WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Some of the pioneers of art history in the digital age, including creators of online journals and websites, librarians, museum directors, and web gurus, will speak about their experiences, their enterprises, and the digital future of art history during "The Portals of Art History," a Clark Conversation, on Saturday, May 12 at 5:30 pm at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Clark Conversations bring together participants of a two-day colloquium and allow the public the chance to ask questions and hear discussion among experts in the art field. The public is invited to this free event.

Participants include Max Marmor, director of the Artstor project; Jon Prown, the director of the Chipstone Foundation; Petra Chu, one of the founding editors of "Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide;" and Didier Rykner the creator of the website La Tribune de l'Art. Hear them discuss the possibilities and the problems of art history as it evolves in a new technological and cultural environment.

The Clark is one of the country's foremost art museums, as well as a dynamic center for research and higher education in art history and criticism. The institute is one of only a few art museums in the U.S. that is also a major research and academic center, with an international fellowship program and regular conferences, symposia, and colloquia, and an important art research library. The Clark, together with Williams College, sponsors one of the nation's leading M.A. programs in art history, which has been part of the professional development of a significant number of directors of art museums, curators, and scholars.