Painter Lalla Essaydi unveils new work at the Williams College Museum of Art

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Williamstown – This week the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) unveils bold new work by contemporary artist Lalla Essaydi in which she challenges the worldview of 19th-century French painter, Jean-Léon Gérôme. The exhibition juxtaposes Gérôme’s iconic painting The Slave Market, generously loaned by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, with four paintings by Essaydi. Together, the works in this installation form a dialogue across space, time, and cultures. All of the paintings in the exhibition depict classically rendered figures and evocative architectural settings; while the French picture invites voyeurism and stereotypes the so-called ‘Orient,’ Essaydi’s paintings will not allow it. All her figures gaze right back at us and command respect, be they male, female, or hermaphrodite. Complementing the monumental photographs of women, for which she is already well known, these paintings challenge our assumptions of North Africa to foster cross-cultural awareness. Lalla Essaydi received a B.F.A. from Tufts University in 1999 and an M.F.A. from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University in 2003. Essaydi works in a variety of media, including analog photography, oil on canvas, mixed media, and video. Her photographs have been the subject of the exhibition Converging Territories, and she has been included in numerous group exhibitions including the critically acclaimed Nazar: Photographs from the Arab World. Artist Statement: “In a sense, I am a Western artist, making art in a style I was unable to use in my home country, Morocco. But I am also the slave girl of that painting, in that I am a woman from an Arab culture. And, to go a step further, I am Gérôme, painting nude subjects. I want in my paintings to combine all these elements, in order to engage the whole problem of myself as “other”… In my paintings, I am hoping not only to expose the Orientalist gaze, and the facile assumptions it has engendered, but also to present my own culture as honestly as I can. Above all, I try to present myself in something like my true complexity—as a woman, as an Arab woman living in the West, mediating between worlds, as an artist. It is not a fixed identity, but one that is changing as the world changes and as my life changes…” –Lalla Essaydi
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Greylock Federal Awards Student Scholarships

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Greylock Federal Credit Union awarded 34 scholarships to high school seniors from every public high school in Berkshire County and Columbia County, N.Y.
 
Greylock awarded 25 $500 Greylock Community Enrichment Scholarships to students who exemplify positive community spirit and demonstrate respect and concern for their peers in everything they do, stated a press release. 
 
Applicants were required to write an essay, which demonstrated their positive involvement in the community.
 
"Our scholarship selection committee reviewed every application and essay," said Jennifer Connor-Shumsky, Greylock's Assistant Vice President, Community Support and Events, of the process which received more than 80 applications. "It was really tough to narrow it down, because there were so many incredible students doing some amazing work in the community."
 
The funds will be applied toward state-accredited or nationally accredited two or four-year colleges or universities, or a full-time technical school program.
 
"For the first time ever, we were thrilled that two of the scholarships went to students entering a technical/vocational school," said Connor-Shumsky.
 
In addition to these scholarships, Greylock offers Scholastic Achievement Awards, which are designated for children of Greylock employees who are also high school graduates. This year, Greylock awarded nine $1,000 Scholastic Achievement Awards. These awards are available to all employees.
 
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