WALLS (Williams Art Loan for Living Spaces), by any traditional museum standard, is a collection behaving badly. Unlike most collections, its purpose is to leave the museum and enter the living spaces and lives of students. The collection was formed in 2012 by a committee of students, staff, and faculty who created the initial collection of ninety works. The selected works sought to mirror WCMA’s broader collection but also responded to student interests and the Williams curriculum.
In Spring 2015, the collection expanded to one hundred and twenty artworks. New acquisitions of work by artists such as Kiki Smith and Titus Kaphar diversified the collection in terms of artist’s ethnicity, biological sex, and nationality. In addition, many of these new works grapple with racial and gender identity by confronting institutional and global concerns head on.
Check out the WALLS collection below.