Clark Art Presents Lecture on Artist

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Tuesday, March 12 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program hosts "A Less Binary Art History is Possible," a lecture by Kirstin Ringelberg (Elon University / The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation Fellow). 
 
In this free talk, Ringelberg addresses the once-celebrated (and occasionally reviled) but now largely unknown Belle Époque Parisian artist Madeleine Lemaire (1845–1928). This free lecture takes place in the Clark's auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.
 
According to a press release:
 
Working in a wide variety of genres as a "specialty," Lemaire was sometimes referred to in masculine or hybrid gender terms and seen as an enabler of queer relationships. Notions of sorting and valuing by both gender and artistic genre were central to this time and place yet remain distorted in our persistently binary histories of art. Understanding Lemaire's artistic and personal history in context can reset our understanding of the way still-dominant canonical commitments to certain stylistic approaches enhance historically unsupportable stances on the relative impact of certain artists and their careers—and support problematically cisheteronormative approaches to art histories of the Euro-American nineteenth century.
 
Kirstin Ringelberg is professor of art history in the department of history and geography at Elon University in North Carolina. Ringelberg is the author of Redefining Gender in American Impressionist Studio Paintings: Work Place/Domestic Space (Ashgate, 2010; Routledge paperback, 2017). In 2020 Ringelberg co-edited, with Cyle Metzger, the special themed issue "New Work in Transgender Art and Visual Culture Studies" for the Journal of Visual Culture, and co-authored the essay "Prismatic views: a look at the growing field of transgender art and visual culture studies." At the Clark they will complete a manuscript titled Chez Madeleine Lemaire: Gender and Genre in the Queer Belle E?poque.
 
A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the free program. 

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Williamstown Planners Eye Consultant Help on Mixed-Use Proposal

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board has decided to seek more input before moving ahead with a proposal that would encourage more mixed-use development in the town's business zones.
 
For months, the board had acknowledged that a lot of work needed to go into putting a full-fledged zoning overlay district proposal before town meeting but was optimistic the task could be completed in time for May's annual meeting.
 
But last Tuesday, the town planner suggested that the board could benefit from the work of consultants which the town could hire if it receives a couple of grants from the commonwealth.
 
One of those grants could help fund a study to look at what sorts of business development might be possible if the town code is changed to encourage the construction of buildings that combine commercial and residential uses in its Limited Business and Planned Business zoning districts.
 
"[The town has] done housing needs assessments a couple of times, what about a market needs assessment?" Community Development Director Andrew Groff asked the board rhetorically at its monthly meeting. "That undergirds the whole rezoning program. And then you build the form-based [zoning] on top of that."
 
Groff told the board that he started thinking about the need for studies to support the mixed-use zoning initiative after conversations with officials from the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission and preliminary talks with the type of consultant who might be able to help the town get the data it could use.
 
The planner also suggested that the creation of overlay districts could be done in phases.
 
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