Clark Art Presents Music in the Manton Concert Series

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — This spring, the Clark Art Institute presents Music in the Manton, a series of concerts in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

The lineup includes:

Friday, March 21, 7 pm
Flore Laurentienne
Canadian Mathieu David Gagnon's incomparable musical project Flore Laurentienne comes from a happy marriage between electronic and classically influenced music. The project is committed to constantly pushing the boundaries between various genres, including ambient, experimental, and progressive rock. Flore Laurentienne has recently released a new album, 8 tableaus, available on Secret City Records. The composer, orchestrator, and musician draws inspiration from the works of Canadian painter and sculptor Jean Paul Riopelle with this new offering.

This program is presented in collaboration with Belltower Records, North Adams, Massachusetts.

Sunday, April 27, 2 pm
Umi Garrett
New York-based pianist Umi Garrett performs works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Prokofiev, J.S. Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Florence Price, Gabriel Kahane, and works composed by Williamstown resident and established classical composer Stephen Dankner. Garrett recently released her debut chamber album of Ludwig van Beethoven's Five Sonatas for Piano and Cello with Emily Mantone. She is currently studying for her Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School with Hung- Kuan Chen and Shai Wosner and is a Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Yale School of Music. In the summers, she is a staff collaborative pianist at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute in Chicago.

Friday, May 2, 6 pm
Benjamin Hochman
Benjamin Hochman presents a solo piano recital centered around brilliant American composer Matthew Aucoin's The tracks have vanished, a work inspired by Aucoin's forthcoming opera Demons, itself based on Dostoyevsky's eponymous novel. The recital program draws on an intricate web of interconnected themes, including nihilism and life under Russian totalitarianism (including Ustvolskaya's Preludes) and the genre of opera transcriptions (including from operas by Wagner and Gluck).

Tickets for all concerts $10 ($8 members, $7 students, $5 children 15 and under). Advance registration encouraged. Capacity is limited. Accessible seats available. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.

Williams College Lone Suitor 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.