September Events At The Clark

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General Info:

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
225 South Street, Williamstown, MA 01267
413-458-2303, www.clarkart.edu

Hours

Open daily, 10 am to 5 pm, in July and August
Open Tuesday through Sunday, September through June, 10 am to 5 pm
Open Labor Day, Monday, September 1

Admission:

$12.50 - June 1 through October 31
Free - November 1 through May 31
Always free for children 18 and under, members, students with valid ID

Exhibitions, Public Programs, And Special Events In September

Through October 19: Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly features forty beautiful paintings by James McNeill Whistler, George Inness, and other American artists working around 1900 in an examination the art of painting softly. As Whistler once stated, "Paint should not be applied thick. It should be like breath on the surface of a pane of glass." The result of this counsel is a body of contemplative and meditative paintings that, like the mist of breath's condensation on glass, appear on the canvas without evidence of the artist's hand. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303

Through October 19: American artists Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent captured sensations ranging from North Atlantic cold to North African heat. Homer and Sargent from the Clark, the inaugural exhibition in Stone Hill Center, features 12 of the Clark's masterpieces by these two great artists, shown in contemplative gallery spaces that connect art and nature. These bold paintings complement the softly painted works featured in Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, on view in the Clark's main exhibition galleries. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303

August 23 through November 16: In conjunction with the symposium "Visions of the Stage: Theater, Art, and Performance in France, 1600-1800," the exhibition Visions of the Stage: Prints and Drawings, 1600-1800 features 20 works from the collections of the Clark and Chapin Library of Rare Books at Williams College, and includes drawings, prints, and books relating to theater and performance. Drawings by Jean-Antoine Watteau, illustrations by Francois Boucher and many others, as well as costume designs, portraits of actors, and designs for theaters are featured. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303


September 7: In 1933, novelist Jun'ichiro Tanizaki published In'ei Raisan (In Praise of Shadows), exploring for Western readers the significance of light and darkness in traditional Japanese culture. David Park Curry, senior curator of decorative arts, American painting, and sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art, will examine the resonances among the exquisite surfaces of Japanese objects and the varied, but highly self-conscious, emphasis upon surface treatment in the hands of several late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American painters. Subtle and subdued, shadows of Japanese art survive on numerous turn-of-the-century American canvases. Held at 3 pm. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303

September 11: Spend a half-hour with a Clark curator and feed your hunger for art during Looking at Lunchtime Talks. These focused talks will whet your appetite for more. Join Natasha Becker, assistant director, Mellon Initiative, Research and Academic Program, to look at The Slave Market by Jean-Léon Gérôme. Talks are free with gallery admission. Held at 12:30 pm. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303

September 11, October 9, November 13, December 11:  During the Art of Politics series of lectures, Michael Cassin, director of the Clark's Center for Education in the Visual Arts, will look at how artists through the centuries have engaged with, reflected upon, and sometimes influenced the world of politics. Held at 5:30 pm. Registration is not required but can be made by calling 413-458-0489. Cost is $6 per class ($4 for members) or $22 for the series ($15 for members). The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303

September 11 - The Art of Politics: Power Portraits
October 9 - The Art of Politics: Paintings as Propaganda
November 13 - The Art of Politics: Cartoons and Caricatures
December 11 - The Art of Politics: Political Art in the Twentieth Century

September 11, 25, and October 9: The Williamstown Art Conservation Center (WACC), located in Stone Hill Center designed by Tadao Ando on the campus of the Clark, is the largest regional conservation center in the country and treats objects ranging from historic artifacts, antiques, and heirlooms to some of the most important paintings, watercolors, drawings, photographs, sculpture, and furniture in the United States. WACC has conserved Van Gogh's Irises, Thomas Hart Benton's America Today murals, and Jackson Pollock's Number 2, 1949. Special guided tours of WACC will be offered on September 11, 25, October 9, at 4 pm. Tours are free with paid gallery admission. Reservations are required; call 413-458-0585 or 413-458-0524. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu.

September 12 and 13: The fall 2008 Clark Symposium, "Visions of the Stage: Theater, Art, and Performance in France, 1600-1800," will include scholars of theater history, performance studies, art history, visual culture, musicology, and other disciplines that touch on the French stage in the 17th and 18th centuries. Fifteen talks will be delivered over the two days of the conference. $25 for adults, $15 for students, and free for Williams students and faculty. For more information and to register call 413-458-0460 or visit www.clarkart.edu. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303.

September 13: Held in the Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall at Williams College in association with the symposium "Visions of the Stage: Theater, Art, and Performance in France, 1600-1800," renowned harpsichordist and musicologist Mark Kroll will play a free program of music by Couperin and other French composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. He will focus on music that paints musical "portraits" of people, places, and things, which reflects 17th- and 18th-century French society and culture. Held at 8 pm at Williams.

September 23: Clark Fellow Michael Leja, professor in the department of art history at the University of Pennsylvania, will present the lecture "Pictures and Daily Life Circa 1850." Free, held at 5:30 pm. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303

September 26: During "An Evening of Contemporary Japanese Fashion," Mikki Brown, co-owner of "The Browns" in Williamstown and former vice president of Issey Miyake North America, will host a fashion show of innovative textile and clothing designs by "Nuno" followed by a reception with the models. Cash bar at reception. Free, Held 6 to 8 pm. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303

September 28: Harpsichordist Victor Hill will present Clavierübung, Part II by J. S. Bach, consisting of the "French Overture" and the "Italian Concerto," and concerti by Marcello and Vivaldi, arranged by Bach for solo harpsichord. Held at 3 pm. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303
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Williamstown Planning Board Narrowing in on Subdivision Bylaw Changes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board late last month discussed specific features of what it plans to pass as a new subdivision control bylaw this year.
 
The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.
 
This spring, the town engaged consultants from Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning to go through the existing bylaw, compare it to more contemporary regulations in other communities and help craft a revised bylaw.
 
Unlike the zoning bylaw, where amendments require approval of town meeting, the subdivision control bylaw is a creation of the Planning Board, which can make changes on its own after a public hearing process it hopes to complete this year.
 
At a special Planning Board meeting on May 26, Dillon Sussman of Dodson and Flinker and his colleagues walked the board through a dozen different decision points that the board must resolve — either by leaving the bylaw as is or making a change — and offered suggestions based on best practices.
 
All of the issues are technical and ranged from the fundamental, like how the bylaw will define types of subdivisions, to the highly specific, like what turning radii will be required in new streets that are constructed to serve planned developments.
 
One example of a topic that came up in the recent approval of a four-home subdivision off Summer Street is stormwater management.
 
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