Williams College Expands Development Grants for Local School Districts

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College will increase from three to seven the number of local school districts that benefit from its Bicentennial Olmsted Awards.

Each year the program awards $5,000 per district to support teacher and administrator projects aimed at professional or curricular development. Since the program’s launch in the college’s bicentennial year of 1993, the Olmsted Awards have been given to McCann Technical, Mount Greylock Regional and Williamstown Elementary.

With the expansion of the program, Adams-Cheshire Regional, Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter, Lanesborough Elementary, and North Adams Public Schools will be added.

 “I’m pleased that Williams is able to broaden the benefit of the Olmsted Awards to more of the school districts that serve our community so well,” Williams President Adam Falk said. “In addition to advancing professional and curricular development, these awards also bring well deserved public attention to our dedicated corps of local teachers.”

Projects being funded in the current year include ones implementing the Massachusetts Kindergarten Entry Assessment system at Williamstown Elementary, revamping the ninth-grade English curriculum at Mount Greylock Regional, and developing the robotics program at McCann Technical.



“This is much more than a generous financial commitment to our district,” North Adams Public Schools Superintendent James Montepare said. “I see it as yet another unsolicited huge step by Williams to support K-12 education, not only locally, but throughout the region. The college’s presence in North Adams has grown substantially during my tenure as superintendent. Williams has opened the doors of its art museum to thousands of our students, expanded its student tutorial program, and this year the college is a full partner with us and MCLA in a phenomenal three-year science initiative.”

The local Olmsted Awards are funded by an endowment from the estates of George Olmsted Jr. ’24 and his wife Frances. The awards were established during the 1993 Williams Bicentennial Celebration. They are an extension of the national Olmsted Prizes, which are administered each year to secondary school teachers from around the country, nominated by students of Williams’ senior class. Olmsted, a lifelong advocate of superior teaching, was the president and chairman of the board of the S.D. Warren (Paper) Company.

 

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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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