Williams College Museum of Art

Theater, music and dance performances are sprouting up everywhere. Here's a head's up on the most promising. After a hard winter, it's nice to see the Berkshires bloom with life again.

For the Spring semester the Williams College Museum of Art has organized several exhibitions and related events focused on African, African American art and the African Diaspora involving the Middle Passage of the Black Atlantic.

In July it will be 20 years since Tom Krens left the Williams College Museum of Art to become director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. His resignation was announced today. He has changed forever the mandate for major museums and how they are managed.

For the third year the New England School of Art & Design is hosting the annual exhibition of winners and finalists of the Stephen D. Paine Awards named in memory of a prominent Boston collector and supporter of emerging artists. The Paine Awards are organized by the Boston Art Dealers Association (BADA)

There is an emphais on aspects on Hispanic, African American and African art and culture in the Spring semester exhibitions and programming for the Williams College Museum of Art.

While not a "best" and "worst" list in the usual sense we offer an overview of events and what proved to be moving and insightful while covering the arts in 2007.

Negotiations for the Contemporary Artists Center to develop a permanent home in the former Notre Dame church property in North Adams ended in acrimony and finger pointing. It is a serious loss and set back for an emerging but struggling arts community.

When we visited the artist Stephen Hannock in his Berkshire studio several works were nearing completion including a view of the Oxbow for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and a landscape for the 25th anniversary of the Sundance Institute.

After six years battling a range of health problems, the Berkshire based performer,Bonnie Gable,returned to the stage with a warmly moving one woman monologue as Gertrude Stein.

Originally scheduled to open last December Federal Judge Michael A. Posner ruled yesterday that Mass MoCA may indeed open the unfinished exhibition of Christoph Buchel in its largest gallery. Did the museum simply prevail in a no win situation? The jury is still out.

The entertaining Unsymposium of Gerald and Sara Murphy at Williams College combined scholarly papers with jazz, dance and a bartending demonstration.

Taking a stroll along Gallery Row in Provicnetown we encountered some strong and interesting work.

For the past three summer seasons Roger Rees and the Williamstown Theatre Festival have collaborated with the Clark Art Institute. Last night Rees read a selection of letters by Claude Monet.

Now in its second season the Kolok Gallery in North Adams is becoming establshed for its solid programming. The current exhibition explores aspects of representation, fantasy and language.

Inspired by the Williams College exhibition and biography by Amanda Vaill Crispin Whittell has written a play "Villa America" based on the life of the Lost Generation's Gerald and Sara Murphy and their fabulous friends which opens at the Williamstown Theatre Festival tomorrow night.

Mass MoCA announces plans for a 25-year-long installation of wall drawings by the recently deceased, minimalist artist, Sol Lewitt. This project will comprise $8.6 million in a $37 million capital campaign.

While the stalled Christoph Buchel "Training Ground" installation remains in negotiation/ litigation, with no date for resolution in site, Mass MoCA has ironically opened the faith based multi-artist exhibition "The Believers."

There was a lively opening of the new season at the recently refurnished Gallery of the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. Among the guests was Michael Conforti director of the nearby Clark Art Institute.

Five exhibitions at the Clark, the Williams College Museum of Art and the Brill Gallery show a vast range of photographic work.

As part of the on-going series of exhibitions entitled 'Encounters', Williams College Museum of Art presents works by Edward Hopper and Gregory Crewdson.

Berkshire Museum director, Stuart Chase discusses plans and impact of a $9 Capital Fund Campaign.