The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) presents Unchained Legacies, an exhibition featuring two of the museum's new contemporary art acquisitions—Stowage (1997) by Willie Cole and Absolut Power (2003) by Hank Willis Thomas—as well as a selection of historical documents related to the Middle Passage from the Chapin Library of rare books at Williams College.
Hank Willis Thomas's work Absolut Power mines the language of advertising to talk about race, class, and history. Absolut Power employs the popular advertising campaign to remind viewers of economic implications of the transatlantic slave trade. Similarly, artist Willie Cole uses the imagery of brands and branding, taking domestic irons and literally scorching the paper on which he worked, leaving behind different patterns that are a double entendre for the branding of animals and slaves. These two contemporary works will be displayed alongside Thomas Jefferson's copy of Thomas Clarkson's The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-trade, by the British Parliament (Philadelphia, 1808), which contains the famous Brookes slave ship diagram that Thomas and Cole visually reference: evidence of the organization of human cargo during transport from Africa, or what has become known as the “Middle Passage.†The exhibition, a collaboration with the Chapin Library, provides a historical context for the contemporary use of this much reproduced image.
"Middle Passage" refers to the forced transportation of Africans to the New World from the 15th to the 19th century. It was the middle leg of the triangular trade, where ships from Europe sold or traded their goods for prisoners on the African coast and then sailed to the Americas and the Caribbean, where African people were sold or traded for goods bound for European markets.
This exhibition has been organized by Vivian Patterson, Curator of Collections, with Leslie Wingard, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture at Williams College. Special thanks to Robert L. Volz, Custodian of the Chapin Library, Wayne G. Hammond, Assistant Chapin Librarian, Caton C. Lee, Williams Class of 2009, Jennifer C. Bees, Class of 2008, and Caitlin Higgins, Class of 2008, who have helped in organizing this exhibition.
Programming
Season Premiere Party
Wednesday, February 20
5:30 pm
Celebrate the museum's new spring exhibitions with this free, public event at the museum.
Symposium: Artistic Crossings of the Black Atlantic: The Migratory Aesthetic in Contemporary Art
A Williams College Museum of Art / Clark Artist Symposium
Saturday, March 1
9:30 am–6:00 pm: Registration and Symposium at the Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown
6:00–8:00 pm: Reception at the Williams College Museum of Art
This day-long symposium invites five acclaimed artists—sculptor Willie Cole, multi-media artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, British filmmaker Isaac Julien, photographer Hank Willis Thomas, and installation artist and MacArthur Fellow Fred Wilson—to discuss the Black Atlantic aesthetic. Through transatlantic connections among Africa, Britain, the Caribbean, and the United States, Black intellectuals and literary figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Richard Wright fashioned a Black Atlantic culture that made a central contribution to the modernist aesthetic. Today this Black Atlantic aesthetic extends into the realm of the visual as international artists critically engage cross-Atlantic migration as a principal focus of their work.
Admission: $20 per person, $10 for members of the Williams College Museum of Art and the Clark. Free to Williams students and faculty. For more information please visit www.wcma.org or www.clarkart.edu/research_and_academic
This program has been organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and the Williams College Museum of Art; it is presented in conjunction with related exhibitions at the Williams College Museum of Art.
Concert
Musical Legacies: Freddie Bryant
Sunday, April 13
2:00 pm
In response to the exhibition, Unchained Legacies, guitarist Freddie Bryant will perform new compositions and improvisations that explore the musical legacies of the African diaspora. From spirituals, blues, and jazz to Brazilian and Afro-Caribbean styles, his music will celebrate the cultural richness that has survived the Middle Passage and slavery as each generation rejoices in musical legacies—unchained and influencing the world. He will be playing acoustic/nylon, electric, and 12-string guitars, as well as various percussion instruments. Part of the Williamstown Jazz Festival.
Williams College Museum of Art
The Williams College Museum of Art is located on Main Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am-5 pm and Sunday from 1-5 pm. The museum is wheelchair accessible and open to the public. Admission is FREE. For more information, contact the museum at 413-597-2429.
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Companion Corner: Lucy at Second Chance Animal Shelter
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
ARLINGTON, Vt. — There is an excited and energetic pup looking for her new family.
iBerkshire's Companion Corner is a weekly series spotlighting an animal in our local shelters that is ready to find a home.
Lucy is an 18-month-old heeler/terrier mix with energy to spare. She has been at the Second Chance Animal Shelter for about a month.
Lead canine care technician Alaura Lasher introduced us to her.
"She is a very energetic girl. She loves to play, and as you can see, she came to us from animal control," she said.
Lucy was not in a great situation before coming to the shelter and they are still trying to learn more about her.
"They had seized her from a pretty neglectful situation. She was actually technically abandoned. She just came to us this last month, so she's still showing us all of her energy she has," Lasher said.
Lucy is able to go home with a dog-savvy cat and older children as she can be a bit jumpy with her bounds of energy.
"The perfect home for her is one that is able to give her a ton of attention and a ton of time playing, she loves her time outside," said Lasher. "She can run forever and not get tired. She can possibly live with another dog who is used to more of a pushy play style. She can be a little pushy when she plays, just because she's so hyper."
Since she is young, she is still learning and training with the staff and might need more with someone who takes her home.
"To the best of our knowledge, she's just a healthy young girl, because she's only a year and a half old, she still got a little bit of learning and training that she could use."
But Lucy is always happy to see anyone and immediately wants to play and say hi. Her endless energy makes her a great companion to play outside with and then hang out after a long day of fun.
"She's just a super sweet girl again. She'll need some help with the training, but as long as you've got time to burn out her energy, she'll make a great family dog," she said.
If you think Lucy might be the girl for you, reach out to Second Chance Animal Shelter and learn more about her on their website.
The Select Board on Monday decided to enter into negotiations with Williams College on the sale of the vacant town-owned lot at 59 Water St.
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Cassidy Flynn scattered five hits in a complete-game effort in the circle as Lenox upset top-seeded Hoosac Valley, 3-2, in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament. click for more
