Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Nov. 25, 2003 – If you dread holiday shopping – a hard-to-please person on your holiday gift list or looking for the unusual gift – tucked into a corner of the Williams College Museum of Art, the museum shop is a treasure trove of imaginative presents for art-lovers of all ages.
“There’s something for everyone,” says Lisa Kurpaska, museum shop manager. Always on the look-out for unusual pieces and original designs, Kurpaska aims to keep the shop full of “fresh” items, the shelves filled with new toys, mini sculptures, books, and trinkets.
For the holidays (or every day), the jewelry case features an enchanting array of hand-made bangles – the shop’s bestsellers. These exotic ornaments include antique glass beads and African beads, designs which “you won’t see anywhere else,” Kurpaska says.
Many of the elegant necklaces, cuff bracelets, pins, and armbands are handmade by small businesses or individual artists, several of them from the Berkshire region. “I do look for local artists,” Kurpaska says, pointing out a collection of delicate dancer pins by Williamstown artist Michael Dunn ($34 – $48).
She also shops for jewelry twice a year at the New York international gift. Sparkling bead and gemstone bracelets ($15) dress up any evening outfit, while google-eye rings ($1.50), funky slideshow bands and double helix bracelets ($5.95 – $9.50) are perfect for the younger crowd.
An eclectic assortment of art-related paperbacks and hard covers will light up the eyes of any booklover. The shop’s collection includes books on historic and contemporary artists, and cultural pieces from around the world, including traditions of India and Tibet. Ranging from Andy Warhol to pop art, there are books about artwork from the museum’s current shows, such as the Kara Walker exhibit, and books about artists featured in its permanent collection. Prices vary for paperbacks and hard-covers, and although these can be anywhere from $9.95 to $60, most fall within the $20 to $30 range. And any art aficionado will love a stylish, jeweled Moon Mambo bookmark ($16) tucked into a Christmas stocking or on one of the eight nights of Chanukah to keep track of favorite pages of paintings.
The children’s section is a wonderland of imaginative toys where, as Kurpaska says, “the focus is on creativity.” From angel and sorcerer mini tattoos ($1.50) to books of origami paper ($4.95), everything has an art-related theme. Favorites among children are the assorted puppets, including lively finger puppets ($6), pop-up Lollipuppets ($12), and larger, playful hand puppets ($15 – $18). Kids will love Morphing Marty and Morphing Maggie, two do-it-yourself puppet personalities with Velcro features ($18). The shop also has gifts for infants and toddlers, such as the colorful 30-piece soft block set ($18).
Hand-painted silk scarves and shawls are perfect for an evening at the opera – or just a night on the town. “They make great gifts because they’re a little more unusual,” Kurpaska says, picking out an intricate burn-out velvet scarf and one with elegant beadwork ($40 and up). The iridescent shawls from Cambodia make stylish presents. “I like the purple and blue ones myself,” Kurpaska says.
Another set of items to add to your shopping list is the store’s collection of decorative Chinese snuff bottles with intricate, hand-painted interiors ($14.50 – $43). A popular collector’s item, each bottle has a unique design and comes in a silk-covered gift box with a card explaining the art of Chinese interior bottle painting. More unusual mud cloths with vibrant tribal patterns ($34 – $84) compliment the museum’s African mask exhibit. These cloths were traditionally cut into pieces to make clothing, but they also make striking wall hangings.
Not from around here? Share the rich scenes of the Berkshires with stationery and postcards of the First Congregational Church and the famous WCMA eyeball sculptures or ceramic mugs with landscapes of the picturesque purple valley ($12). Bert Friedman’s “Best of the Berkshires” ($17.95) and Paul Rocheleau’s “The Berkshires” contain one-of-a-kind photographs of the region’s most beautiful sites.
The shop also sells a variety of WCMA items, including t-shirts in adult, children, and even infant sizes, bags, umbrellas and an assortment of elegant purple cow neckties ($35), perfect for any dad – or just anyone wanting to smartly show a little Williams style.
The shop also holds an assortment of other imaginative treasures for the holidays, including journals, posters, suede colored pencil and pastel sketchbook kits from Canada, calendars, quotable magnets, bottle-cap figurines, hand-blown Austrian glass ornaments and cards celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, or simply the joys of the holiday season.
If you’re tired of looking for gifts in the malls and of seeing the same items over and over, what could be better than a pre-holiday shopping spree in the Williams College Museum Shop? The shop will mail packages and provides free gift-wrapping in the museum’s signature colors, black, white, and magenta. Or, after you select your gift, Gauguin paintings or Degas ballet dancers wrapping paper lends an artsy finishing touch to compliment the perfect present.
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Published November 25, 2003
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