WCMA Celebrates Fall With Weekend of Programs

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) will kick off the fall semester with a weekend of celebrations on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 and 28.

On Friday, Sept. 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. visit WCMA to view fall exhibitions, including Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art, curated by C. Ondine Chavoya and David Evans Frantz; Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art, curated by WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval; SO-IL/WCMA: Building a New Museum, organized by WCMA and SO-IL, the architects designing the new museum building; Pallavi Sen: Colour Theory, curated by former WCMA Mellon Curatorial Fellow Nicholas Liou and Roz Crews, Associate Curator of Programs; Object Lab; and Remixing the Hall, featuring the museum's collection "remixed" in new ways by the entire curatorial team.

Curators and artists will be visiting from near and far to join in the festivities, which will include refreshments, music, and more.

The following day, on Saturday, Sept. 28, take a deeper dive into Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art with "Play and Inquiry: Celebrating Latinx and Queer Art Communities." This daylong celebration of Latinx and queer art includes a tour of the exhibition with the curators at 11 a.m.; a Spice Root lunch buffet at noon with short presentations by representatives from the Queer Men of the Berkshires and the Berkshire Queer History Project (BQH), information from Latinx and LGBTQIA+ student groups, as well as students collecting very brief oral histories of queer folks on behalf of BQH (all are welcome, reservation required); a hands-on mail art workshop led by Erick Ramos-Jacobo, Program Research Assistant and Workshop Leader from 1 to 3 p.m.; and a panel discussion moderated by Associate Professor of Art Mari Rodriguez Binnie featuring short presentations by exhibition artists, Joey Terrill, Troy Montes-Michie, and Moises Salazar Tlatenchi, followed by a dialogue delving into the topics of experimental graphics, queerness, and Latinx and Chicanx identities from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

"It's our absolute pleasure to welcome WCMA's many communities to the museum for a day of ‘play and inquiry' inspired by Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art," said Roz Crews, Associate Curator of Programs. "In addition to learning from and with the local artists, students, activists, and scholars who make the Berkshires so vibrant, audiences will have a special opportunity to hear directly from the exhibition's visiting curators, David Evans Frantz and C. Ondine Chavoya, as well as artists in the show. 

"This event is a sharing platform for folks who do the daily work of honoring the queer and Latinx stories of our society."

Programs are free and open to the public. Registration is required for the lunch on Sept. 28. For more information, visit artmuseum.williams.edu.

Williamstown Fire Committee Sees FY27 Budget with Sizable Operational Increase

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:50AM / Tuesday, March 31, 2026

The Prudential Committee held its first meeting in the new station in late March with Treasurer Billie Jo Sawyer, left and committee members Lindsay Neathawk, David Moresi and Craig Pedercini.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Prudential Committee last week reviewed a draft annual fire district meeting warrant that includes an operational expenses budget up 9.4 percent from the figures approved at the May 2025 annual meeting.

 

And, with a new line item added to the district's operational budget the total increase is closer to 24 percent.

 

Last May, meeting members — the meeting is open to all registered voters in town — approved an FY26 spending plan that totaled $686,991.

 

On July 1, the first day of the fiscal year, a special district meeting voted to allocate $40,000 from the district's stabilization fund to the operating budget, effectively raising the baseline to $726,991, a 34 percent increase, year over year, from FY25 to FY26.

 

The July 1 meeting moved $20,000 of stabilization funds to the firefighter pay line and $20,000 to the maintenance and operation line — nearly doubling the former and raising the latter by 75 percent from FY25 to FY26.

 

Both those lines are up again in the planned FY27 budget, but more modestly: 2 percent for M&O (up from $123,000 to $125,500) and 27 percent for firefighter payroll ($110,000 to $139,900).

 

Most of the other line items net out to no significant change; some are up a little, some are down a little.