‘DINNER AND THE SHOW’ AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE OFFERS INTIMATE EVENING OF FINE ART AND CUISINE
June 5, 2017
Williamstown, Massachusetts—Enjoy a special evening of fine art and fine dining with “Dinner and the Show” at the Clark Art Institute, including private access to the summer exhibition Orchestrating Elegance: Alma-Tadema and Design, on Saturday, June 24 at 6 pm. Tickets are $75 ($70 members); reserve online by June 20 at clarkart.edu or call 413 458 0524.
Orchestrating Elegance co-curator Kathleen Morris presents a talk about the exhibition at 6:30 pm, followed by a Gilded Age-inspired prix-fixe dinner created by Executive Chef Dan Hardy at 7:30 pm. The menu includes Waldorf salad, a choice of medallion of sea bass or Delmonico steak, and baked Alaska.
“Dinner and the Show” showcases the exceptional cuisine of Stephen Starr Events, a division of the acclaimed Starr Restaurant Group. Starr, the Clark's culinary partner, brings creative, innovative, and artful menus to Café 7 that feature locally sourced ingredients.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
In 1884 the American industrialist Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819–1902) commissioned noted British artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912) to design a Greco-Pompeiian music room for his new Madison Avenue mansion. Although Alma-Tadema was most famous as a painter of scenes set in antiquity, he was also known for the imaginative interiors of his own residences. The Marquand music room commission resulted in one of the most evocative interiors of late nineteenth-century New York, featuring a suite of elaborately inlaid furniture alongside textiles, paintings, sculptures, and ancient ceramics in a room that showed off Marquand’s collections while serving as a center for social events and musical performances.
After Marquand’s death in 1902, his family sold the contents of the house at a highly publicized auction, and the mansion was torn down in 1912. The contents of the music room were dispersed and can now be found in various museums and private collections. Orchestrating Elegance looks at the history of this exceptional moment in Alma-Tadema’s career and reunites many of the extraordinary components of this lost room for the first time in more than a century.
ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 240,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.
The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm; open daily in July and August. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
Press contact:
Clark Art Institute
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413 458 0471