Seattle Tattle—Part V: Some Comfort for Conforti

Michael Conforti, whom I seem to meet at every expanded museum reopening that I attend (the High, Minneapolis and now Seattle), told me he’s taking a little time off from his director’s duties at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, to work on three (!?!) books.
He picked a nice place to do it: He’ll be the Louis I. Kahn Scholar in Residence at the American Academy in Rome, from early September to Dec. 20. “He is there to be a senior presence in the community” and “will probably give a public lecture or seminar or something along those lines,” Adele Chatfield-Taylor, the academy’s president, later told me.
Michael, you might learn to like the scholar’s life too much. Are you sure you’re not transitioning?
Conforti also happens to be a member of the academy’s board of trustees and was an art history fellow there in 1976. A list of the academy’s 2007-2008 Rome Prize winners is here.
I also learned in Seattle that the Clark’s new Ando-designed Art and Conservation Center, with special exhibition galleries and new facilities for the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, will open next year.
Conforti also told me that there will be “big news” from the Clark in the next few weeks, but he would not give me the slightest hint.
I’m sure that’s because he’s saving it for Carol Vogel!