Clark Art Lecture on Stuart Hall

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Tuesday, Feb.25, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program presents a talk by David Scott (Columbia University / Clark Fellow) examining the career of Stuart Hall and the publication of Hall's landmark book, "The Popular Arts."

This free event takes place at 5:30 pm in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

According to a press release:

Influenced by Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy (1957) and Raymond Williams's Culture and Society (1958), this much-neglected book helped to inaugurate the study of contemporary popular culture as well as contemporary media studies. Engaging television and cinema, audience and institutions, critics and young people, the book was wide-ranging in its attempt to offer an analytical frame for rethinking the old distinction between "high" and "low" culture. The talk contextualizes The Popular Arts and discusses its importance both in the evolution of Stuart Hall's thinking in the 1960s, and in the making of Cultural Studies.

David Scott is the Ruth and William Lubic Professor in the department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of a number of books, including "Stuart Hall's Voice: Intimations of an Ethics of Receptive Generosity" (2017) and "Irreparable Evil: An Essay in Moral and Reparatory History" (2024). The founding editor of Small Axe, Scott is director of the Small Axe Project. Currently at work on a biography of Stuart Hall, Scott will devote his time at the Clark to examining Hall's work in the 1970s. 

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/eventsAdmission to the Clark is free January through March 2025.

 


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Williamstown Government Presents Communication Plan

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown is working to improve communications with residents.
 
The town manager told the Select Board last week that the town obtained a Community Compact Best Practices grant from the state's Division of Local Services to fund a consultant from the University of Massachusetts at Boston's Collins Center for Public Management to develop a communications strategy.
 
Improved communications is a growing concern for small towns like Williamstown, Town Manager Robert Menicocci told the board.
 
"The world has changed with social media," Menicocci said. "The expectations of what a community communicates to its citizens — the game has been upped.
 
"I think this was a new area for government and many communities are looking at a need to staff up to address communications, where, in the past, maybe a big city would have a communications director. Now that has trickled down to almost all small communities."
 
To that end, the town has completely revamped its website and hired its first communications director — both steps that were included in the November 2025 Collins Center report, "Roadmap for Inclusive and Accessible Municipal Communications in Williamstown, Mass."
 
Brianna Sunryd, a public services manager at the Collins Center, presented her group's findings to the Select Board.
 
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