Clark Art Presents Constant Smiles and Ava Mirzadegan

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute's Music at the Manton Concert spring series concludes with a performance by Constant Smiles and Ava Mirzadegan on Sunday, May 5 at 5 pm.
 
The performance takes place in the Clark's auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.
 
According to a press release:
 
Constant Smiles began in 2009 in leader Ben Jones' home of Martha's Vineyard. Inspired by the island's now-defunct community record store Aboveground Records, the group made their live debut as a noise duo opening for Ralph White (Bad Livers). Fourteen indie-folk albums later, Constant Smiles returns to their electronic roots with their latest release Kenneth Anger, evoking the eponymous filmmaker with hypnotic, '80s-inspired synth classics that examine how rituals and community can heal feelings of isolation.
 
Ava Mirzadegan opens for Constant Smiles. Mirzadegan writes quiet songs about heartbreak, longing, letting go, and befriending the night sky. Accompanied most often by fingerpicked nylon string guitar, her work rings of unembellished honesty.
 
Tickets $10 ($8 members, $7 students, $5 children 15 and under). Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. Advance registration encouraged. For more information and to register, visit clarkart.edu/events.
 
Presented in collaboration with Belltower Records, North Adams.

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Williamstown READI Committee Transitions Away From Select Board

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday voted unanimously to transition the town's diversity committee away from the role it has served since its inception in 2020.
 
On a 4-0 vote, the board voted to formally dissolve the body recently renamed the Race, Equity, Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and allow its members to work directly with the town manager to advance the issues that the former DIRE Committee addressed over the last six years.
 
When the then-Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee was formed in the summer of 2020, it was conceived as an advisory body to the Select Board.
 
Over the years, the relationship between the Select Board and DIRE became strained, to the point where READI Committee members last year were openly discussing whether their group should remain a town committee at all or become a grassroots organization on the model of the town's Carbon Dioxide Lowering (COOL Committee).
 
"I just don't think that previous Select Boards have been the best guides in the process of getting things accomplished in the community," said Shana Dixon, who served on DIRE before her election to the Select Board last May. "Not that this panel, right now, could be better.
 
"What I'm saying is that it has been a hindrance to work under the Select Board."
 
It was not immediately clear whether the next incarnation of the READI Committee would continue to comply with the provisions of the Open Meeting Law.
 
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