For Immediate Release
January 28, 2025
CLARK ART INSTITUTE RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM PRESENTS LECTURE BY DAVID SCOTT
ON STUART HALL’S CAREER AND LANDMARK BOOK,
THE POPULAR ARTS
Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Tuesday, February 25, the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program presents a talk by David Scott (Columbia University / Clark Fellow) examining the career of Stuart Hall and the publication of Hall’s landmark book, The Popular Arts. This free event takes place at 5:30 pm in the Manton Research Center auditorium.
Influenced by Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy (1957) and Raymond Williams’s Culture and Society (1958), this much-neglected book helped to inaugurate the study of contemporary popular culture as well as contemporary media studies. Engaging television and cinema, audience and institutions, critics and young people, the book was wide-ranging in its attempt to offer an analytical frame for rethinking the old distinction between "high" and "low" culture. The talk contextualizes The Popular Arts and discusses its importance both in the evolution of Stuart Hall’s thinking in the 1960s, and in the making of Cultural Studies.
David Scott is the Ruth and William Lubic Professor in the department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of a number of books, including Stuart Hall’s Voice: Intimations of an Ethics of Receptive Generosity (2017) and Irreparable Evil: An Essay in Moral and Reparatory History (2024). The founding editor of Small Axe, Scott is director of the Small Axe Project. Currently at work on a biography of Stuart Hall, Scott will devote his time at the Clark to examining Hall’s work in the 1970s.
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. Admission to the Clark is free January through March 2025.
The next Research and Academic Program lecture is presented by Marjorie (Holly) Trusted (University of Glasgow, Scotland / Center for Spain in America Fellow), who will introduce the Spanish sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652–1706). The event takes place on Tuesday, March 4 at 5:30 pm in the Manton Research Center auditorium.
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 nearly 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 to all from 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.
Press contact: [email protected]