Williams College Receives $1.27 Million Grant
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College has been awarded a challenge grant of $1.27 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. One million will be matched by Williams to establish an endowment to strengthen and expand the current Mellon Academic Program at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). The remainder will be used to support the program for three years while the matching funds are raised.The new endowment will enable the formation of the Mellon Curatorial Fellowship, a three-year position designed to provide candidates from underrepresented communities, especially first-generation college graduates and/or minority candidates, with an in-depth museum experience and a bridge to the museum field.
“This gift will dramatically advance an important part of our operation,” WCMA Director Lisa Corrin said. “It is intended to encourage greater diversity in the museum field and will broaden connections between WCMA and faculty across the disciplines at Williams.”
The Mellon Academic Program includes a number of initiatives that support teaching with the museum’s collection of over 13,000 objects. These initiatives include: the Rose Study Gallery, a dedicated museum classroom where artwork from the collection can be accessed and viewed for teaching; research, which is conducted on objects in the collection and added to the museum’s database; exhibitions developed with faculty to support course curriculum at Williams; and an innovative exhibition and publication series called “Labeltalk,” which presents works from the museum’s collection alongside written responses by Williams faculty from different disciplines and multiple perspectives.
The Mellon Foundation’s first involvement with WCMA was a three-year grant in 1992 to “help the museum enhance the educational role of its collection and programs.” In 1995 the Foundation supported museum efforts to continue its teaching initiatives and to make its collection “indispensable to [the college’s] curriculum.” An endowment challenge, matched by Williams in 2000, established the “Mellon WCMA Collections and Curriculum Endowment Fund,” which continues to serve Williams faculty and students through the Mellon Academic Program.
Williams College Museum of Art
The Williams College Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and the museum is wheelchair accessible. Contact: Suzanne A. Silitch, Director of Communications and Strategy, 413.597.3178.
