For Immediate Release
April 27, 2023
WILLIAMS COLLEGE GRADUATE STUDENTS
PRESENT ANNUAL JUDITH M. LENETT LECTURE
AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE
Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Monday, May 15 at 5 pm, the Clark Art Institute hosts the Judith M. Lenett Lecture in its Hunter Studio, located in the Lunder Center at Stone Hill. Delaney Keenan and Sojeong Lim, the two Judith M. Lenett Memorial Fellows, Williams College M.A. Class of 2023, present the work they have produced during their fellowship. A reception follows the talk.
Keenan is working with early eighteenth-century portraits by Nehemiah Partridge and John Heaton from the Albany Institute of History & Art, launching an inquiry into the artists’ techniques and ground structures. The project consists of surface cleaning, filling, and retouching the portraits while integrating scientific analysis such as technical imaging, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and cross-section stratigraphy. Through this work, Keenan seeks to understand the preparatory grounds and pigments used by Partridge and his circle of contemporaries.
Lim is working with garments and objects from the Revolutionary War period contained in a private collection, treating everything from eighteenth-century evening coats to a grocery list folded inside a leather pocketbook. In this lecture, Lim discusses how military design influenced emerging material culture in early New England.
ABOUT THE LENETT MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP
Each academic year, the Judith M. Lenett Memorial Fellowship is awarded to select second-year students in the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art. The fellowship allows recipients to explore issues of conservation in the field of American art. Working closely with Williamstown + Atlanta Art Conservation Center (W+AACC) conservators, each fellow spends two semesters conserving and researching an American art object. The work culminates in a public program and in an article in the W+AACC publication, Art Conservator.
The Lenett Memorial Fund was established by the family and friends of the late Judith Lenett, a candidate for the Master's degree, class of 1983, and provides funding for graduate students to undertake research and conservation projects on American art objects, working with conservators at the W+AACC and art historians.
Free and open to the public; no registration is required. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.
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 some 300,000 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, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday, from September through June, and daily in July and August. Admission is free January through March and is $20 from March through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is also available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
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