Clark Art Lecture On Phenomenology and the Understanding of Conical Artworks

07:59AM / Thursday, September 11, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program (RAP) hosts a talk by Michael Ann Holly exploring what phenomenology (the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view) might contribute to the understanding of canonical works of art.

Holly is the Starr Director Emeritus of the Clark's Research and Academic Program. The event takes place in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

Michael Ann Holly directed RAP and taught in the Williams College/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art from 1999–2016. Previously, she cofounded and chaired the Visual and Cultural Studies Program at the University of Rochester (1988–1999). A noted scholar, Holly is the author and co-editor of essays and books on the critical theory and history of the history of art, including authoring Panofsky and the Foundations of Art History; Past Looking: Rhetoric and the Historical Imagination; The Melancholy Art, and editor of Visual Culture; Visual Theory; The Subjects of Art History; Art History, Aesthetics, Visual Studies; and What is Research in the Visual Arts?. Holly has received national and international awards, grants, visiting professorships, and fellowships from the Guggenheim, the Getty Research Institute, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Senior Fellowship at The Center at the National Gallery of Art, among others.

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event.

Tags: Clark Art,

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Williamstown Select Board Evaluates Town Manager

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:39AM / Wednesday, October 28, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — In 2022, the town still was recovering from the twin blows of a global pandemic and a lawsuit that exposed disturbing allegations against the town's police department.

The latter ultimately led to the resignation of the police chief and the town manager. To replace the manager, the Select Board at the time turned to Robert Menicocci.

Menicocci represented a break in style from his immediate predecessor, who was a more prominent voice in town government. That prominence, in part, was a product of the times: When town boards and committees were not meeting in-person and access to town hall itself was limited at the height of the pandemic, the manager's voice in Zoom meetings was more front and center.

In his four years in the corner office, Menicocci has helped shepherd the police department on its path to certification and helped the town weather the fiscal storm of skyrocketing costs linked to inflation – particularly sharp increases in the cost of health insurance that hit hard for a labor-intensive endeavor like municipal government. All the while, he has been a little more taciturn, while always willing to participate, when appropriate, with responsive answers in discussions of the Select Board and Finance Committee.

On Monday, the current Select Board – completely turned over from the 2022 edition – pushed Menicocci to be more of a cheerleader for the town.

"Do you see your role more as a behind-the-scenes guy and our role is to be out in public?" board member Matthew Neely asked Menicocci during the board's review of the manager's job performance. "Or is there more of a role for you in that? So many people, if I say your name, they're like, ‘Who?'

"I would have assumed your role would be more public facing as well, and more, for lack of a better word, leading the charge as opposed to running day-to-day operations. I feel you're strong running day-to-day. But something we all wish is we had a little more of a proactive [manager] …. Since we need development, need all these things in town so much. … I'd love to see more outward energy, I guess.

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