Clark Art Lecture on Radical Art, Mass Print Media in Cold War Brazil

Print Story | Email Story
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program presents a lecture by Mari Rodriguez?Binnie (Williams College), who discusses her new book "The São Paulo Neo-Avant-Garde" (University of Texas Press, 2024) in which she examines how?artists challenged a military dictatorship through mass print technologies in the 1970s and 1980s in São Paulo, Brazil. 
 
This free event takes place at 5:30 pm in the Manton Research Center auditorium.
 
According to a press release:
 
Often working collaboratively, these artists established alternative networks of exchange locally and internationally to circulate their work. In this first English-language book to focus entirely on conceptual practices in São Paulo in this period, Binnie?examines these artworks and their engagement with politics and mainstream art institutions and practices, unearthing a scene critical to the development of contemporary Brazilian art. Binnie will be in conversation with Brynn Hatton, the Kindler Family Assistant Professor of Global Contemporary Art at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Hatton's research explores how global art workers from the mid-1960s to the early 2000s have differently imagined Vietnam as an idea rather than a place, and a crucible around which various political identities were and continue to be forged.
 
Mari Rodriguez?Binnie is associate professor of art at Williams College.
 
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A reception at 5 pm in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event. 

Tags: Clark Art,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown Planning Board Hears Results of Sidewalk Analysis

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Two-thirds of the town-owned sidewalks got good grades in a recent analysis ordered by the Planning Board.
 
But, overall, the results were more mixed, with many of the town's less affluent neighborhoods being home to some of its more deficient sidewalks or going without sidewalks at all.
 
On Dec. 10, the Planning Board heard a report from Williams College students Ava Simunovic and Oscar Newman, who conducted the study as part of an environmental planning course. The Planning Board, as it often does, served as the client for the research project.
 
The students drove every street in town, assessing the availability and condition of its sidewalks, and consulted with town officials, including the director of the Department of Public Works.
 
"In northern Williamstown … there are not a lot of sidewalks despite there being a relatively dense population, and when there are sidewalks, they tend to be in poor condition — less than 5 feet wide and made out of asphalt," Simunovic told the board. "As we were doing our research, we began to wonder if there was a correlation between lower income neighborhoods and a lack of adequate sidewalk infrastructure.
 
"So we did a bit of digging and found that streets with lower property values on average lack adequate sidewalk infrastructure — notably on North Hoosac, White Oaks and the northern Cole Avenue area. In comparison, streets like Moorland, Southworth and Linden have higher property values and better sidewalk infrastructure."
 
Newman explained that the study included a detailed map of the town's sidewalk network with scores for networks in a given area based on six criteria: surface condition, sidewalk width, accessibility, connectivity (to the rest of the network), safety (including factors like proximity to the road) and surface material.
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories