Brattleboro Museum curator Mara Williams will discuss the various elements that bring contemporary art to life in a talk at First Congregational Church in Manchester on March 4 at 7:00 pm. Her talk, “Adventures in Looking at Art,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public. Talks in Manchester are hosted by Manchester Community Library.

Artists invest considerable energy to give outward form to their inner voice. In this talk, Williams will lead an interactive exploration into how texture, palette, patina, and other elements bring to life several works of contemporary art.

Williams has curated exhibits at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center for thirty years. Her area of expertise is modern and contemporary art. Recent solo exhibitions include Gathering Light: The Art of Stephen Hannock; Wolf Kahn—Landscape of Light; Secrets by Gloria Garfinkel; and Andy Warhol—Selections from the Jon Gould Collection. She holds an AB in theatre from Boston College and an MFA in museology from Syracuse University. She has served as chair of the Vermont Arts Council and as a board member of the New England Museum Association. She is currently serving her third term on the Senate Curatorial Advisory Committee for the US Capitol.

The statewide underwriter for the First Wednesdays 2019-2020 series is the Institute of Museum & Library Services through the Vermont Department of Libraries.

Manchester Community Library is sponsored by Mystic Café and Wine Bar, Spring & Harbor Boutique, and Union Underground.

For more information, contact Manchester Community Library at 802.362.2607 or the Vermont Humanities Council at 802.262.2626 or info@vermonthumanities.org, or visit www.vermonthumanities.org.