Esther Bell Named Next Director of Clark Art

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Trustees of the Clark Art Institute announced the appointment of Esther Bell as the Institute's Hardymon Director.

Currently serving as the Clark's Deputy Director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator, Bell will become the Clark's sixth director when she assumes her new role on July 1.

The Board unanimously elected Bell to the position following an extensive international search. Bell will be the first woman in the Clark's seventy-year history to serve as its director. She succeeds Olivier Meslay, who announced last September that he would be leaving the Clark and returning to his native France in 2026.

"We are proud and deeply gratified to announce Esther Bell as our new director, based on her countless achievements at the Clark and a career of recognized excellence in the field," said Denise Littlefield Sobel, chairman of the Institute's Board of Trustees. "She is a consummate professional, a collaborative member of the Clark's senior staff, and has honed her directorial acumen through sharp executive decision-making and a talent for forging close working relationships throughout the museum world. We look forward to her leading the Clark to even greater success in her new position."

Of his successor, Meslay noted that "I first met Esther Bell in 2003 when she was pursuing a Fulbright Fellowship at the Musée du Louvre. I knew then that she was an exceptional art historian and I have watched her forge a brilliant career. I am delighted to know that the Clark's next chapter will be entrusted to Esther's exceedingly capable hands. She is a respected museum leader, an impressive scholar, and a passionate advocate for the arts. I congratulate Esther on her appointment and look forward to celebrating the continued growth and success she is sure to bring to the Clark."

Bell is a member of the Clark's senior leadership team. In addition to leading the Institute's curatorial staff and directing the care and growth of its collections, Bell oversees the work of the Clark's library, its education and public programming teams, and its visitor services efforts. She also plays a role in fulfilling the Clark's commitment to visitor engagement, while representing the Clark on a number of community-based service organizations.

"I am honored by the opportunity to become the Clark's Hardymon Director and extraordinarily inspired to imagine where we can take this beloved and celebrated institution in the years ahead," said Bell. "With the support of my esteemed colleagues, I look forward to being a part of an exciting future for the Clark as we dedicate ourselves to ensuring that the Institute will always be a welcoming place of contemplation, inspiration, and education for all. As we continue to grow our campus and our collections, we recognize the significance of ensuring that we steward the Clark's remarkable resources with care, consideration, and commitment to fulfill our mission of extending the public's appreciation of art."

Bell joined the Clark's staff in 2017 and was appointed Deputy Director in 2022. Her first engagement with the Institute came in 2001 when she came to Williamstown to pursue her Master's degree in Williams College's Graduate Program in the History of Art, which is jointly administered by and housed at the Clark.

In her time at the Clark, Bell has spearheaded the Institute's embrace of a broader array of artists and genres, making acquisitions and encouraging scholarly research of the objects in the collection.  

Bell has been involved in the Clark's special exhibitions program and has organized several of its most important recent exhibitions.

Bell also played a role in the inaugural presentation of the Clark's first outdoor exhibition, "Ground/work" (Oct. 6, 2020 to Oct.17, 2021) and its second iteration, which is currently on view through Oct. 12, 2026 on the Clark's 140-acre campus. Featuring monumental sculptural works, both presentations underscore the relationship between art and nature that are so central to the experience of the Clark.  

In addition to her curatorial efforts, Bell was responsible for a expansion of the Clark's education and public programming activities, culminating in the 2025 establishment of its Division of Learning and Engagement. This project established a framework to more completely integrate the Clark's educational activities, school and community outreach, and public programming initiatives in support of the Clark's commitment to fostering meaningful engagements with art and nature.

Bell regularly teaches courses in the Williams College/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art and frequently lectures in the United States and Europe. She has co-edited and contributed to numerous scholarly exhibition catalogues.

Before joining the Clark, Bell served as the curator in charge of European paintings at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where she organized important exhibitions. Prior to that, Bell was the curator of European paintings, drawings, and sculpture at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

She began her career in New York, holding positions as a research assistant and curatorial fellow at both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Morgan Library & Museum.

Bell holds a doctorate in the history of art from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, with a specialization in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European art. She earned a master's degree from the Williams College/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art, and a bachelor's degree in the history of art from the University of Virginia. She completed a Fulbright Fellowship at the Musée du Louvre in 2003 and has held several other fellowships. 

In 2020, Bell completed a fellowship at the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York. In 2015, Apollo magazine named her one of the top curators in North America under the age of forty.  

Bell is active in the Williamstown community and is a member of the boards of both the Williamstown Community Chest and the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce.

Russell Reynolds Associates, New York, coordinated the search for the Clark, working closely with a committee comprised of members of the Institute's Board of Trustees.

Puppets Teach Resilience at Lanesborough Elementary School

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:30PM / Monday, April 27, 2026

The kids learned from puppets Ollie and a hermit crab.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Vermont Family Network's Puppets in Education visited the elementary school recently to teach kids about being resilient.

Puppets in Education has been engaging with young students with interactive puppets for 45 years.  

The group partnered again with Bedard Brothers Chevrolet, which sponsored the visit. 

Classes filtered through the music class Thursday to learn about how to be resilient and kind, deal with change and anxiety, and more.

"This program is this beautiful blending of other programs we have, which is our anxiety program, our bullying prevention and friendship program, but is teaching children the power of yet and how to be able to feel empowered and strong when times are challenging and tough," said program manager Sarah Vogelsang-Card.

The kids got to engage with a "bounce back" song, move around, and listen to a hermit crab deal with the change of needing a new shell.

"A crab that is too small or too big for its shell, so trying to problem solve, having a plan A, B and C, because it's a really tough time," Vogelsang-Card said. "It's like moving, it's like divorce of parents, it's changing schools. It's things that children would be going through, even on a day to day basis, that are just things they need to be resilient, that they feel strong and they feel empowered to be able to make these choices for themselves."

The resiliency program is new and formatted little differently to each of the age groups.

"For the older kids. We age it up a bit, so we talk about harassment and bullying and even setting the scene with the beach is a little bit different kind of language, something that they feel like they can buy into," she said. "For the younger kids, it's a little bit more playful, and we don't touch about harassment. We just talk about making friends and being kind. So that's where we're learning as we're growing this program, is to find the different kinds of messaging that's appropriate for each development level."

This programming affirms themes that are already being discussed in the elementary school, said school psychologist Christy Viall. She thinks this is a fun way for the children to continue learning. 

"We have programs here at the school called community building, and that's really good. So they go through all of these strategies already," she said. "But having that repetition is really important, and finding it in a different way, like the puppets coming in and sharing it with them is a fun way that they can really connect to, I think, and it might, get in a little more deeply for them.

Vogelsang-Card said its another space for them to be safe and discuss what's going on in their life. Some children are afraid because maybe their parents are getting divorced, or they're being bullied, but with the puppets, they might open up and disclose what's bothering them because they feel safe, even in a larger crowd. 

"When we do sexual abuse awareness that program alone, over five years, we had 87 disclosures of abuse that were followed up and reported," she said. "And children feel safe with the puppets. It makes them feel valued, heard, and we hope that in our short time that we're together, that they at least leave knowing that they're not alone."

Bedard Brothers also gave the school five new puppets to use. Viall said the puppets are a great help for the students in her classroom, especially in the younger grades. 

"Every year, I've been giving the puppets to the students. And I also have a few of the puppets in my classroom, and the students use them in small groups to practice out the strategies with each other, which is really helpful," she said. "Sometimes the older students, like sixth graders, will put on a puppet show. They'll come up with a whole theme and a whole little situation, and they'll act it out with the strategies for the younger students. It's really cute, they've done it with kindergarteners, and the kids really like it."

Vogelsang-Card said there are 130 schools in Vermont that are on the waiting list for them to come in. Lanesborough Elementary has been the only Massachusetts school they have visited, thanks to Bedard Brothers. 

"These programs are so critical and life-changing for children in such a short amount of time, and we are the only program in the United States that does what we do, which is create this content in this enjoyable, fun, engaging way with oftentimes difficult subjects," she said. "Vermont is our home base, but we would love to be able to bring this to more schools, and we can't do this without the support of community, business funders or donors, and it really makes a difference for children."

The fourth-grade students were the first class to engage with the puppets and a lot of them really connected with the show.

"I learned to never give-up and if you have to move houses, be nervous, but it still helps," said William Larios.

"I learned to always add the word 'yet' at the end," said Sierra Kellogg, because even if she can't do something now, she will be able to at some point.

Samuel Casucci was struck by what one of the puppets talked about. "He said some people make fun of him if he dresses different, come from different place, brings home lunch, it doesn't matter," Samuel continued. "We're all kind of the same. We're all kind of different, like we have different hairstyles, different clothes. We're all the same because we're all human."

"I learned how to be more positive about myself and like, say, I can't do this yet, it's positive and helpful," said Liam Flaherty.

The students got to take home stickers at the end of the day with contact information of the organization.