WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- “Monuments in Peril: Venice,” a round-table discussion at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Thursday, April 16, at 7 pm, will bring together experts of various fields to discuss the current challenges facing the great city of Venice. Admission is free.

Rising waters endanger Venice’s art and architecture, and the city’s dwindling number of residents. Among the topics covered will be the preservation of Venice’s public art; specific examples of art restoration; the paradox that “saving” the city may actually be hastening its transformation into something other than—and perhaps ultimately unrecognizable—as Venice; the efforts of the Save Venice organization; and Moses, the project of constructing 78 floodgates at the entrances to Venice’s lagoon to keep out high water.

The panel of experts will feature Fabio Carrera, an urban information scientist and director of the Venice Project Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Frederick Ilchman, the Mrs. Russell W. Baker Assistant Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and board member of Save Venice; Eugene J. Johnson, architectural historian and professor of art at Williams College; and Ralph Lieberman, specialist in Renaissance architecture, instructor of architectural history at Rhode Island School of Design, and documentary photographer.

The “Monuments in Peril” series will span time and the globe to examine the world's most important monuments and the struggles they face.