WALLS, by any traditional museum standard, is a collection behaving badly. Unlike nearly any other museum collection, it’s designed to escape the museum’s control, over and over again.
WALLS is in a constant state of evolution. Each time a work of art leaves the museum and enters the bustling life of a student steward, it accretes new meaning, and comes back with a new story to tell about the role of art in our daily lives.
The WALLS collection as a whole changes in response to student interests, to the curriculum, and to the world, and students themselves are involved every step of the way. They work closely with museum staff to select, acquire, and interpret works of art, and to hone a collection that resonates deeply with their peers.
WALLS reveals that the power of an art experience can be amplified when the institutional setting cedes to the intimate, and when the control of a collection passes into the capable hands of Williams students.