A portion of the museum's general operating funds for this fiscal year has been provided through grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a Federal agency that fosters innovation, leadership and a lifetime of learning, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Williams College Museum of Art Williams College Museum of Art to Honor Benefactors to 75th Anniversary Sculpture Installation
Saturday, October 5, 11:30 a.m. at the Williams College Museum of Art

Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) will be holding a ceremony to honor benefactors to Louise Bourgeois’s Eyes (2001), the museum’s 75th anniversary sculpture installation. The event will take place at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 5 in the new Wachenheim Family Courtyard, and the public is invited.

In 2001, WCMA celebrated its 75th anniversary, and the culmination of the year of festivities was the dedication of Eyes, the permanent installation by internationally acclaimed artist Louise Bourgeois, which was commissioned specifically for the museum. Eyes consists of four pairs of disembodied eyes and one eight-eye cluster, set in the new courtyard and within the newly sculpted undulations of the front lawn. On October 5, the museum is pleased to acknowledge the generosity of the individual benefactors to the project.

Altogether, the commission of the sculpture, the landscaping of the front lawn, and the renovation of the museum’s courtyard cost just over $1 million. Funding was provided by the Museum Fellows, friends, museum endowments, and the Wachenheim family. Edgar Wachenheim III, Class of 1959, and Chris Wachenheim, Class of 1994, supported the redesign of the courtyard where one pair of the eye sculptures is located, and it is named the Wachenheim Family Courtyard. Edgar Wachenheim will participate in Saturday’s program, along with President Morton Owen Schapiro, Alfred J. Schiavetti ’61, the current chair of the museum’s Visiting Committee, Museum Director Linda Shearer, and Williams student Maggie Popkin ’03.

“The museum and college are fortunate to have loyal friends who have enabled us to make this landmark installation possible,” says Linda Shearer. “It is a great privilege for Williams College to have a major work by Louise Bourgeois, which ensures WCMA’s place in the cultural landscape of the campus and the Berkshires. The park and courtyard have truly transformed the entire exterior space, bringing a clear artistic focus to all the teaching and learning that takes place year-round in the museum and the art department.”

Celebrated for her emotionally and psychologically charged works, Louise Bourgeois is widely considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Born in Paris in 1911, she began her career as a sculptor in the mid-1940s. Though she had been living and working in the United States since 1938, it was not until 1982 that she was presented with a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This was the first such exhibition ever granted to a woman artist at MoMA. Today her work can be seen in the most distinguished collections throughout the world.

A portion of the museum’s general operating funds for this fiscal year has been provided through a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

The Williams College Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and the museum is wheelchair accessible.

Contact: Jonathan Cannon, Public Relations Coordinator
413.597.3178; WCMA@williams.edu