Clark Art Opening Lecture: For Shadow Visionaries

08:16AM / Tuesday, January 06, 2026Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Saturday, Jan. 10 at 11 am, the Clark Art Institute celebrates the opening of its newest exhibition Shadow Visionaries: French Artists Against the Current, 1840–70 with a free lecture.

Offering a new take on mid-nineteenth-century French art, exhibition curator Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, introduces the exhibition. The lecture takes place in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

According to a press release:

Although Realism is often seen as the dominant aesthetic of mid-nineteenth-century France, certain printmakers and photographers, called "shadow visionaries" for this project, embraced imagination, dreams, and allegory instead. Working against the grain, figures such as Victor Hugo, Charles Meryon, Rodolphe Bresdin—and a roster of early French photographers—offered an alternate vision anchored in memory, fantasy, and longing. These artists recognized the potential of prints and photographs to construct a spiritual consciousness in the art of mid-1800s France.

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.

Tags: Clark Art,

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Images Cinema Community Rallies to Aid Departed Managing Director

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:34PM / Thursday, March 12, 2026

Janet Curran's friends started a gofundme to help her through the transition.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The community is rallying to support the longtime managing director of Images Cinema after her job was eliminated late last year.

As of Thursday morning, a Gofundme campaign for Janet Curran had raised more than $12,500 from 90 contributors.

"I feel really held and supported by the community right now," Curran said this week. "I'm really moved that people appreciate the work that I did at Images."

Curran did that work for about a quarter of a century, first as a volunteer in 2000, then as an intern in 2002 and finally as the managing director, a position she held since 2007.

"If you've been to Images Cinema in the last 25 years … you've probably been helped by her, welcomed by her, or had a conversation with her that you still think about," the creators of the Gofundme campaign wrote.

"Janet is one of those people who makes a place worth living in. She's kind without making a show of it, dependable in a way many people aren't, and she has given more to this community than she'd ever say herself."

Two days before Thanksgiving 2025, Curran learned from the Spring Street theater's board of directors and Executive Director Dan Hudson that her position was being eliminated. Her last day at the non-profit movie house was Jan. 2.

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