Living through extraordinary times guides humans to make extraordinary images. This first major exhibition about the global impact of queer identities on the evolution of portrait photography brings together works from WCMA’s collection alongside over two-hundred images from social media. Spanning two galleries and sixty-years of photography—from a 1953 candid of Jack Kerouac taken by Allen Ginsberg to Instagram selfies taken two months ago—possible selves considers the links between art photography and the vernacular forms of the snapshot and digital…

In this hybrid gallery-classroom, Williams classes across disciplines investigate the relationships between works of art and key course concepts. Professors teaching courses from Androids, Cyborgs, Selves to Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Islam select objects from the collection to be displayed for the semester. During this eighth iteration students working in Object Lab will sketch plants in field journals, create object-costumes from a variety of materials, and make models using Geographic Information Systems.

The Spring 2019 class, Uncovering Williams, will use this selection of four works from WCMA’s collection to interrogate the history of Williams College and its relationship to land, people, architecture, and artifacts. Students in the course, co-taught by Kevin Murphy, Senior Curator of American Art, and Dorothy Wang, Professor of American Studies and Faculty Affiliate in English, will examine the visual and material culture of Williams, including a portrait of Amos Lawrence—an early benefactor of the college—and 19th century landscapes…