February 24, 2026
CLARK ART INSTITUTE HOSTS SPRING SCHOLARLY LECTURE SERIES
Williamstown, Massachusetts—This spring, the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program hosts a series of presentations by renowned scholars on a wide range of topics, from sociopolitical themes in Latin American art to how urban warfare shapes history and photography. Lectures take place in the Manton Research Center auditorium.
All Research and Academic Program (RAP) lectures are free and begin at 5:30 pm. A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes each event. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0570.
UPCOMING SPRING RAP LECTURES
March 17
Sur Marica, A Mobile Cartography of Art, Sex, Affect, and Collaboration in the Americas with Luis Vargas-Santiago
Through selected case studies of artworks produced in Latin American capitals during the 1980s and 1990s, Luis Vargas-Santiago (Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City) discusses how queer artists challenged canonical formations of the body, sexuality, affects, religion, activism, and authorship. By positing the notion of "Sur Marica" as a decolonial site that resists both hetero- and homonormativity, Vargas-Santiago outlines a mobile cartography of visual art that fluidly redefines national, racial, and sexual identities while creating spaces of freedom and political expression.
April 10
Technical Difficulties: Early Color Photography and Conditioned Viewing
with Rachel Lee Hutcheson
In this invited lecture, Rachel Lee Hutcheson (Rochester Institute of Technology) analyzes a number of early camera-recorded color photographic technologies from the turn of the twentieth century in which local color was achieved not through hand-applied means, but as phantasmic arrangements of red, green, and blue color separations configured by lantern projectors, stereoscopic viewers, or screen-plates viewed within diascope “mirror-boxes.” Although thoroughly material, the so-called “Natural Color” photograph presents its image as an event, experienced in space and time with its viewer.
April 28
Cities As Battlegrounds: How Urban Warfare Shapes—and is Shaped by—the Lens of History and Photography
with Alice Miceli
Alice Miceli (Independent scholar, Rio de Janeiro and New York City) exposes the tangled relationship between cities and warfare. Drawing on her research into battles like Stalingrad, Fallujah, and Mosul, she explores how urban landscapes force armies to adapt their strategies, and how the chaos of combat, in turn, reshapes these spaces physically, psychologically, and culturally. Miceli aims to reframe how we perceive these battles—not as distant tragedies, but as evolving dialogues between strategy, survival, and how we position ourselves to witness the complicated realities of warfare in a world where cities are both weapons and victims.
May 5
Global Slavery: A Visual History
with Ana Lucia Araujo
Ana Lucia Araujo (Howard University, Washington, DC) draws on her project Global Slavery: A Visual History, arguing that the study of artworks and visual images depicting slavery and the trafficking of human beings produced around the globe over several centuries reveals how these atrocities carried several elements in common despite separation by time and space. The terms slavery and slave trade evoke images of African captives in the hold of slave ships and enslaved people laboring in plantations in the Americas. Yet, the institution of slavery has existed at least since antiquity.
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. From April through December, admission is $22 for adults, $20 for seniors (65+), $10 for young adults (18–25) and college students, and free for all visitors under 18. Admission is free year-round for Clark members. Free admission is also available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
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