Clark Art Presents Lecture on Artist

08:00AM / Friday, March 08, 2024Print Story | Email Story

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.

Tags: Clark Art,

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Williamstown Housing Trust Agrees to Continue Emergency Mortgage, Rental Programs

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
04:14AM / Tuesday, December 30, 2025

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The board of the town's Affordable Housing Trust at its December meeting voted to extend its mortgage and rental assistance programs and discussed bringing in some consultants early next year before embarking on any new programs.

Chair Daniel Gura informed the board that its agreements with Pittsfield's Hearthway Inc., to administer the Williamstown Emergency Rental Assistance Program and Williamstown Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program was expiring at the end of the year.

Gura sought and obtained a vote of the board to extend the programs, born during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the end of January 2026, at which time the board plans to sign a new long-term agreement.

"In 2024, we distributed $80,000," through the programs known as WERAP and WEMAP, Gura said. "This year, to date, we gave $16,000, and Ihere's $17,000 left. … It's a little interesting we saw a dropoff from 2024 to 2025, although I think there were obvious reasons for that in terms of where we are in the world."

Gura suggested that the board might want to increase the funding to the programs, which benefit income-qualified town residents.

"If you look at the broader economic picture in this country, there's a prospect of more people needing help, not fewer people," Thomas Sheldon said in agreeing with Gura. "I think the need will bump up again."

The board voted to add an additional $13,000 to the amount available to applicants screened by Hearthway with the possibility of raising that funding if a spike in demand is seen.

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