Clark Art Lecture on Promises and Risks of Multispecies Images

08:30AM / Friday, February 17, 2023Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program hosts a talk by Research and Academic Program Fellow Shawn Michelle Smith that contemplates the promises and risks of multispecies imaginings while reflecting on what it means to think about species historically and today.

Smith considers Alison Ruttan's artwork "The Four Year War at Gombe" (2009–2011) in this presentation.

The talk takes place in the Clark's auditorium and is free and open to the public. A reception in the Manton Research Center reading room at 5 pm precedes the program.

Shawn Michelle Smith is professor of visual and critical studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. She studies the history and theory of photography and gender and race in visual culture. Smith has published seven books, including the award-winning titles "At the Edge of Sight: Photography and the Unseen" (Duke University Press, 2013) and "Photographic Returns: Racial Justice and the Time of Photography (Duke University Press, 2020).

Her project at the Clark, titled Environmental Double Consciousness, approaches environmental catastrophe through the lens of critical race studies and is also supported by a 2022 Guggenheim fellowship.

Free; no registration is required. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.

Tags: Clark Art,

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Williamstown Board Hears Concerns About 'Hometown Heroes' Banners

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:32AM / Wednesday, September 16, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Kurt Durocher told the Williamstown Select Board that he had received nothing but positive feedback from the North County communities where he proposed participation in the Hometown Heroes banner program.

Then Williamstown residents started to weigh in.

Durocher was before the board Monday evening to seek its blessing to put banners recognizing living and deceased military veterans on utility poles in Williamstown, an initiative that has been embraced in all but one of the other municipalities in the district where he serves as Veterans' Service Officer.

"The only negative I've had right now, and it's not really negative, [the Town of ] Florida doesn't want banners to go on Route 2, the Mohawk Trail, for safety reasons, understandably," Durocher said. "So we're trying to figure out an alternate way to make that work in Florida."

By and large, though, the reception to the program has been encouraging, Durocher said.

"I'll use Adams as an example," he said. "They've had a program for many, many years, but it's only for [military personnel] killed in action. Now that I've been allowed to take over that program … there's been a huge outpouring of support, because now we get living veterans on the poles as well.

"The only negative I've had is certain people want their banners in certain locations. So what we did in North Adams is we just did a random draw. I can't please everybody. I've got people who want a banner in a certain location, but three other people want that same location.It was a straight random draw for them."

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