Public Invited To A Showcase Of Graduate Student Scholarship
WILLIAMSTOWN - The Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art, offered in collaboration with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, will present the Thirteenth Annual Spring Symposium on Friday, May 30.Members of the M.A. class of 2008 will present papers on a wide variety of topics, focused on art ranging in time from the 16th century to today, and in media from the murals of the Sistine Chapel to Yoruba Egungun masquerade costume. The Symposium will begin at 9 a.m. at the Clark, and is free of charge. The public is invited to attend.
Symposium papers are developed out of a major student academic project undertaken over the course of the year. The Symposium is the keystone academic event of the curriculum, which is designed to emphasize study, debate, discussion, and argument around the history of art.
Degree candidates and their topics include Katherine Alcauskas on Catherine the Great's collection of British art; Julie Blake on the controversy surrounding the recent restoration of the Sistine Ceiling; Erin Corrales-Diaz on N. C. Wyeth's depictions of the Eastern Woodland Indian; Hannah Friedman on Caravaggio's portrayal of Doubting Thomas; Sarah Hammond on James Gillray and the language of history painting; Amanda Hellman on the role of color in Yoruba Egungun Masquerade; Tianyue Jiang on calligraphy in contemporary Chinese art; George Philip LeBourdais on nineteenth-century photography of the mountainous sublime; Stephanie Schumann on Alexander Calder's Circus; Jennifer Sichel on Geoffrey Hendricks's performance work of the 1960s; and Katie Steiner on John Constable's work at Salisbury Cathedral -- two examples of which will be on view in the Clark galleries.
The Williams College Graduate Program is the nation's foremost M.A. program in art history. Its nearly 400 graduates have gone on to excel across the museum and academic world, as well as in other fields. The Program draws faculty from the ranks of the College, from the Clark, and from elsewhere. The Clark's extensive research facilities, including its library, support the scholarship conducted by the Williams graduate students.
