WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute announced two endowment gifts totaling $4.5 million in recognition of the achievements of the Clark’s curatorial department. A $2.5 million gift establishes the position of Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Senior Curator and a $2 million gift endows the position of the Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Collections and Exhibitions. In 2007 a gift from the Manton Foundation endowed the position of Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs currently held by Jay A. Clarke. With these gifts the Clark realizes the goal of endowing all three of its senior curatorial positions. “The role of a curator is of supreme importance to any museum,” said Michael Conforti, the Clark’s Director. “As stewards of the collection, curators safeguard the museum’s treasures, oversee acquisitions, coordinate exhibitions and new scholarship, and inte