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The following feature story appeared in the camps publication MOSAIC in May, 1996.
Michael Conforti '68
Guiding the growth of a major American museum
This is a difficult time for non-profit institutions, and most directors think of retrenchment and must struggle to meet their budgets. But for Michael Conforti '68, the next few years hold the promise of rapid expansion and exciting new ventures in art history. As director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., Conforti guides a museum which long has been considered one of America's finest and which is poised for significant expansion over the next several years.
Perhaps best known for its collection of Impressionist paintings and Old Masters, the Clark is moving under Conforti's leadership to expand its programs in public education and research and to build up a library that is already considered to be among the 10 best specialized art history libraries in the nation.
"It's a very good moment for the institution. We're poised to grow, which was why I was so interested in coming here in 1994," said Conforti, who studied fine arts at Trinity.
The museum's goal is to expand its operating budget by 50 percent over the next three years, Conforti said. Until now, the Clark has relied entirely on its large endowment to provide its operating income, so the museum must begin a development program to meet its goal.
Conforti's interest in art stretches back as far as he can remember. As a child, trips to the Addison Gallery at Phillips Andover Academy near his parents' house in Massachusetts made a lasting impression. "I always knew that I wanted to do something with art and art history, but that's not the reason I picked Trinity. I was just looking for a strong liberal arts college," he said.
After graduation, Conforti took a job with Sotheby Parke Bernet, the auctioneers. "At Sotheby's I got very interested in medieval art and what's popularly called decorative arts and sculpture," he said. He carried these interests to graduate school at Harvard, and to a three year fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, where he completed his doctoral dissertation on Italian sculpture of the late 17th and 18th centuries. Conforti then worked as curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in the late 1970s and as chief curator of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for 14 years.
The challenge of leading a prominent museum with a strong educational program attracted Conforti to the Clark in late 1994. "We are an independent institution, but we work closely with Williams College, most significantly by offering a joint master's program in art history," he said.
The graduate program will be a major focus of the Institute's expansion efforts in coming years, Conforti said. It already enrolls 12 to 14 students a year and attracts many students interested in careers as scholars and museum curators.
Conforti believes the Insitute's educational programs should serve a mediating function in the profession of art history, which is divided not only between academics and curators but also by contention over what constitutes good art history. One view insists that the primary function of the discipline is to focus on the aesthetics of art objects. But a new and increasingly influential approach argues that the social and cultural contexts in which art objects are produced are more important. In this view, art history should center on the development of cultural and historical critiques, not on the objects themselves.
"It's important to function as a bridge between the two approaches," Conforti said. "I myself have always seen objects as coming out of their historical context. I think it's very exciting to look at objects in the light of cultural and societal perspectives.
"But we don't want students who are just starting out to be plunged into a totally politicized atmosphere as their first exposure to graduate study," Conforti said. "Our aspiration is to vie for the best doctoral candidates, and then have them spend two years with us before choosing museum work, going on to Ph.D. work elsewhere, or, ideally, to do both."From his perch in Williamstown, Conforti still follows many aspects of Trinity's progress with enthusiasm.
"My own days as a student at Trinity seem pretty far away," Conforti said. "There were a lot of things about Trinity in those days that seem positively antediluvian now. For example, the week before graduation I received a letter saying I couldn't attend my own commencement because I had too many parking tickets. They withheld my diploma for a year. Times have changed, but I still identify with the friends I knew at Trinity."
- Andrew Walsh '79