Williamstown, MA -- Works by thirteen members of the Williams College art faculty will be featured in "Artist/Teacher: Group Faculty Exhibition," opening Dec. 6 at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA).

While united by common educational goals, the faculty represents the diversity of art-making in the late 20th century. A showcase for this variety, the faculty exhibition includes photography, artists' books, sculpture, drawing, painting, video and language as means of expression.

Participating artists are Ben Benedict, Peggy Diggs, Edward Epping, Mike Glier, Frank Jackson, Liza Johnson, Aida Laleian, Steve Levin, Ann McCallum with Andrus Burr, Amy Podmore, Hartley Shearer, and Barbara Takenaga.

The artists' themes encompass the beauty of light on everyday things, abstractions of a dachshund, the media world in which we live, children, visual responses to poetry, and plans for a new house in Williamstown. Most of the artists are exhibiting their most recent work. Laleian, for example, will exhibit photography on porcelain. ­ a departure from previous work. Liza Johnson, Arthur M. Levitt '56 Artist- in-Residence, will create a video installation entitled Olympic Radio Tower 2000.

The studio art curriculum at Williams is a diverse program encompassing traditional and contemporary approaches to art. True to the liberal arts tradition, the studio program prepares students to define and research topics, to develop their points of view and to make persuasive presentations. As television, computers and advertising make modern communication increasingly visual, the studio program at Williams is responding by preparing students to analyze and respond creatively to a visual world.

The exhibition will be on view at WCMA through March 1, 1998.