# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Attention and Distraction, Then and Now
- **Event Start and End Date**: Thu, 16 Apr, 2026 at 06:00 pm (-04:00)
- **Event Description**: “Distraction” is a buzzword in modern culture, and rightly so: focus becomes so difficult when we’re bombarded from all sides with notifications, updates, and pings. But was it so different in the age before Google and TikTok? In this three-way conversation, Gage McWeeny, Professor and Chair in the English Department at Williams College; Debra Gettelman, Associate Professor of English at College of the Holy Cross; and Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Clark, draw on examples from visual art and literature to show that attention, distraction, and daydreaming were already hot-button topics in the nineteenth century.

Gage McWeeny's course, Attention / Distraction, is being offered at Williams College in spring 2026. Debra Gettelman is the author of Imagining Otherwise: How Readers Help to Write Nineteenth-Century Novels (Princeton, 2024). Anne Leonard has published on the topic of looking and listening in nineteenth-century France.

Details: events.clarkart.edu

Image: Barbour, Woman Reading (detail), c. 1910, oil on millboard. The Clark, 1955.638
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/williamstown/attention-and-distraction-then-and-now/200029889431333
- **Event Categories**: art, literary-art, workshops, nonprofit, fine-arts
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 9

## Ticket Details


## Event venue details

- **city**: Williamstown
- **state**: MA
- **country**: United States
- **location**: 225 South St, Williamstown, MA, United States, Massachusetts 01267
- **lat**: 42.70748
- **long**: -73.21372
- **full address**: 225 South St, Williamstown, MA, United States, Massachusetts 01267

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: Attention and Distraction, Then and Now
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events4/banners/5ba38c2787a3cd835d2ca5a72651987529f147a9ba18538f9ecf33af309d961b-rimg-w1200-h939-dc322c04-gmir?v=1775860011

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is Attention and Distraction, Then and Now being held?
  - **A:** Attention and Distraction, Then and Now takes place on Thu, 16 Apr, 2026 at 06:00 pm to Thu, 16 Apr, 2026 at 06:00 pm at 225 South St, Williamstown, MA, United States, Massachusetts 01267.
- **Q**: Who is organizing Attention and Distraction, Then and Now?
  - **A:** Attention and Distraction, Then and Now is organized by The Clark.
- **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me?
  - **A:** Attention and Distraction, Then and Now is ideal for art lovers, trade professionals, collectors, and exhibition enthusiasts exploring the latest in their field. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Williamstown, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. If Attention and Distraction, Then and Now sounds like your kind of event, don't wait - spots fill up fast.

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