WCMA Summer School: A Weekly Mashup of Campus Life Crafted by Artist Lexa Walsh Thursdays in July & August
4 pm: Get a healthy dose of academics in the galleries with a mini course led by Williams College faculty.
5-8 pm: A playful taste of Williams culture with artfully curated food and drinks on the patio.
Ongoing: Study up on artists and exhibitions all summer long in our Reading Room!
https://wcma.williams.edu/summer-school-2016/!
WCMA 107
Enlivening Texture & Textile in Art
Deborah Brothers, Costume Designer and Lecturer in Theatre
Whether in paint, marble, or graphite, artists’ renderings of texture, form, and movement beckon the viewer to respond with the body. One might imagine reaching out to touch the ruffed collar of a Dutch nobleman, or turning toward the wind cascading through a figure’s gauzy cloak. In this mini course, we’ll engage the senses in a close study of the ways costume, texture, and material are rendered by artists.
Class Format: Workshop
Online Registration
The Art & Science of Beer
Chemistry Professor Thomas Smith and local beer brewer Sam Amoroso team up to show you how and why beer tastes as good as it does. Finish off the evening with a glass of homebrew.
WCMA 114
Museum: The Gathering
David Gurçay-Morris, Assistant Professor of Theatre
Can art be democratic? Should it be? Is culture the result of a popularity contest, or should some individuals be chosen to represent us and curate our cultural experience? Players will grapple with these, and other questions as they craft their own aesthetic worlds in this immersive performance.
Class Format: Performance
Online Registration
No Hook, Finger Crook: Finger Crocheting with Seth Koen
Make new friends and some friendly minimalist art with crochet artist Seth Koen. Pick up some yarn, a few new skills, and create a collective work of art.
WCMA 121
Labeling: A History Lesson
Katarzyna Pieprzak, Chair and Professor of Francophone Literature, French Language, and Comparative Literature
Museums constantly make decisions about objects and their reception. Which work gets shared? What is displayed alongside it? How are objects written about and analyzed? These decisions impact the way that works of art, knowledge, and even people have been organized over time. Consider the implications of these decisions by creatively re-crafting WCMA and its taxonomies.
Class Format: Workshop
Online Registration
Get a taste of the role science plays in your kitchen. Artist and chef Lexa Walsh cooks up some surprises on our patio.
WCMA 128
State of the Art/Art of the State
Christina Simko, Assistant Professor of Sociology
It isn’t just propaganda that promulgates state agendas. Think through the many ways that art reproduces, resists, or reformulates cultural and political narratives. Delve into works of art from African Art Against the State and put them into conversation with politically significant American art.
Class Format: Lecture
OnlineRegistration
WTF + WCMA: A Guided Tour
Williamstown Theatre Festival actors bring WCMA’s collection to life in this trip through the galleries that makes protagonists of portrait sitters. The tour starts and ends on the patio.
WCMA 104
After Images: Photography and Its Shifting Stories
Emilie Boone, Mellon Curatorial Fellow
Whether a family snapshot, a document of political trauma, or a visual tool of cultural triumph, every photograph tells a story. The story, though, is far from fixed. How do those stories change over time and how can we account for their shifting meanings?
Class Format: Lecture
Online Registration
Athletics & Aesthetics: Mini-Golf
Perfect your putt with the help of a pro-golfer on our artist-designed mini-golf course on the patio.
WCMA 111
Markets and Museums: The Economics of Aesthetics
Stephen Sheppard, Class of 2012 Professor of Economics
How do Museum exhibitions and installations impact the art market? Contemplate the intersections between museum and market, aesthetics and economics and contextualize these theories within WCMA’s walls.
Class Format: Lecture
Online Registration
Get moving to the beat with Latin Dance instructor Alan Franco.
WCMA 118
The Aesthetics of Evolution: Natural and Sexual Selection in the Era of Abbott Handerson Thayer
Luana Maroja, Assistant Professor of Biology
Consider the scientific role that animal coloration plays in natural and sexual selection. Using the now extinct Passenger Pigeon as a start, we will trace the story of how scientific and public acceptance of natural and sexual selection changed over time.
Class Format: Lecture
Online Registration
WTF + WCMA: The Dinner Party
What happens when characters from WCMA’s collection leave the museum walls and sit down to dinner? Grab a bite on the patio and find out as the conversation unfolds across centuries and continents with Williamstown Theatre Festival actors!
Reserve a Seat Online
WCMA 125
What’s in a Name?: The Politics of Identification in African Art
Michelle Apotsos, Assistant Professor of Art
What are the implications of identifying an artist as “Unknown” or using the name of a cultural group in the place of an individual artist? Further, what are the politics of identifying a contemporary artist in a way that they contest? Unpack the politics of identity and identification within the shifting roles of African artists from past to present in African Art Against the State.
Class Format: Lecture
Online Registration
Athletics & Aesthetics: Badminton
Get physical as sound artist Crank Sturgeon amplifies the sounds of a live Badminton game. Take part in the game or kick back and listen.
https://youtu.be/Ft1bY8oBTY4