Now open: Object Lab

Object Lab, our hybrid gallery-classroom that visualizes the Williams liberal arts curriculum through the museum collection, has opened for the spring semester.

In Object Lab, faculty work with WCMA staff to select art that connects with course concepts. These works of art are then installed in the gallery, grouped by course. Through museum visits combined with close-looking assignments and digital projects, students engage deeply with the objects throughout the semester.

During spring 2023, students are creating virtual worlds using computer graphics, composing poetry, writing museum labels, curating virtual exhibitions, and thinking critically about how places are represented.

Object Lab Spring 2023

Elizabeth Gallerani, curator of Mellon Academic Programs, leads a staff tour of Object Lab. Photo: Rebecca Dravis

Coming soon: Across Shared Waters

The entire team at WCMA is hard at work this week preparing for the opening of Across Shared Waters: Contemporary Artists in Dialogue with Tibetan Art from the Jack Shear Collection on Friday, Feb. 17! An opening celebration will be held Friday, Feb. 24.

Traditional Tibetan Buddhist rolled paintings, or thangka, are displayed in conversation with contemporary works by featured artists based around the world, including Marie-Dolma Chophel, Dedron, Nyema Droma, Gonkar Gyatso, Tenzin Norbu Lama, Kesang Lamdark, Tashi Norbu, Karma Phuntsok, Pema Rinzin, Rabkar Wangchuk, and Palden Weinreb. While some draw inspiration from Tibetan cultural markers, including repurposing or reimagining Buddhist imagery, others source inspiration completely outside those frames. Exploring themes of identity, consumerism, place, and cultural expectations, the artists employ a diverse range of media, from ground mineral pigments to acrylic paint, digital photography, mixed media works, and resin cast sculptures.

Across Shared Waters

WCMA preparators Ted Carey, left, and Brian Repetto hang Natural Buddha with Wildlife, a 2018 acrylic painting by Tibetan artist Karma Phuntsok, during installation of the upcoming exhibition Across Shared Waters: Contemporary Artists in Dialogue with Tibetan Art from the Jack Shear Collection. Photo: Rebecca Dravis

New on YouTube: Claiming Williams, I/O Fest, WALLS

As part of Claiming Williams 2023: Justice and Institutional Power, WCMA hosted a conversation between Jordan Horton (MA ’23 and Mellon Curatorial Fellow at WCMA), Kimberlean Donis (’23 and WCMA intern), and Dr. Kelli Morgan, a curator, educator, and social justice activist who specializes in American art and visual culture. We were grateful to host this impactful discussion about institutional power and how people of color, particularly emerging museum professionals, navigate the functionality of whiteness in institutions, how Black artists are positioned within the framework of a traditional Art History education and museum practices, and how community building can be the antithesis to white supremacy.

The program recording is now on our YouTube channel, along with other new videos, including the recent I/O Fest, which brought new and experimental music throughout the galleries, and WALLS Spring 2023 Pickup Day, which put original works of art into the hands of 125 Williams students to enjoy in their living spaces for the semester.

WCMA on YouTube

Dr. Kelli Morgan, center, participates in a Claiming Williams conversation with Williams students Jordan Horton, MA '23, left, and Kimberlean Donis '23. Photo: Keith Forman