Page 15 - BusinessWest June 9, 2021

The Clark Art Institute
This VBerkshires Staple Has Exhibited Patience and Flexibility
ictoria Tanner Salzman says it was a complete coincidence that the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute’s first-
ever outdoor exhibition opened just a few months after COVID-19 arrived in Western Mass.
It takes years of planning to bring such an exhibit to fruition, she explained, and that was certainly the case with Ground/work, a col- lection of eight works created by six interna- tional artists that are found in varied locations across the Clark’s sprawling, 140-acre campus in Williamstown.
“These installations are embedded in a land- scape that is ever-changing — both daily and seasonally,” according to a description on the institute’s website. “Ground/work highlights the balance between fragility and resilience that both nature and the passage of time reveal, while offering fresh experiences with every visit.”
Tanner Salzman, the Clark’s director of Com- munications, noted that “this exhibit has given our visitors the opportunity to see art outdoors, indoors, or both. And we’ve gotten tremendous response from our visitors about the experience; you can wander our trails and walk through our
“We’re taking this as opportunity to put our toes in the water and begin to feel more acclimated to going back to the new normal, if you will.”
meadow and come upon these pieces and hope- fully enjoy them.”
The phenomenal timing of Ground/work has been one of the many factors that has enabled the Clark to more than weather what has been
a protracted and quite challenging storm, said Tanner Salzman, adding that others include a host of virtual initiatives and limited visitation marked by strict adherence to COVID policies and best practices to keep visitors and staff safe at all times.
“At certain points over the past year, the gov-
The Clark, which now features exhibits indoors and outdoors at its Williamstown campus, will take it slow as the state enters the ‘new normal’ and gradually increase capacity.
ernor’s orders increased capacity, but we chose, at those points, to remain at a lower capacity just out of concern for the comfort of our visitors and the safety of everyone,” she explained. “We’ve either been at the capacity level prescribed by the state or below it.”
And as the state moves up its timetable for fully reopening the economy and removing restrictions on businesses of all kinds, the Clark will continue to be diligent and err, if that’s even the right word, on the side of caution, she told BusinessWest.
“We are taking it slowly, but we will increase our capacity; our current operating capacity is permitted to be 50%, but we’ve chosen to oper- ate at a lower capacity,” she explained, adding that the facility planned to increase to that 50% level on May 29. And moving forward, it plans to increase the numbers as the conditions permit. “We will adjust upwards as we feel it’s best for everyone to do so.
“We’re taking this as opportunity to put our toes in the water and begin to feel more accli- mated to going back to the new normal, if you will,” she went on. “We’ll take a look at it on a
weekly basis, and certainly our hope is to be in a position in the summer where we’ll hopefully bump it back up. But we have not made that decision yet.”
While watching and adjusting as the condi- tions permit, the Clark will apply some of the lessons it learned during the pandemic, said Tan- ner Salzman, echoing the sentiments of business owners and managers across virtually every sec- tor of the economy.
And many of these lessons involve using technology to broaden the Clark’s audience and bring its collections and programs to people who might not otherwise make it to Williamstown.
“We were learning lessons every day through- out this, and I’m sure that some of the prac- tices that we adopted during this period will find a carry-over life as we move forward,” she explained. “We are certainly looking very hard
at virtual events and continuing them; we found great success in doing such events, and we recog- nize that it allows us to open our doors to people
Clark Art Institute
Continued on page 17
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FEATURE
JUNE 9, 2021 15
Photo by of Jeff Goldberg coutesy of Clark Art Institute
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