Michael Conforti, director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., recently announced the appointment of Jay A. Clarke as Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. Clarke was previously associate curator of prints and photographs at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she curated several exhibitions, including, most recently, the acclaimed Becoming Edward Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth (on view through April 26). She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University, where she has also taught, and a B.A. from Holy Cross.
The position of Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs was endowed in 2007 by the Manton Foundation with a $50 million gift that supports the research and academic programs at the Clark, the Manton Gallery, and the planned Manton Study Center for Works on Paper (expected to open 2013). The foundation has also given the museum over 200 British paintings, oil sketches, watercolors, and other works on paper by J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, and Thomas Gainsborough collected by Sir Edwin A. G. Manton. In her new position Clarke will oversee the planning and programming of the study center, in addition to the care of over 5,000 works in the museum’s collection. Clarke will begin her duties on May 4.
