AFFILIATIONS

The Graduate Program draws on the rich art history resources of two leading institutions, Williams College and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. This unique collaboration defines key features of the Program, from its faculty and curriculum to its facilities and intellectual culture.

The Clark’s collection includes superb examples of Old Master and nineteenth-century painting, decorative arts, and works on paper. Its Manton Research Center is home to the Institute's Research and Academic Program, which includes one of the leading art history research libraries in the country. The Williams Graduate Program shares these facilities: its administrative and faculty offices, seminar room, and student carrels are located in the Manton Research Center.

The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) offers significant resources for advanced study in the history of art: a renovated museum building of high quality, with special strength in contemporary and modern American art, together with a significant collection of objects from classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and non-Western cultures. Staff members from WCMA join with their colleagues in the Art Department and participate actively in the Graduate Program as faculty, mentors, and work-study supervisors.

In addition, the College's Chapin Library offers one of the finest college repositories in the country of illustrated manuscripts, incunabula, and rare books from the ninth century to the present. 

The program is also affiliated with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), a multidisciplinary center for visual, performing, and media arts located in North Adams, a few minutes from Williamstown. MASS MoCA maintains extensive ties with the Clark, Williams, and the Graduate Program, including internships for graduate students. The Graduate Program also collaborates with the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, located in the Stone Hill Center, a new Tadao Ando–designed building on the grounds of the Clark.