For Immediate Release
 April 30, 2025
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CLARK ART INSTITUTE PRESENTS EXHIBITION
ON WOMEN ARTIST-ACTIVISTS IN NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITAIN 

A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945 opens June 14 featuring works of art by twenty-five artists.

Williamstown, Massachusetts—Celebrating twenty-five women artists working in Britain between 1875 and 1945, the Clark Art Institute presents A Room of Her Own: Women Artists in Britain, 1875–1945 featuring 87 paintings, drawings, prints, stained glass, embroidery, and other decorative arts. On view at the Clark from June 14 through September 14, 2025, the exhibition explores the spaces these women claimed as their own and which they used to further their artistic ambitions, including their rooms, homes, studios, art schools, clubs, and public exhibition venues. Their roles in creating change and opportunity—whether through art education, marching for women’s suffrage, protesting World War I, or establishing spaces and organizations for fellow artists or members of their community to come together—is highlighted in the exhibition.

"With this exhibition, we hope to explore the stories of many women artists of outstanding ability who deserve to be better known today. We are confident that this exhibition will provide some fascinating discoveries,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark.

“I am thrilled to introduce Clark visitors to the exceptional work and remarkable lives of these artists. My hope was to bring together a variety of objects—paintings, embroidery, drawings, prints—by artists with different aesthetic sensibilities, to show the depth, breadth and richness of artistic production by women artists of this period,” said exhibition curator Alexis Goodin, associate curator at the Clark. “What unites these women is their powerful drive to make art, to exhibit their work, and to engage in shaping the world of their time. Their activism, both within the art profession and beyond—especially in demanding equal opportunities from art training to voting in public elections--deserves recognition, too, and I hope will be inspiring to our audiences.”

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

In her 1929 essay “A Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) argued that to write fiction women need their own physical space in which to think and create, as well as a sufficient income to support themselves.  Woolf recognized that long-existing gendered expectations limited women from pursuing a creative life beyond domestic responsibilities. She exhorted women of her time to make every effort to realize their talents and foster an environment in which women can flourish, concluding “so to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worth while.”

A Room of Her Own: Women Artists in Britain, 1875–1945 features women artists who worked in Great Britain in roughly the same timeframe as Woolf—women who found their voices and established themselves as professional artists at a time when the field was dominated by men. These artists created spaces for themselves and others, insisting their production deserved critical attention as well as appropriate compensation. Many of them gave public lectures and wrote books about navigating the profession. The women considered in this exhibition served as teachers in established art schools or founded their own schools. They made being a woman artist normative at a time when women faced countless challenges to secure training, join professional art societies, and find opportunities to show in serious exhibitions.

The activism of these artists went beyond their profession. Through unconventional personal choices, creating community in their neighborhoods, and political advocacy in causes such as women’s suffrage, wartime service, or antiwar protest, the artists of A Room of Her Own enacted meaningful social and political change. These efforts created opportunities that helped these women thrive as artists and claim much-needed space—both physical and psychic—for themselves, their contemporaries, and future generations.

The exhibition is organized around key spaces in these women’s lives and experiences, including their homes, studios, art schools, and exhibition sites.

HOME

Women had relatively few professional opportunities in Britain for much of the nineteenth century. Middle- and upper-class girls were raised to become wives and mothers, while formal education and most professions were largely reserved for boys and men. Women were tasked with being the keepers of a safe, moral sphere that was separate from the chaotic public world beyond the front door.

Virginia Woolf, sister of the painter Vanessa Bell, felt this disparity of opportunity acutely. In her essay Three Guineas (1938), Woolf recounted the limitations imposed upon young women by society:

“It was with a view to marriage that her mind was taught; . . . that she . . . sketched innocent domestic scenes, but was not allowed to study from the nude; read this book, but was not allowed to read that. . . . It was with a view to marriage that her body was educated; a maid was provided for her; that the streets were shut to her; that the fields were shut to her; that solitude was denied her.”     

The professional women artists featured in the first section of the exhibition refused to view the domestic sphere as limiting, and instead used it as a subject for drawings, paintings, prints, and works in other media, exploring ideas about family, the nature of private spaces, and women’s changing roles in domestic and public life. Women artists also used their homes as workspaces. They set up easels and their art-making tools in public-facing sitting rooms as well as in private rooms. The home evolved from a place of gendered limitations into one of creative possibilities.

Domestic Activism: New Roles and Relationships

Motherhood was idealized, and women were encouraged to find fulfillment within the home, not in the professional sphere. Quietly but insistently, women artists challenged long-proscribed roles, expanding the possibilities of how one might live.

As professional artists, some women became the main breadwinner in their households, upsetting traditional patriarchal roles. Louise Jopling (English, 1843–1933) and Evelyn De Morgan (English, 1855–1919) earned more than their spouses at various points in their careers and financially supported their families, while Helen Allingham (English, 1848–1926) increased her watercolor production after her husband’s death to provide for herself and three young children.  

Some artists rejected traditional family structures. Vanessa Stephen (English, 1879–1961), the sister of Virginia Woolf, married Clive Bell and had two children with him, but both adults pursued other relationships during their marriage. Bell also had a child with Duncan Grant, with whom she shared a studio and lifelong friendship—even as he had other relationships with men. Married artists Anna Airy (English, 1882–1964), Dame Laura Knight (English, 1877–1970), and Annie Louisa Swynnerton (English, 1844–1933) did not have children and pursued their painting careers with the support of their artist spouses.

At a time when lesbian partnerships were not openly discussed—and male homosexuality was criminalized—some women artists formed lifelong domestic partnerships with women. Nan Hudson (American, active in Britain, 1869–1957) and Ethel Sands (British, born United States, 1873–1962) did not hide their romantic relationship. Mary Lowndes (English, 1856–1929) lived and worked with Barbara Forbes for much of their lives, and the two women played active roles in the Artists Suffrage League which was founded by Lowndes. After several difficult relationships with men, May Morris (English, 1862–1938found companionship with Mary Loeb. Gluck (née Hannah Gluckstein) (English, 1895–1978), rejected gender norms in both appearance and relationships. In moving beyond expected gender roles, women artists featured here became activists for new ways of living and loving.

STUDIO

Having a dedicated space in which to think and create was ideal for professional artists. A studio might be a room within one’s home, a separate building on one’s property, or a rented space in a building constructed for artists. While she lived with her family in St. John’s Wood, Anna Alma-Tadema (British, born Belgium, 1867–1943) used a studio adjacent to her bedroom. In her new Bloomsbury house, Vanessa Bell initially worked in a sitting room and later moved her studio to the main living room. Jopling painted in rooms within her various London homes until she and her second husband commissioned separate studio buildings near their Chelsea residence. This arrangement gave Jopling her own professional space, keeping family life distinct from work commitments.

While studios could be solitary spaces, they also served as sites for creative exchange. In the second half of the nineteenth century, enterprising developers constructed artist studio buildings in West London. These complexes offered not only professional space but opportunities for a community of artists to share ideas. Many women rented such spaces. Lowndes, co-founder of the Glass House in Fulham, West London, provided a professional workspace for independent designers and makers of stained glass. Shared equipment and assistance from skilled professionals ensured that independent artists could complete commissions without joining an established stained glass firm.

Studios were also used for gatherings and organizing. Jopling hosted parties for clients and friends in her studio, as well as suffrage meetings, and founded an art school for women, holding classes in her studio. De Morgan mounted a war protest exhibition in a rented studio in Chelsea in 1916, converting a potential workspace into an exhibition site. Access to a studio of one’s own meant that women could commit to their profession and have a better chance of finding success.

Political Activism: Women and Suffrage

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women in Britain campaigned for the right to vote. At the dinner table and in public marches and rallies organized by suffrage groups like the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), women argued that, as citizens and taxpayers, they should have a say in electing officials who made laws that affected them.

Many artists featured in this exhibition supported women’s suffrage. Lowndes led the Artist’s Suffrage League, a group of artists, including May Morris and Marianne Stokes, who created banners, posters, and postcards that helped define the campaign’s public messaging. Jopling lent her celebrity to the cause, marching in processions, writing letters to newspaper editors and hosting meetings in her studio. Helen Blackburn’s 1897 pamphlet Some Supporters of the Women’s Suffrage Movement included the names of Jopling as well as Allingham, Alma-Tadema, De Morgan, Elizabeth Adela Armstrong Forbes (Canadian, active in Britain, 1859–1912), and Swynnerton.

During World War I, suffrage societies suspended their activities and encouraged their members to contribute to the war effort. Many women, for the first time, worked outside the home in factories, stores, or on farms as members of the Women’s Land Army. Women’s roles in public and private life were changing, and in early 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted women over the age of thirty who met property qualifications the right to vote. In 1928 all women over age twenty-one were enfranchised.  

ART SCHOOL

Professional training in both applied and fine art became increasingly accessible for women toward the end of the nineteenth century. Women could enroll in nationally recognized art and design schools or, from 1860, the Royal Academy Schools. The Royal Academy offered a three-year course of study that focused first on drawing before allowing students to specialize in painting, sculpture, or architecture.

Art students typically began drawing after casts of antique sculpture. When such drawings were deemed successful, they moved to sketching the live model. Because drawing a fully nude female or male figure was seen as improper for women, female students were historically denied the chance to do so. When opportunities to work from human models were offered to women, male models were invariably draped.    

The Slade School of Fine Art, which opened in 1871, was one of the more progressive London art schools, welcoming women students from the outset, and giving them opportunities to work from life models. The school utilized a prize system to encourage the most promising students. De Morgan, Gwen Raverat (English, 1885–1957), Clare Leighton (American, born England, 1898–1989), and Winifred Knights (English, 1899–1947) all studied at this school.

Many established artists founded schools of their own and offered daily classes for men and women, with term lengths adjustable to a student’s needs. These private schools provided both training and employment for women artists. Jopling and Lucy Kemp-Welch (English, 1869–1958) both ran and taught in their own schools. Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (English, 1872–1945) and Sylvia Gosse were hired to teach in other artists’ schools, earning income while they imparted knowledge to emerging artists.

Art schools gave emerging artists the space in which to learn skills and develop confidence to pursue further training and careers. For some women, school was not just about learning skills or networking; it could also be a respite from the constraints and expectations of home life. 

EXHIBITION SITE

Professional artists pursued opportunities to exhibit at public venues, large and small, local and international. Exhibiting new works gave artists a chance to shape the direction of contemporary art. Their paintings, drawings, and objects in other media might attract critical attention in the press, sell to a collector, or inspire a future commission. Many professional artists depended on sales to support themselves and their families. Both group and solo exhibitions helped artists gain recognition beyond their family, friends, students, and studio networks.

London was rich with established and emerging exhibition sites. Paintings and watercolors displayed in a section of the exhibition were shown at a variety of venues in London, including the Royal Academy of Arts, which opened its annual juried exhibition every May; the Grosvenor Gallery, which from 1877 to 1890 invited select artists to show new work in its summer exhibitions; and the New Gallery, which hosted summer exhibitions from 1888 to 1910. Exhibiting societies, such as the New English Art Club (founded 1886) and the Royal Watercolour Society, were also important venues for networking and exhibiting.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with more people possessing disposable income that could be used for luxuries such as buying art, small commercial galleries located in the wealthy Central London districts of Mayfair and St. James’s thrived.  The Fine Art Society, W. B. Paterson Gallery, and Carfax Gallery, among others, invited artists to show recent works or organized retrospectives. Often mounting exhibitions of single artists, these galleries provided opportunities to display a range of their productions in one place.

Other cities offered important exhibition venues for women artists. In England, the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester hosted annual exhibitions that included women artists. Artists might also send their work to annual exhibitions in Glasgow, Scotland, or Dublin, Ireland, as well as to venues farther afield in continental Europe or even the United States.

Professional Activism: Breaking the Glass Ceiling at the Royal Academy of Arts

In pursuing art training, exhibition opportunities, and forging meaningful connections with other professionals, the women featured in this exhibition tenaciously pursued careers in the male-dominated art world of the period. When women won scholarships or awards at an art school, garnered recognition in the press, sold works and gained commissions, or earned membership in art clubs, societies, and exhibiting institutions, they demonstrated that they belonged in the field and that their work could make a critical impact.

Breaking the glass ceiling took time, dedication, and, at times, heroic effort, especially at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Although Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807) and Mary Moser (1744-1819?) co-founded the organization in 1768, it wasn’t until 1922 that Swynnerton became the first woman elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy since its opening.

In a newspaper interview over a decade after her accomplishment, Swynnerton reflected: “I have had to struggle so hard. You see when I was young, women could not paint, or so it was said. The world believed that and did not want the work of women however sincere, however good. I refused to accept that.”

Building on Swynnerton’s recognition, Laura Knight would be elected the first full female member of the Royal Academy in 1936, seven years after being honored with the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), granting her status as a Dame. Membership meant that she was no longer required to submit her paintings to a jury to show at the annual exhibitions. Knight would go on to become the first woman to have her work featured in a solo exhibition at the venue in 1965. Today, women hold thirty-eight of the 100 membership positions of the Royal Academy.

Wartime Activism: Working and Volunteering on the Home Front

Many women took paid employment during the World Wars to help various war efforts at home, while others volunteered. During the First World War about two million British women filled vacancies left by enlisted men. The 1916 Military Service Act, which allowed for the conscription of soldiers, accelerated the rate at which women entered the workplace, filling vacancies left by men.

Many of the artists in this exhibition set aside professional aspirations to serve in unrelated industries during the wars. During World War I, Sands first worked as a foreperson in a London clothing factory before training and volunteering as a nurse. Hudson volunteered as a nurse throughout that conflict. Winifred Nicholson (English, 1893–1981) made plaster cast prosthetics for soldiers. Lowndes organized the Women Welders’ Union, a trade organization that promoted the rights of women working in munitions factories. Some artists leveraged their professional skills in war efforts. During the Second World War, Raverat found paid employment with the Admiralty, drawing accurate maps of coastlines for the Navy.

Women artists were also commissioned to record scenes of war activities on the home front. Airy completed five large paintings showing munitions work in Great Britain in 1918 for the newly formed Imperial War Museum, including Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells, Clydebank and An Aircraft Assembly Shop, Hendon. Kemp-Welch memorialized the work of the Women’s Land Army Agricultural Section in The Ladies’ Army Remount Depôt, Russley Park, 1918. The War Artists’ Advisory Committee acquired seventeen canvases by Dame Laura Knight showing war efforts in Great Britain: A Balloon Site, Coventry (1943) and Take Off (1943) feature members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and the Royal Air Force, respectively.

ABOUT THE CATALOGUE

The exhibition is accompanied by a 288-page catalogue, A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945, edited by Alexis Goodin.  Contributions by a group of international scholars situate the artists in the exhibition within broader nineteenth- and twentieth-century political, social, and artistic contexts. Authors include Charlotte Gere, Pamela Gerrish Nunn, Alexis Goodin, Eliza Goodpasture, Nora Høegh, Lauren Lovings-Gomez, Julia Molin, Cèlia Pardillo-Lopez, Matthew Shorten, Alice Strickland and Alison Thomas. The catalogue is published by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts and distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.

A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945 is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Alexis Goodin, associate curator.

Generous support for A Room of Her Own is provided by Joanne Barker, Carol and Bob Braun, Richard and Carol Seltzer, Denise Littlefield Sobel, and the Tavolozza Foundation.

RELATED EVENTS

Summer Opening Reception: A Room Of Her Own—Women Artist-Activists In Britain, 1875–1945
June 13, 6 pm
Clark Center lower lobby

Everyone is invited to join the Clark in celebrating the opening celebration for A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945. Enjoy light refreshments and be among the first to view the new exhibition.  

Free. Advance registration required. Register at clarkart.edu/events or call 413 458 0524. 

Opening Lecture: A Room Of Her Own—Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945
June 14, 11 am
Manton Research Center auditorium

Associate curator Alexis Goodin introduces the exhibition, exploring the spaces women artists claimed as their own and which furthered their artistic ambitions.

Free. Accessible seats available.

Exhibition Tours: A Room of Her Own—Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945 
Twice daily: July 1–12 & 14–31 and August 1–31, 10:15 am & 3:45 pm
Meet in the Clark Center lower lobby

Learn more about women artists and the artworks they created in Great Britain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Discover how these artists defied social expectations by establishing spaces to make art and nurture their artistic lives during a time when it was difficult for female artists to secure training, gain access to professional art societies, exhibit their work, and be taken seriously by art critics and collectors. With the help of a Clark educator, understand how these professional women artists’ activism extended beyond the art world and included other social issues of their time.

Free with gallery admission. Capacity is limited. Pick up a ticket at the Clark Center admissions desk, available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Community Day: Art In Action
July 13, 11 am–4 pm 

It’s time for our biggest bash, Community Day at the Clark! Celebrate vibrant artwork, the lush summer campus, and the remarkable women artists highlighted in the exhibitions open this season—A Room of her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945; Berenice Abbott’s Modern Lens; and Mariel Capanna: Giornata. Enjoy free admission to the permanent collection and special exhibitions all day, as well as special activities, art-making, artist demonstrations, and entertainment inspired by these special exhibitions.

Free and open to all. Refreshments available for purchase. Held rain or shine.

Family programs are generously supported by Allen & Company.

Summer Party at Charleston: Bloomsbury Dining Experience With Leah Guadagnoli
July 26, 6–8 pm
Schow Pond

In her essay “A Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf wrote, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” The Clark and chef Leah Guadagnoli welcome you to a pop-up dinner inspired by the Bloomsbury Group’s final summer party at Charleston on August 30, 1939. A collective of writers, artists, and intellectuals—including Woolf, Vanessa Bell, and E.M. Forster—the Bloomsbury Group was known for its radical ideas and bohemian lifestyle, with Charleston House in Sussex, Vanessa Bell’s country home, serving as a hub for creative exchange.

Leah Guadagnoli, painter, homesteader, and founder of the Fancy Feast Supper Club (Hudson, New York), presents recipes adapted from The Bloomsbury Cookbook, paired with a table setting inspired by Charleston House’s vibrant, decorative design.

Free. For accessibility questions, call 413 458 0524.

“Corruptive…Destructive:” Women Artists Paint The Nude, 1875–1945
August 2, 2 pm
Manton Research Center auditorium

In 1930, writing about her sister Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf described how “it was held, until sixty years ago that for a woman to look upon nakedness with the eye of an artist, and not simply with the eye of mother, wife or mistress, was corruptive of her innocency and destructive of her domesticity.” In this lecture, author and art historian Rebecca Birrell explores how Bell, among others (including Evelyn de Morgan, Gwen John, and Winifred Knights), overcame moral and pedagogical constraints to produce nudes that reflected new ideas about women’s ambitions, desires, and social roles. If the nude was taboo, how did women artists, including Gluck and Ethel Sands, innovate in other genres such as flower paintings and interiors to reflect on sexuality, gender, and the body?

Free. Accessible seats available.

Outdoor Movie Series
August 6, 13 & 27, Dusk
Reflecting Pool Lawn

In celebration of A Room of Her Own: Women Artists in Britain, 1875–1945, the Clark presents a selection of films with female directors and leads.

August 6, Dusk (8:20 pm)
Lady Bird

The series kicks off with Lady Bird (2017), directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan as a headstrong teenager navigating her senior year of high school in Sacramento. A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, the film captures the push and pull between ambition and home, independence and family. Gerwig’s directional debit was praised for its writing, emotional honesty, and personal yet universal themes. (Run time: 1 hour, 34 minutes)

August 13, Dusk (8:10 pm)
Shrek
The series continues with Shrek (2001), directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. A subversive take on a classic fairy tale, the film follows an ogre, a talkative donkey, and a spirited princess who all challenge storybook conventions. Jenson, one of the first women to co-direct a major animated feature, shaped the film’s sharp humor and heartfelt core. A critical and commercial success, Shrek won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. (Run time: 1 hour, 30 minutes)

August 27, Dusk (7:45 pm)
Turning Red
The series ends with Turning Red (2022), directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Domee Shi. This coming-of-age story follows Mei, a confident yet conflicted teenager who transforms into a giant red panda when she experiences strong emotions. Incorporating relatable family dynamics with a playful take on adolescence, Turning Red is the first Pixar feature solely directed by a woman. (Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes)

All movies are free. Bring a picnic and your own seating. In the case of inclement weather, events will be held in the auditorium. For accessibility questions, call 413 458 0524.

Outdoor Concert: The Knights
August 30, 4 pm
Reflecting Pool Lawn

The Knights return to the Clark! To celebrate the A Room of Her Own exhibition, the orchestra’s program includes:

Dame Ethel Smyth
Scherzo: Allegro vivace from her Suite in E Major for String Orchestra op. 1a

Ralph Vaughan Williams  
The Lark Ascending (string arrangement; written for and premiered by the acclaimed English violinist Marie Hall)

Felix Mendelssohn 
Octet for Strings

Based in New York City, The Knights are a collective of musicians dedicated to transforming the orchestral experience and eliminating barriers between audience and music. Since their founding in 2007, The Knights have toured and recorded with prominent soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Béla Fleck, Itzhak Perlman, and Gil Shaham, and have performed at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and the Vienna Musikverein.
 
Free. For accessibility concerns, call 413 458 0524. Bring a picnic and your own seating. Rain moves the performance to August 31 at 4 pm.
 
The Knights appear through the generous support of the Sea Island Foundation.
 
Family Concert: The Knights
August 31, 12 pm
Manton Research Center auditorium

The Knights present a family-friendly concert for younger audiences complementing the A Room of Her Own exhibition. This program is intended to provide a fun and engaging introduction to classical music. Audience participation activities highlight musical details and showcase the way instruments can tell a story.

Free. Accessible seats available.
 
The Knights appear through the generous support of the Sea Island Foundation.

A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875-1945 Symposium
September 11–12
Manton Research Center auditorium

An international group of scholars explore how select artists featured in A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945 negotiated public and private spaces to establish professional careers as artists and thrive creatively.

Public Programs
A full slate of public programs, including curatorial lectures, dance performances, artist conversations, artmaking workshops, and gallery tours is planned throughout the run of the exhibition; details are available at clarkart.edu/events.

Images: 
 
Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, from The Famous Women Dinner Service, 1932-1934, hand-painted Wedgwood ceramic plates. The Charleston Trust, Firle, United Kingdom. © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London. © Estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS, London / ARS, New York

Anna Alma-Tadema, The Garden Studio, 1886–87, watercolor, traces of gum Arabic, and scratching out on paper stretched over a wooden frame. The Clark, acquired with support from Frank and Katherine Martucci, 2020.3

Winifred Knights, The Deluge, 1920, oil on canvas. Tate, purchased with assistance from the Friends of the Tate Gallery, 1989, T05532

Gluck, Medallion (You/We), 1936, oil on canvas. Ömer Koç Collection. © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London

Dame Laura Knight, A Balloon Site, Coventry, 1943, oil on canvas. IWM (Imperial War Museums), Art. IWM ART LD 2750 © Imperial War Museums / © Estate of Dame Laura Knight. All rights reserved 2024 / Bridgeman Images

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 some 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 January through March and is $20 from April through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. 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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