Transformative Spaces: Building a New Museum - 25 Sep 2025

The Williams College Museum of Art has curated a diverse collection and teaching program in its almost 100-year history. In this presentation we will learn about the collection and have the chance to see current plans for the new museum building, scheduled to open in 2027. Designed by SO-IL, this exciting project will be purpose built to support transformative experiences with art that are integral to liberal arts education, lifelong learning, and human connection.   Pam Franks is the Class of 1956 Director of the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). An art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000. Prior to her appointment at Williams, Pam was the Seymour H. Knox Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Senior Deputy Director of the Yale University Art Gallery, where she worked for over a decade, and Curator of Public and Scholarly Programs at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. She has organized exhibitions and published on many artists and key topics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. With every professional appointment she has been involved in major museum building projects. Pam's dual passion for the powerful educational potential of college and university museums and for the unique architectural possibilities of museum design defines her practice. Since arriving at Williams in 2018, she has galvanized a robust and collaborative process to build a new home for WCMA, the museum’s first purpose-built home.   This program will take place on Thursday, September 25 from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm in the Arkell Pavilion at Southern Vermont Arts Center.