Travel To: The Clark Art Institute

Please join us as we virtually travel to The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The Clark is equally renowned for the strength of its collections and exhibitions as it is for the exceptional experience of place realized on its 140-acre campus in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Since its major transformation in 2014 which featured the addition of the new Clark Center building designed by Tadao Ando, the renovation of its original 1955 building by Selldorf Architects, and a sweeping new landscape design by Reed Hilderbrand, the Clark has earned international acclaim for its singular setting and its ongoing commitment to sustainability.

Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark Art Institute, joins with one of Reed Hilderbrand’s principals, Beka Sturges, in a discussion covering the landscape architecture that defines the campus, the intricacies of the project and their collaboration with Tadao Ando, and the Clark’s plans for deepening its commitment to environmental stewardship.

This event is part of Archtober’s virtual Travel To series, in partnership with Bloomberg Connects. The Travel To series seeks to highlight Bloomberg Connects partners that feature iconic architecture and historically significant sites across the United States and around the world. Join us as curators, preservationists, historians (and more!) bring these places and spaces alive in the comfort of your home.

About the Speakers:
In her design of landscapes for institutions and the public, Beka Sturges pursues the interplay between communities and their environments as a source of history, identity, and resilience. Since opening the Reed Hilderbrand office in New Haven in 2015, Sturges has steadily grown a staff and design culture with the capacity to sustain projects in the private and public sector, from the latest phase of Connecticut’s Resilient Bridgeport Plan to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe to a major expansion to Storm King Art Center. Actively collaborating with New Haven’s Latinx community, she initiated the vision plan and implementation of the Mill River Trail, Phase 1, a 4-acre linear park running through the center of New Haven. Sturges also served as project manager for the final phase of The Clark Art Institute. Current work under her leadership includes the new Farrand House at Washington D.C.’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, and the renewal of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden with SOM/Annabelle Selldorf. A committed educator and thought leader, Sturges is a Senior Critic at Yale School of Architecture. She has recently lectured on the career of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, the role of history in design, the spirit of residential landscape architecture, and the transformative experiences of art and place at The New York Botanic Garden and Cleveland Garden Club as well as at the University of Rhode Island, Smith College, and the American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meeting. Growing up in New Jersey, Sturges loved to walk through the woods with her family and climb trees. Her grade-school building, designed by Princeton’s Head of Architecture Jean LaButat, seemed to be in service to its wooded surroundings and supplied Sturges with a daily sense of exhilaration. She earned her BA in English from Sarah Lawrence College and began work toward a PhD in English Literature at Princeton University. After teaching in New York City for several years, Sturges found landscape architecture, drawn to the phenomena of movement and change within landscapes. After graduating from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, she joined Reed Hilderbrand in 2005. Sturges is a compulsive reader and likes to hike, garden, and draw in her spare time.

Olivier Meslay is the Hardymon Director of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. Prior to assuming the directorship at the Clark, he spent eight years at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) where he held several leadership positions, most recently serving as Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs. In 2011–2012, Meslay served as the Interim Director of the Dallas Museum of Art. Prior to joining the DMA staff in 2009, Meslay established his reputation as a noted scholar and curator during a distinguished 17-year career at the Musée du Louvre, from 1993–2009 where he served as curator in charge of British, Spanish, and American Art in the Paintings department. Meslay served as chief curator of Louvre–Atlanta, a collaborative project with the High Museum, from 2003–2006; and as chief curator in charge of the Louvre–Lens project, the first regional branch of the Louvre, from 2006–2009. Meslay received an MA from the École du Louvre in 1983 and an MA from the Sorbonne in 1982, where he earned his BA in 1981. He is a member of numerous art organizations including the 2021 Venice Biennale panel in the U.S. and the boards of MASS MoCA and the Williamstown + Atlanta Art Conservation Center. Meslay is co-curator and catalogue author for the forthcoming exhibition, Guillaume Lethière (2024-2025), organized in partnership with the Musée du Louvre.

About Archtober’s Guide on Bloomberg Connects:
Archtober’s Guide on the free Bloomberg Connects App is for anyone interested in connecting with architecture and design. Whether you are an architectural historian, a design enthusiast, a student, or someone having their first architecture experience, the Archtober Guide is designed to help you explore notable contemporary and historical sites across New York City’s five boroughs. Learn more about the Archtober Guide here.