October 23, 2025
CLARK ART INSTITUTE PRESENTS LECTURE
ON THE EMAMZADEH YAHYA PROJECT WITH KEELAN OVERTON
Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Tuesday, November 11 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program hosts a talk with Keelan Overton (Independent Scholar / Clark Fellow) on the Emamzadeh Yahya Project. The talk takes place in the Manton Research Center auditorium.
Established in 2021, the aim of the Emamzadeh Yahya Project is to increase awareness and understanding of the Emamzadeh Yahya shrine complex and its dispersed tiles, collections, and archives worldwide, without pursuing commercial, political, or institutional objectives. The project’s key values are independence (of conception and production), collaboration (between individuals and disciplines), and accessibility (across languages, formats, and audiences). This talk provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the project’s evolution and first scholarly product, The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: An Online Exhibition of an Iranian Shrine, a website containing an online exhibition, exhibition catalogue, and academic edited volume
Overton is an independent scholar and art historian based in Santa Barbara, California, specializing in the Perso-Islamic world from Iran to India. She has worked as a curator inside museums and independently, and her publications have explored such topics as patterns of collecting and museology in the field of “Islamic art,” diachronic histories of manuscripts and buildings, and cultural relations between Iran and the Deccan. Since 2021, she has directed an independent, interdisciplinary, and international research project devoted to the Emamzadeh Yahya shrine complex at Varamin. The first outcome is a website that charts some alternative paths in museology, publishing, collaboration, and accessibility. At the Clark, Overton will complete some final aspects of the website.
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event.
ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of nearly 300,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.
The Clark, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday from September through June, and daily in July and August. Admission is free to all from January through March and is $22 for adults, $20 for adults age 65+, $10 for adults ages 18-25, and $10 for college students with a valid student ID from April through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members and all visitors under age 18. Free admission is also available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and the EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
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