Clark Art Offers April School Vacation Week Activities

07:49AM / Tuesday, April 14, 2026Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.—The Clark Art Institute offers activities celebrating art, nature, and student creativity during the Massachusetts public school system's April vacation week.

From Tuesday, April 21 through Friday, April 24, children are welcome to explore the outdoor sculpture exhibition Ground/work 2025 while using our free Ground/work 2025 activity packs—launching this week. Admission to the Clark is always free for children under 18.

Ground/work 2025 activity packs feature six different artwork-specific cards that invite visitors of all ages to look, draw, write, move, and imagine. While out on the trails, stop by the Lunder Center's Hunter Studio to see the inspiring student art show How Shall We Live: Berkshire Youth Artists Explore Their Relationship with the Earth in the Time of Climate Change (on view from April 18–25, 12–5 pm).

On Wednesday, April 22, make art with natural materials in a special indigo dyeing workshop led by artist and Williams College professor, Junli Song. Learn to dye a silk scarf (that's yours to keep!) with shibori indigo dyeing techniques (recommended for ages 8+. A guardian must accompany children aged 12 and under).

Additionally, Looking Carefully cards and drawing pads are available year-round at the Clark Center admissions desk and are a great way to enjoy the galleries.

The indigo dyeing workshop requires a $10 registration fee, and capacity is limited. Email education@clarkart.edu if the fee is a barrier to your participation. For more details and to register, visit events.clarkart.edu.

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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