Call For Art: Eyes on Art Town 2025 Williamstown Cultural District Banner Exhibition

11:04AM / Friday, June 27, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Town of Williamstown, the Williamstown Cultural District, and the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce are partnering in an opportunity to showcase local artwork right in downtown Williamstown.

From Labor Day to November 2025, selected art will be reproduced on vertical banners on utility poles along Spring and Latham Streets.

Artists and community members are encouraged to submit designs for the Eyes on Art Town banner call.

Installed: around September 13 – November 1, 2025 (weather dependent) For those selected, original artworks can be included in an exhibit in the Spring Street Market in October.

Deadline for submissions: midnight on July 6, 2025

Banner Specifications

Banner image size: 24” wide x 32” tall. Banner size: 24” wide x 48” tall. Includes Williamstown Cultural District header and footer. See example above.

Note: Modifications may be made to accommodate banner manufacturing process.

Artwork Submission Information

Online submissions only, via submission form: https://forms.gle/W93ufBn1fg6eHhp57
Those submitting work must reside and/or produce work in Williamstown.
All work submitted must be high-quality images of original work, in any medium including 3-D and digital processes.
Artists may submit only one image of original artwork.
Work must have been produced in the last 5 years.

The quality of images will affect the strength of submissions. Carefully consider composition, focus, color accuracy etc. "Crisp, clean, and simple" images read better from a distance or as people drive by.

Artists are responsible for any costs related to providing high-quality images, including but are not limited to, photographing, scanning, or graphic design. If you need assistance to produce the images, please refer to this great guide created by committee member Sarah Pike.

More technical information on submissions:

Our designer will place your image in a template- no need to add any content or design yourself.
Image format: JPG, TIF, or PDF. Resolution: 150 – 300 pixels/in at 100%.Size:300 pixel/in on longest size (minimum) or no less than 20 MB. CMYK, not RGB
Vertical images or cropped horizontal images. Aspect ratio: 8:10 (vertical)
No advertising, branding, or stock/commercial images allowed. Avoid text.
If images include recognizable people, the artist must obtain a release from these people for the images to be displayed publicly.

Jurors and Selection Process

Exhibition will be juried by a Williamstown Cultural District representative and the following art professionals with very different perspectives and preferences:

Valerie Carrigan, North Adams, Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Bryant University and artist specializing in printmaking and artist books featured in national and international collections.
Megan Mazza, Bennington, VT. Director of Studio Art Operations for Williams College and professional photographer, running Megan Cross Photograph.
Jesse Tobin McCauley, Pittsfield, MA. Painter and graphic designer who sits on the board of the Berkshire Art Association and is the creator of the Drive.Walk.Bike by City ArtShow in Pittsfield. She is a partner on the Let it Shine! Public Art Project Committee stewarding murals throughout the city of Pittsfield.

Selection criteria. Works will be evaluated based on whether they:

Represent range and depth of local talent
Display excellence in elements of design and/or public art
Engage the viewer's interest conceptually and/or visually
Enhance community identity and place
Contribute to community vitality
Involve a broad range of people/communities
Expand perception and understanding of our region and community

In past years jurors have tended not to select work which represents recognizable, distant content (for example: the Eiffel Tower in Paris, surfers on a California beach, Times Square). Keep this in mind as you choose what to submit.

The Banner Selection Committee will review all proposals received by the deadline and make a final decision by August 5, 2024. The Committee reserves the right to reject any and all submissions.

Complete form: https://forms.gle/W93ufBn1fg6eHhp57

Williamstown Cultural District Responsibilities

Contract with a vendor to print the banners on high quality vinyl and be professionally installed.
Final printed banners are the property of the Williamstown Cultural District.

Questions? Contact Ellen Joffe-Halpern at ellenjoffe@gmail.com

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Letter: Incomplete Picture from Greylock School Committee

Letter to the Editor06:30PM / Wednesday, October 28, 2026

To the Editor:

At the October Mount Greylock School Committee meeting, there was much celebration over the student growth percentiles (SGP) from last year's MCAS test data (Spring 2026). Growth is worth celebrating. But I worry the meeting, and the coverage of it, left families and our community with an incomplete picture of how our students are doing in math.

"Growth" sounds like it means scores went up, but that isn’t quite what SGP measures. SGP compares each student to students in the state who scored about the same the year before, then ranks how they did this year against that group. If a whole group of similar students decreases, the student who decreases the least can still earn a high growth percentile. A strong SGP tells us our students did better than their peers who scored similarly the year before. It doesn't tell us whether they are at grade level.

For example, the current 6th grade class at Williamstown Elementary School (WES) has decreased in their grade-level math proficiency every year since their 3rd grade MCAS. In 2024, 64 percent of the class was meeting expectations; in 2025 48 percent were at grade level, and in 2026 only 33 percent of their class met grade-level expectations. Our current WES 5th grade class follows a similar trend, with 48 percent meeting grade-level math expectations last year vs 56 percent meeting expectations in 2025 when they were in 3rd grade.

Not every class follows this pattern; our current 7th graders gained to 62 percent last year. But seeing entire classes decrease is something that deserves our attention.

Growth comparisons across the state provide useful information, but they do not tell the complete story. We also need to look at where our students are in terms of grade-level proficiency and how those numbers are changing from year to year within the Mt. Greylock school district. This will be our first year with the math interventionist role filled at WES and our second year with the new i-Ready curriculum.

As we watch whether these changes are working, I hope the School Committee will discuss proficiency alongside growth in its public meetings, so our community can see the full picture. Growth matters, but it isn’t enough if fewer of our kids are reaching grade level each year.

Sincerely,

Jenna Hasenkampf
Williamstown, Mass.

Hasenkampf is a parent of WES students in Grades 2 and 4.

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