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Candidates, from left, Stephanie Boyd, Anne O'Connor and Michael Goodwin campaign outside Williamstown Elementary School on Tuesday.

Boyd, Carlisle Elected to Williamstown Planning Board

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Stephanie Boyd and Alexander Carlisle earned spots on the Planning Board as 702 Williamstown residents went to the polls for the annual town election on Tuesday.
 
Boyd earned a five-year seat on the board by defeating Michael Goodwin by a margin of 390-291.
 
Carlisle defeated John Spelman, 383-323, to earn the right to serve the final two years in the unexpired term of Ann McCallum, who is stepping down from the board.
 
Turnout was typically light, with just 14 percent of the town's 4,855 residents voting.
 
The election featured three contested races, but the third, for Elementary School Committee, generated little interest. The two winners from among three candidates on the ballot will serve just about six weeks on the committee after they are sworn in following May 15's annual town meeting.
 
Incumbent Catherine Keating and newcomer Elizabeth Miller will be part of the final five people to serve on the school committee before it is disbanded and the Mount Greylock Regional School Transition Committee assumes all authority for the recently expanded district on July 1.
 
Keating earned 402 votes, and Miller garnered 304. The third candidate on the ballot, Robert Matthews, got 198 votes.
 
The election featured three uncontested races.
 
Incumbent Anne O'Connor was returned to her three-year seat on the Select Board. Charles Bonenti won another three-year term as a Milne Public Library Trustee, and Timothy Rickert was elected to serve three years as the town's representative on the Northern Berkshire Regional School (McCann Technical) Committee.

Tags: election 2018,   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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