Clark Art to Host "Read the Story and Picture" Lecture Sept. 20

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program will present a lecture by Clark Fellow Olivier Bonfait entitled, "Read the Story and the Picture" at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 20 in the Clark’s auditorium in the Manton Research Center building.

In this lecture, Bonfait will discuss the interplay between the pictorial intelligence of the human history based on a left-right dynamic and the lateralization of vision which is also part of  daily experience.

Olivier Bonfait is a professor at the Université de Bourgogne and the École du Louvre and is also a member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He earned his Ph.D. from the Sorbonne with a dissertation on art and society of Baroque Bologna.

Bonfait has published, in particular on Nicolas Poussin and "Caravaggesque" painting. When he was director of the art history department at the Villa Médici—Académie de France (Rome), Bonfait curated several exhibitions spanning seventeenth- to nineteenth-century European art.

At the Clark, Bonfait is researching the history of large-format painting and considering its important role in the formation of modern nation states.

The event is free and no registration is required. Prior to the lecture, attendees are invited to join a reception in the Manton Research Center Reading Room starting at 5 p.m. 

A recorded video of this lecture releases on the Clark’s YouTube channel on September 27. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.


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Williamstown Government Presents Communication Plan

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown is working to improve communications with residents.
 
The town manager told the Select Board last week that the town obtained a Community Compact Best Practices grant from the state's Division of Local Services to fund a consultant from the University of Massachusetts at Boston's Collins Center for Public Management to develop a communications strategy.
 
Improved communications is a growing concern for small towns like Williamstown, Robert Menicocci told the board.
 
"The world has changed with social media," Menicocci said. "The expectations of what a community communicates to its citizens — the game has been upped.
 
"I think this was a new area for government and many communities are looking at a need to staff up to address communications, where, in the past, maybe a big city would have a communications director. Now that has trickled down to almost all small communities."
 
To that end, the town has completely revamped its website and hired its first communications director — both steps that were included in the November 2025 Collins Center report, "Roadmap for Inclusive and Accessible Municipal Communications in Williamstown, Mass."
 
Brianna Sunryd, a public services manager at the Collins Center, presented her group's findings to the Select Board.
 
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