Clark Art Lecture on Stuart Hall

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Tuesday, Feb.25, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program presents a talk by David Scott (Columbia University / Clark Fellow) examining the career of Stuart Hall and the publication of Hall's landmark book, "The Popular Arts."

This free event takes place at 5:30 pm in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

According to a press release:

Influenced by Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy (1957) and Raymond Williams's Culture and Society (1958), this much-neglected book helped to inaugurate the study of contemporary popular culture as well as contemporary media studies. Engaging television and cinema, audience and institutions, critics and young people, the book was wide-ranging in its attempt to offer an analytical frame for rethinking the old distinction between "high" and "low" culture. The talk contextualizes The Popular Arts and discusses its importance both in the evolution of Stuart Hall's thinking in the 1960s, and in the making of Cultural Studies.

David Scott is the Ruth and William Lubic Professor in the department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of a number of books, including "Stuart Hall's Voice: Intimations of an Ethics of Receptive Generosity" (2017) and "Irreparable Evil: An Essay in Moral and Reparatory History" (2024). The founding editor of Small Axe, Scott is director of the Small Axe Project. Currently at work on a biography of Stuart Hall, Scott will devote his time at the Clark to examining Hall's work in the 1970s. 

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. Admission to the Clark is free January through March 2025.

Williams College Lone Proponent for Development of Water Street Lot

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
11:15AM / Thursday, April 16, 2026

Williams College hopes to replace the current Facilities Services building on Latham Street and use that space for a new  athletics complex. 

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — If the town accepts an offer from Williams College, a 1.27-acre lot that long has been eyed as a possible venue for housing and economic development instead will find a use similar to its history.

 

The college was the lone respondent to the town's request for proposals to purchase and develop 59 Water St., a dirt lot known around town as the "old town garage site." This was first reported Wednesday by Greylock News. 

 

If successful, the college plans to use the former town garage property for the school's Facilities Services building. Or it could be turned back into a parking lot.

 

Williams' offer includes a $500,000 upfront payment and a 10-year agreement to make $50,000 annual donations to the Mount Greylock Regional School District according to the proposal unsealed on Wednesday afternoon.

 

If it closes the deal, the college said it will explore development of a three- to four-story Facilities Services building with "a structured parking facility providing approximately 170 spaces."

 

"[I]f site constraints impact our ability to develop both structured parking and the Facilities Services building, our backup proposal is to develop the parking structure with approximately 170 spaces, also with capacity to support institutional and public needs," the college's proposal reads.

 

The college's current Facilities property at 60 Latham St. has an assessed value — for the .42-acre lot only — of $113,000 and an annual property tax bill of $1,606, according to the town's website.