeats, Heaney, Eaven Boland, Michael Longley, Patrick Kavanaugh, Paul Muldoon, Derek Mahon, and Medbh McGuckian, among others. |
Instructor: Ken Stark Location: In-person at BCC | Listen to compositions which were crafted as a result of the personal, professional, religious, or political impact significant events in history had on composers. Who, what, where, when and why these pieces were composed will be explored. Please note that knowledge of, or participation in Part 1 is not required. |
Instructor: Lou-Ellen Barkin | What exactly are writer's groups? How do you find one, join one, maybe even start one. Over six weeks, participants will refine the skills needed to become valued writers’ group members. These include the art of reading aloud, the skill of providing and accepting productive critique and techniques for responding to prompts. In this model class, participants will read their own work. Participants must have completed "From First to Final Draft" in order to register. |
Instructor: Anne Stuart |
Your
words can make a difference — even if you’ve never published anything before.
In this course, we'll examine what distinguishes
effective persuasive writing from simply griping or ranting. Then you’ll
practice what you’ve learned.
|
Thursday |
Instructor: Amy Whitworth | In this course we will explore our own human place in the world by reflecting on the relationship of literature to nature. Within this relationship we will consider different types of texts, from poetry to nature writing, essays to fiction. |
Facilitator: Naomi Spatz 4/9, 4/16, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7, 5/14 Location: Online | Prominent artistic directors from the major
regional stages announce their summer season's productions. Each speaks and
answers questions for 45 minutes, two per week. |
Instructor: Fadia Rostom | A Tapestry of Syria from Grandmother to Granddaughter: Three generations of Syrian women share their personal stories, from grandmothers' Damascus roots, mothers' bridging experiences, aunts' wartime resilience, to daughters' American perspectives, revealing Syria's rich culture, identity, and everyday life beyond stereotypes. |
Facilitators: Larry Bennett | Bicycling on rail-trails in our region is both safe and beautiful. We will do five weekly No-Rider-Left-Behind rides with short (10 mile) and long (20+ mile) options each week. This is a great way to get back on your bike for the first time in years or for more experienced riders to get back in shape for the upcoming riding season. Please note start date |
Instructor: Peter Podol | Spain has played a central role in a number of well known and beloved operas. This course will consist largely of lectures and of watching and listening to great music with singing and dancing. There will be little or no discussion but much for students to learn and enjoy. Please note: no class on 4/23. |
Facilitators: Katherine Kidd | Many early wildflowers of the Berkshires are called ephemerals because they appear only in the spring, dying back in the early summer. But for the careful explorer, spotting them along the trail is a joy. Join us as we hike trails in the central Berkshires (from Lenox north) in search of blossoms, and native edible and medicinal plants. |
Instructor: David Garlock | This course is about the underlying structure of Western music. Learn about the overtone series and how that was used over millennia to build the scales that form the basis of Western music -- pentatonic, diatonic and chromatic. Then learn about tonality – major and minor scales and chords, and the key of a piece of music or movement. Last, learn about tuning and temperament – and learn what Bach meant when he called his books of preludes and fugues the “Well-Tempered Clavier.” |
Instructor: Jim Mancall | Over the course of a 60-year career, the Detroit novelist Elmore Leonard reshaped American fiction and film in the twentieth-century. When he died in 2013, The New York Times called Leonard "the most influential, widely imitated crime writer of his era." This course dives deep into the Leonard catalogue, tracing his career from his 1950s Westerns to late career highlights such as Get Shorty, Out of Sight and the television series, Justified. |
Friday |
Instructor: John Dickson | Great Decisions is a nationwide project designed to enhance citizen participation in foreign affairs. It follows a curriculum put together by the Foreign Policy Association. Topics will include: Trump 2.0 Foreign Policy; Tariffs, U.S. China Relations, U.S. Engagement in Africa, and Ukraine and European Security. |
Instructor: Richard Matturo 4/10, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8, 5/15
Location: In-person at BCC | Walden is one of those works which, like Moby-Dick, everyone knows the story, but few have actually read the book. A young man abandons society, builds himself a small cabin in the woods, and lives there like a hermit, his purpose to better understand existence — or something like that. Its author, Henry David Thoreau, is a true American original — or nut — depending on your point of view. He can be funny, ironic, lyrical, moving, and occasionally exasperating, but always thought-provoking. Let’s take a look at an alternative view by a man who questioned some of our most basic assumptions about life, values, and America itself. |
Instructor: Laycolaion Freeman | In Practical Self Defense, participants will gain knowledge and skills to stay confident in any situation. Specifically designed for active, older adults, this course focuses on practical, easy to learn self-defense techniques. NOTE: This location has stairs leading to the studio. |
Instructor: Noel Staples Freeman | This course offers a welcoming space for active, older adults to explore the foundational rhythms and movements of African-rooted dance. NOTE: This location has stairs leading to the studio. |
Facilitator: Hank Gold 4/10, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8, 5/15 Location: Online | Join us to discuss science news appearing in the Tuesday “Science Times” section of the New Your Times, plus magazines and journals. |
Facilitator: Bess Dillman | Every spring, our beautiful Berkshire trails come alive with colorful flowers, changing each week. We will hunt for and identify them at various properties in South and Central Berkshire County. Learn about the spring ephemeral flowers as we enjoy a beautiful spring walk. |
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Please note that you must be an OLLI at BCC member and have created a login account to register for classes online. How to create a login account. You can register by phone from 9:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. Eastern at 413.236.2190.
OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College OLLI at BCC Sponsors include: Berkshire Health Systems
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