The disclosure came on Sunday as Mandel spoke to about 40 people assembled at a Lenox Library lecture entitled, “The View from Campus.”
In the hour talk and Q-and-A period she spoke about Williams’ strategic planning and relationship to the region, the nature of a liberal-arts education, and some of the characteristics and concerns of young adults.
Through its academic partnership with the Clark Art Institute, Williams has a small graduate program in art history which has produced many curatorial leaders of U.S. arts and cultural institutions. Mandel says the strategic-planning process has pointed to that as an area for continued investment, “looking to build on that legacy and history.”
One thing that means, she said, is “we need, and hopefully we will be bulding, a new museum” for the Williams College Museum of Art. Its current spaces in Lawrence Hall would be too expensive to renovate and can be repurposed as “maker spaces” if a new building is constructed, she said.
It is up to Williams leadership to convince its trustees to approve a new museum building and that hasn’t happened yet, said Mandel. But she said two decisions have already been made.
- First, the now-dormant old Williams Inn building at the Field Park rotary (Williams owns the land and building) will be razed starting in about a month (“none to soon,” she quipped).
- And second, if trustees approve spending on a new museum structure it will definitely be located on that site. Until then, it will be greenspace, she said. “If we build a new museum, we will build it there.”
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