Clark Art Offers School Vacation Week Activities

07:52AM / Friday, February 14, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute offers children and family activities and opportunities to see art during the Massachusetts public school system's February vacation week, Monday, Feb. 17 through Friday, Feb. 21.

Every day of the week, children can pick up a free Drawing Pad and set of colored pencils at the Clark Center admissions desk. Visitors are also encouraged to pick up a "Wall Power!" gallery guide to learn more about the Clark's current tapestry exhibition.

Special vacation week programming is offered on Tuesday, Feb. 18 and Thursday, Feb. 20. Admission to the Clark is free for all visitors through March 30, 2025.

In connection with "Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris exhibition," families are welcome to participate in a drop-in weaving session on Feb. 18 and 20, 10 am–12 pm. After making a unique woven artwork to take home, visitors are welcome to join an all-ages tour of "Wall Power!" The special tour, offered at 1 pm on Feb. 18 and 20, explores the materials, processes, and histories of French tapestries. If snow is on the ground, dress for the weather and take a trek across our campus on a pair of Clark snowshoes, available for visitor use all winter long.

All February School Vacation Week activities are free. Capacity for the February 18 and 20 "Wall Power!" tours is limited. Tickets are available for pick up at the Clark Center admissions desk on a first-come, first-served basis. Admission is always free for anyone age 21 and under and for students of all ages.

Family programs are supported by Allen & Company.

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Discrimination Against Muslim Americans Persists 25 Years After 9/11

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
07:00AM / Saturday, September 12, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.

"Of course, you'll find several accounts of Muslims from all over the U.S. describing how they went from the unknown kids in the school to being stereotyped or ridiculed for their Muslim names," Sidra Mahmood recalled recently. "However, many Americans forget that the victims of 9/11 were also Muslim Americans.

"I can't forget the time when a classmate broke down in sobs when 9/11 came up in our classroom at the Islamic seminary I went to in Texas, because her father's best friend who was like an uncle to her, died on 9/11."

Today, Mahmood is a chaplain at Williams College. In 2001, she was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists forced two passenger jets into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and another plane into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A third plane, which terrorists hoped to crash into a D.C. landmark, was brought down in western Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.

The attacks, which ultimately claimed 2,976 lives, horrified people around the world, including in Mahmood's native land.

"I remember being aghast like anyone who witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers in real time," she said. "However, even as a child, fear gripped me about the possibility of war, especially once we learned that Afghanistan, right adjacent to Pakistan, would be attacked by the U.S. My mother had told me about the 1971 war between India and Pakistan when she remembered hiding in the dark after bomb sirens would go off in Punjab after intentional blackouts.

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