Frances Jones-Sneed to Speak at WCMA

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.— In conjunction with "Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation"—currently on view at the Williams College Museum of Art—Frances Jones-Sneed, Ph.D., emeritus professor of history at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, will give a talk titled "Being Black and Free: Before and after the Emancipation Proclamation in Berkshire County, Massachusetts' on Thursday, March 7.

The lecture will begin at 6 p.m. at WCMA; the galleries will remain open until 6 p.m. for those who want to visit the exhibition prior to the talk.

Dr. Jones-Sneed has dedicated her life and research to making African American history visible and readily available to the public. In particular, she is interested in sharing the stories of individuals in Massachusetts. 

Frances Jones-Sneed, Ph.D., has taught and researched local history for over thirty years. She has directed three National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants on African American Biography. She spearheaded a national conference on African American Biography and is co-director of the Upper Housatonic African American Heritage Trail. She was an NEH Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University and is currently working on a monograph about W.E.B. Du Bois and editing the autobiography of the Rev. Samuel Harrison, a nineteenth-century African American minister from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

"Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation," on view through July 14, presents newly commissioned and recent works by Sadie Barnette, Alfred Conteh, Maya Freelon, Hugh Hayden, Letitia Huckaby, Jeffrey Meris, and Sable Elyse Smith in a new exhibition visualizing Black freedom, agency, and the legacy of the Civil War today and beyond. The seven installations featured the exhibition— spanning sculpture, photography, and paper and textile fabrications—react to the legacy of John Quincy Adams Ward’s bronze sculpture The Freedman (1863) from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s collection and highlight the diversity of materials and forms in sculpture, installation, and mixed media today. 

The event will take place in the auditorium of Lawrence Hall, the building which houses WCMA. Visitors can enter through the main museum door and will need to take stairs or an elevator one flight down. There is limited parking directly outside the museum on Lawrence Hall Drive but ample parking nearby on public streets and in public lots. Refer to the map on our Visit page for other parking options.

WCMA is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit artmuseum.williams.edu.

Trees, Tall Grass Will Delineate Williamstown Dog Park

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:39AM / Wednesday, April 30, 2025

The town plans to designate an 18-acre area, outlined in yellow, for off-leash dogs at the Spruces Park.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday saw regulations that will govern a fence-free "dog park" that the town plans to establish at the Spruces Park.

 

Use of the 114-acre former mobile home park on Main Street has been on the table for the Select Board for more than two years, after a failed attempt by citizens petition to amend the town's leash bylaw at the 2023 annual town meeting.

 

Last September, the board agreed in principle to a plan to designate a section of the park for dog owners to bring their pets off leash.

 

At Monday's meeting, Town Manager Robert Menicocci brought the board a set of regulations that he proposes to post for an 18-acre portion of the park that will be delineated by natural boundaries and colorful "stakes" that the town hopes will keep the animals confined and alleviate the concerns of park users who do not want to be around unleashed dogs.

 

The Spruces Park, which was obtained by the town under the terms of a Federal Emergency Management Hazard Mitigation Grant following Tropical Storm Irene, is subject to FEMA regulations regarding the installation of objects — like fences — that could impede the property's function as a regulatory floodway.

 

Menicocci on Monday showed the board a set of rules for a "Dog Area … delineated by a vegetative buffer … open for off leash dogs seasonally after the buffer has established in the spring."

 

Select Board member Matthew Neely asked if the plan is to plant a hedge row or some type of vegetative border that will help define the off-leash area.