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Updated March 24, 2021 03:08PM

Six Running for Two Seats on Williamstown Select Board

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Updated at 3:10 p.m. to indicate all nomination papers have been certified.
 
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- A four-way race is shaping up for a single Select Board seat in May's town election.
 
Tuesday was the deadline for submitting nomination papers with signatures for six positions that will be on the ballot this spring.
 
Town Clerk Nicole Pedercini reported on Wednesday that all of the positions have been filled and all of the nomination papers have been certified.
 
On the Select Board, there are two seats open this year: a three-year seat currently held by Anne O'Connor, and the last year of a three-year term currently filled by Jeffrey Thomas, who announced this winter his intention to step down.
 
For the three-year seat, Anthony Boskovich will face Jeffrey Johnson.
 
For the last year in Thomas' term, four residents -- Albert J. Cummings IV, Nicholls (Niko) White, Barbara Rosenthal and Wade Hasty -- have submitted papers.
 
There are three candidates for a five-year seat on the Planning Board. Incumbent Susan Puddester will be challenged by Kenneth N. Kuttner and Roger TW Lawrence.
 
The fourth contested race on the ballot will be for the town's Housing Authority, where Joan F. Diver will run against Charles Stephen Dew.
 
There are two other positions on the May 11 election ballot. Incumbent Charles Bonenti is the lone candidate for Milne Library Trustee; Laila G. Boucher is standing for Williamstown's seat on the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Tech) Committee.
 
Town Manager Jason Hoch Monday noted that the application for a mail-in ballot is available on the town's website. The May election will be held under the commonwealth's current rule allowing no-excuse mail-in voting. Hoch said ballots cannot go to the printer until after the April 8 deadline for candidates to withdraw their names, which means the town likely will have ballots back and ready to begin mailing to those who have requested them on or about April 23.
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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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