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Williamstown Fire District Election, Meeting Tuesday

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown Fire District will hold its annual election and meeting on Tuesday at Williamstown Elementary School.
 
The polls will open at 6 p.m. for the annual election of officers and close at 8 p.m., to be followed by the meeting, where voters will be asked to approve, among other things, the district's nearly half-million dollar operating budget for fiscal year 2020.
 
One item on the meeting warrant is a complement to an article that passed without commen at last week's annual town meeting.
 
Without debate, town voters on a voice vote authorized the Select Board to seek a permanent easement on a Main Street parcel that the fire district purchased with the intention of building a new fire station.
 
Article 2 on the fire district warrant would authorize the Prudential Committee to convey said easement.
 
The Prudential Committee, members of which will be elected in Tuesday's balloting, oversees the fire district, a separate municipal entity with its own taxing authority, like the Select Board oversees the town.
 
Another non-routine item on Tuesday's meeting warrant also relates to 562 Main St., which district voters decided to purchase in 2017.
 
Article 10, the final item on Tuesday's agenda, will ask district voters whether to spend $30,000 for "study, engineering, maintenance, permitting, clearing, filling, grading or other costs" related to property, "in preparation for future construction."
 
As for the operating budget, Article 5 on Tuesday's agenda, the Prudential Committee is proposing a budget of $488,151, an increase of $7,400, or 1.5 percent, from the budget approved for FY19.

Tags: fire district,   prudential committee,   town elections,   

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WCMA: 'Cracking the Code on Numerology'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) opens a new exhibition, "Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art."
 
The exhibit opened on March 22.
 
According to a press release: 
 
The idea that numbers emanate sacred significance, and connect the past with the future, is prehistoric and global. Rooted in the Babylonian science of astrology, medieval Christian numerology taught that God created a well-ordered universe. Deciphering the universe's numerical patterns would reveal the Creator's grand plan for humanity, including individual fates. 
 
This unquestioned concept deeply pervaded European cultures through centuries. Theologians and lay people alike fervently interpreted the Bible literally and figuratively via number theory, because as King Solomon told God, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:22). 
 
"Cracking the Cosmic Code" explores medieval relationships among numbers, events, and works of art. The medieval and Renaissance art on display in this exhibition from the 5th to 17th centuries—including a 15th-century birth platter by Lippo d'Andrea from Florence; a 14th-century panel fragment with courtly scenes from Palace Curiel de los Ajos, Valladolid, Spain; and a 12th-century wall capital from the Monastery at Moutiers-Saint-Jean—reveal numerical patterns as they relate to architecture, literature, gender, and timekeeping. 
 
"There was no realm of thought that was not influenced by the all-consuming belief that all things were celestially ordered, from human life to stones, herbs, and metals," said WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval, who curated the exhibition. "As Vincent Foster Hopper expounds, numbers were 'fundamental realities, alive with memories and eloquent with meaning.' These artworks tease out numerical patterns and their multiple possible meanings, in relation to gender, literature, and the celestial sphere. 
 
"The exhibition looks back while moving forward: It relies on the collection's strengths in Western medieval Christianity, but points to the future with goals of acquiring works from the global Middle Ages. It also nods to the history of the gallery as a medieval period room at this pivotal time in WCMA's history before the momentous move to a new building," Sandoval said.
 
Cracking the Cosmic Code runs through Dec. 22.
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