Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

The Clark took a chance in featuring an unknown artist as its major summer exhibition. By word of mouth momentum has built for "Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway." The work of the artist was as narrow and deep as the fjords of his native Norway. While beloved in his native land he is unknown to all but a few art historians and specialists of 20th century Scandinavian art.

In May the world's foremost architect, Frank Gehry, signed on to design The Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum in North Adams. It is one of 11 projects being developed by visionary museum director Thomas Krens. There is a daunting sticker price of some $300 miliion for construction anticipated to start as early as June, 2018.

Since it opened in 1955 with a superb permanent collection the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute has long been regarded among America's finest regional museums. With a $145 expansion and renovation designed by Tadao Ando the Clark is now a whole lot more fabulous. Combined with nearby Mass MoCA, Williams College, and the Wlliamstown Theatre Festival the Northern Berkshires are an even better first class arts desitinaton.

After three years with eleven museums on three continents the treasures of the Clark Art Institute are back home safe and sound. They will be seen this summer when the museum reopens after extensive renovation and expansion on July 4. This grand tour of major museums will reap benefits as the Clark requests loans for major exhibitions. Other major museums, however, including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Guggenheim, have loaned works to their satellites and commercial exhibition promoters for cold cash.

This week representatives of the Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Mass MoCA met with the media to promote plans for a spectacular Northern Berkshires season. The Clark reopens following extensive expansion and renovation. Mass MoCA offers the first full season of its Anselm Kiefer building. Jenny Gersten has planned a blockbuster program for WTF. WCMA plans special events like a Think and Drink series. In high season it may be hard to book a hotel or dine at the best restaurants.

With a $25.4 Million grant from the Commonwealth Mass MoCA is embarking on the third and final phase of renovation and development of its 26-building, 600,000 square foot, 16-acre factory campus. Phase III research and concept design work is complete. The project is ready to move construction projected for 2014-2016. This entails 130,000 square feet of gallery space requiring $25 million in state infrastructure grants, plus $30 million in privately raised construction investments, building maintenance reserves, and endowment funding.

On view through September 8, 2013, Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History showcases some sixty oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings, as well as approximately 120 rarely seen wood engravings. Drawing upon the resources of the Clark’s own holdings of nearly 250 works by Homer (dating from 1857 to 1904), the exhibition provides a variety of distinctive perspectives on this important American artist.

The Clark Art Institute will present its eight Inness landscapes in an exhibition, "George Inness: Gifts from Frank and Katherine Martucci," which will be on view June 9–September 8, 2013. The presentation will unite new acquisitions with two works by Inness, Wood Gatherers: An Autumn Afternoon and Home at Montclair, that were purchased by Sterling Clark and have been a part of the Institute’s collection since 1955.

On Monday, March 11 at 7 pm, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute welcomes friends from the Williamstown Theatre Festival as they present “Shorts in Winter,” a cozy winter evening of short stories read by Festival actors.

The Research and Academic Program at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute presents a slate of eight free lectures and public conversations over the next two months. All are held at 5:30 pm and are open to the public.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute presents In/Visible: Women of Two Worlds, the second exhibition created through its interactive uCurate program. In/Visible, an intriguing look at the worlds of women, was created by clergywoman Ashley Smith of Stephentown, New York and is on view through March 10.

In the 1840s, Paris was one of the first cities to experiment with electric street lighting, and a huge increase in gas light in the 1850s secured the capital’s reputation as “The City of Light.” By the 1880s, electricity began to illuminate high-profile boulevards, and culminated in the widespread installation of incandescent electric street lighting across the city in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Like all of her musical endeavors, A Rita Coolidge Christmas is a project that comes straight from the heart, reflecting the love she feels for the holiday and the many memories it evokes. Memorable Coolidge chart-toppers include “Fever,” “We’re All Alone,” “One Fine Day,” “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “All Time High,” “Superstar,” and many others.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute will honor artist, writer, and critic Brian O’Doherty with the 2012 Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing by recognizing his continuing contributions to the visual arts. Established in 2006, the Clark Prize recognizes insightful and accessible prose that advances a genuine understanding and appreciation of the visual arts.

On Sunday, September 23, at 1 pm, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute’s new Ballet in HD series begins with a broadcast of George Balanchine’s Jewels. Known as one of Balanchine’s most revered ballets, Jewels is performed by the famed Mariinsky Ballet and is set to the music of Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky.

On Thursday, September 6, at 2:00 pm, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute presents The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, captured live in HD from London’s National Theatre. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on the novel of the same title by Mark Haddon and adapted by Simon Stephens, opens with Christopher, fifteen years old, standing beside Mrs. Shears’s dead dog, Wellington, at seven minutes after midnight.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute presents rare Chinese burial objects in an exclusive exhibition that considers both the discovery and the impact of modern Chinese archaeology, Unearthed: Recent Archaeological Discoveries from Northern China through October 21, 2012. The exhibition features objects recently excavated from sites in the Shanxi and Gansu provinces and never before seen outside of China, including a full-size stone sarcophagus discovered intact in 2004.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute welcomes legendary singer-songwriter Art Garfunkel in a rare concert appearance on Saturday, August 11, at 8 pm.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival kicks off June 16 with the 80th Anniversary Gala, followed by “a veritable dance explosion” (Claudia La Rocco of The New York Times) of more than 300 free and ticketed performances, talks, exhibits, classes, and events spanning three months.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute presents a new installation by artist Mark Dion, Phantoms of the Clark Expedition, reflecting on the history of exploration and on an expedition to North China that the Institute’s founder Sterling Clark undertook in 1908. On view May 9 to August 3, 2012, the installation consists of a series of dioramas and sculptures representing objects and specimens that would have been used or collected during expeditions that occurred in that era. The installation is being presented at The Explorers Club at 46 East 70thStreet in New York.

Willy Decker’s strikingly beautiful production of Verdi’s La Traviata, a hit when it premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2005, comes to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Saturday, April 14 at 1:00 pm, live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera. Soprano Marina Poplavskaya stars as opera’s most fascinating heroine. “Poplavskaya rules...the Russian soprano is riveting...the total effect is stunning” (Associated Press).

Highlights include comedic evenings with the Sing-a-Long-a Sound of Music (July 14) and Freddie Roman's Friars Club Comedy Festival (July 15), performances by legendary modern dance troupes MOMIX (July 6 and 7) and Paul Taylor Dance Company (July 26, 27, and 28), musical concerts by Tony winner Faith Prince (July 21), Kennedy Center Honors recipient Barbara Cook and Grammy nominee John Pizzarelli (August 4), and by Grammy Award winners Judy Collins and Jimmy Webb (August 26)

Williamstown Theatre Festival announced today a reading of Richard Wilbur’s translation of Moliere’s classic French comedy The Misanthrope, to be held at The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA on Monday, February 27th at 7:00 PM. Proceeds from the event will go to Higher Ground, a new organization formed in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene to address affordable housing and disaster relief issues in the Northern Berkshires.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute presents its latest exhibition, Copycat: Reproducing Works of Art. Exploring the line between innovation and imitation, the exhibition features 50 prints and photographs that are both original works of art and repetitions of drawings, prints, paintings, sculptures, and architecture created by other artists.

Philip Glass’s twentieth-century masterpiece Satyagraha comes to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Saturday, November 19 at 1:00 pm, live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera. Don’t miss this “profound and beautiful work of theater” (Washington Post). Glass is widely regarded as among the foremost living composers.