Events

    2023 Dec 08

    Water Stories with the Artist Alia Farid

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden St., Cambridge

    Join the artist Alia Farid for a tour of Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis and a discussion of the artwork Chibayish, 2023. Chibayish is part of a larger group of works that Farid has developed since 2018, focused on the impact of extractive industries on southern Iraq and Kuwait's ecological and social fabric.

    ...

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    2023 Oct 26

    Day of the Dead Celebration

    5:00pm to 9:00pm

    Location: 

    Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

    Learn more about this joyful holiday, a national symbol of Mexico. Enjoy craft activities for the young and young at heart. Personalize a sugar skull (extra fee), learn about the natural history of Mexico, watch live folk dance and mariachi performances, purchase traditional pan de muerto, hot chocolate or specialty cocktails. Contribute your message of love to honor and celebrate the lives of the departed at the museum’s altars.

    Activities are free except where noted. RSVP by October 25 at 12:00pm and check in on arrival.

    ...

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    2023 Oct 21

    Teen Saturdays at the Museum! / ¡Sábados de Jóvenes en el Museo!

    1:00pm to 3:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History (26 Oxford Street) and Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology (11 Divinity Avenue)

    Teen Saturdays is designed for Latino high school students. Workshops delve into four fascinating traditional celebrations from Central America. Participants will embark on a journey to discover diverse festivals that shape societies in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. During each workshop, teenagers will visit exhibits, use art and language to create original works, and challenge their sense of what a tradition can be through discussion. We will learn about the historical and social contexts behind these festivities, their cultural symbolism, and the values they embody...

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    2023 Oct 21

    Augmented Reality Maya Chocolate Plate

    11:00am to 1:00pm

    Location: 

    Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

    "Shrink" yourself down to "walk" into an ancient Maya vessel using augmented reality! Maya women were often essential for uniting kingdoms. When a marriage was arranged between Maya royal families, kings would exchange gifts like this ceramic three-legged plate for serving chocolate. Use the museum's iPad as a "magic window" to discover fine details on one such plate that cannot be seen on the actual artifact. A gallery facilitator will guide you through the experience and will share more about the Maya.

    This is a drop-in activity for International Archaeology Day — no...

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    2023 Oct 11

    Solidarity! Exhibition Gallery Tour

    10:00am

    Location: 

    Lia and William Poorvu Gallery, Schlesinger Library, 3 James St., Cambridge

    Join a tour of the Solidarity! Transnational Feminisms Then and Now exhibition led by student guides and staff from the Schlesinger Library.

    Solidarity! Transnational Feminisms Then and Now features 50 years of transnational feminist collections held at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Through a rich array of materials—including posters, newspapers, photographs, and memorabilia—the exhibition explores the promises and limits of global feminist solidarity, while highlighting the key role of iconography in transnational feminist and...

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    2023 Oct 10

    Curator-Led Exhibition Tour: At the Limits of the Book

    5:30pm to 6:00pm

    Location: 

    Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge

    Join exhibition curator and Houghton librarian Molly Schwartzburg for a special guided tour of At the Limits of the Book: Bindings from the Houghton Library Collections. This 45-minute tour will include discussion of the themes of the exhibition, highlights from the materials on display, and ample time for participant questions.

    Learn more and RSVP.

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    2023 Oct 08

    Spotlight Tour: Seeing in Art and Medicine, with Genesis Nam '24

    11:00am to 11:50am

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Genesis Nam ’24 will put visitors in the shoes of the radiologists who have participated in the Seeing in Art and Medical Imaging program, which is offered by the Harvard Art Museums in partnership with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The program promotes empathy, mindfulness, and tolerance for ambiguity in the medical community through conversations about works of art, focused on themes such as care, objectivity, and power. The stops on the tour are Shutter (2006), a glazed stoneware sculpture by Rosemarie Trockel, and an Attic grave stele, Woman dying in...

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    2023 Oct 07

    Spotlight Tour: Deconstructing Disorientation, with Emily Feng '25

    2:00pm to 2:50pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Emily Feng ’25 will explore how certain works of art provoke a sense of disorientation. A student of philosophy and economics, Feng will look closely at three works: Saxon Motif (1964), an oil painting made in West Germany by Georg Baselitz; Zhan Wang’s Sculpture in the Form of a Nine-Hole Scholar’s Rock, made in China in 2001; and The End of the World (1936), a painting by David Alfaro Siqueiros, which he produced in New York City.

    No registration required.

    ...

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    2023 Oct 07

    Spotlight Tour: Sensing the Divine, with Hanna Carney '25

    11:00am to 11:50am

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Hanna Carney ’25 will look at multisensory religious experiences as portrayed in art and the significant role they play in people’s lives. Featured works include a bronze ritual wine vessel (late 11th–early 10th century BCE), cast in China during the Zhou dynasty, and The Miracle of the Sacred Fire, Church of the Holy Sepulchre (1892–99), an ambitious painting by Englishman William Holman Hunt, based on his multiple trips to the Holy Land. Emerging from Carney’s studies of comparative religion and the history of art and architecture, the tour encourages visitors to embrace...

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    2023 Sep 27

    Curator-Led Exhibition Tour: At the Limits of the Book

    12:30pm to 1:15pm

    Location: 

    Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge

    Join exhibition curator and Houghton librarian Molly Schwartzburg for a special guided tour of At the Limits of the Book: Bindings from the Houghton Library Collections. This 45-minute tour will include discussion of the themes of the exhibition, highlights from the materials on display, and ample time for participant questions.

    Learn more and RSVP.

    Read more about Curator-Led Exhibition Tour: At the Limits of the Book
    2023 Sep 24

    Spotlight Tour: Out of This World, with Arielle Frommer '25

    2:00pm to 2:50pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Arielle Frommer ’25 will explore the intersection of art and astronomy in three works: Light Prop for an Electric Stage [Light-Space Modulator] (1930), a reflective kinetic sculpture by László Moholy-Nagy, who had been a professor at the Bauhaus in Germany; Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (datable to about 1292), an iconic Buddhist sculpture from Japan; and The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train (1877), a large canvas that Claude Monet painted in Paris, soon after he began painting in the Impressionist style.

    An astrophysics student,...

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    2023 Sep 24

    Spotlight Tour: Sensing the Divine, with Hanna Carney '25

    11:00am to 11:50am

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Hanna Carney ’25 will look at multisensory religious experiences as portrayed in art and the significant role they play in people’s lives. Featured works include a bronze ritual wine vessel (late 11th–early 10th century BCE), cast in China during the Zhou dynasty, and The Miracle of the Sacred Fire, Church of the Holy Sepulchre (1892–99), an ambitious painting by Englishman William Holman Hunt, based on his multiple trips to the Holy Land. Emerging from Carney’s studies of comparative religion and the history of art and architecture, the tour encourages visitors to...

    Read more about Spotlight Tour: Sensing the Divine, with Hanna Carney '25
    2023 Sep 23

    Teen Saturdays at the Museum! / ¡Sábados de Jóvenes en el Museo!

    1:00pm to 3:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History (26 Oxford Street) and Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology (11 Divinity Avenue)

    Teen Saturdays is designed for Latino high school students. Workshops delve into four fascinating traditional celebrations from Central America. Participants will embark on a journey to discover diverse festivals that shape societies in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. During each workshop, teenagers will visit exhibits, use art and language to create original works, and challenge their sense of what a tradition can be through discussion. We will learn about the historical and social contexts behind these festivities, their cultural symbolism, and the values they embody...

    Read more about Teen Saturdays at the Museum! / ¡Sábados de Jóvenes en el Museo!
    2023 Sep 17

    Spotlight Tour: Visions of America, with Hannah Gadway '25

    11:00am to 11:50am

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Hannah Gadway '25 will explore how works of art have envisioned the past, present, and future of the United States and will highlight their place in the Harvard Art Museums’ free U.S. Citizenship Course. Offered in partnership with the St. Mark Community Education Program, and featuring special tours led by Harvard students, this course prepares aspiring citizens for the naturalization test.

    The stops on the tour include Charles Willson Peale’s 1784 portrait of General George Washington awaiting the British surrender at Yorktown; Rocky Mountains, “Lander’s...

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    2023 Sep 16

    Spotlight Tour: The Body as Life Force, with Sophia Pasalis '25

    2:00pm to 2:50pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Sophia Pasalis ’25 will explore three works that celebrate life through the representation of the body. Grounded in questions of materiality and composition, the tour features an earthenware sculpture of a female figure from China (Majiayao culture, Machang phase, 2350–2050 BCE); Auguste Rodin’s anatomically explicit sculpture Iris, Messenger of the Gods [Another Voice, Called Iris], made in France (c. 1890–91); and Harlequin Nude (1956), a lavishly painted canvas by Karel Appel, who was associated with CoBrA, a postwar international avant-garde movement...

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    2023 Sep 16

    Spotlight Tour: Seeing in Art and Medicine, with Genesis Nam '24

    11:00am to 11:50am

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Genesis Nam ’24 will put visitors in the shoes of the radiologists who have participated in the Seeing in Art and Medical Imaging program, which is offered by the Harvard Art Museums in partnership with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The program promotes empathy, mindfulness, and tolerance for ambiguity in the medical community through conversations about works of art, focused on themes such as care, objectivity, and power.

    The stops on the tour are Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin (1888), a painting by Vincent Van Gogh; Odalisque,...

    Read more about Spotlight Tour: Seeing in Art and Medicine, with Genesis Nam '24
    2023 Sep 10

    Spotlight Tour: Food for Thought, with Hannah Gadway ’25

    2:00pm to 2:50pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Hannah Gadway ’25 will explore food-inspired works of art from the past to reflect on our attitudes about food today. Among the works discussed will be a gourd-shaped ewer made in Korea in the 12th century, The Breakfast Table (1883–84), an oil painting made in Paris by John Singer Sargent, and Pear Tree (1903), an oil painting made in Austria by Gustav Klimt.

    Learn more.

    2023 Sep 10

    Spotlight Tour: Women’s Health and Art, with Eve Crompton ’24

    11:00am to 11:50am

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    In this tour, Eve Crompton ’24 will analyze historical social attitudes toward female health and illness as she examines a selection of representations of women in art. She will look at an Attic grave stele, Woman dying in childbirth (c. 330 BCE); the painting Mother and Child (c. 1901), which Pablo Picasso was inspired to make after visiting a French prison hospital; and Erich Heckel’s painting To the Convalescent Woman (Triptych) (1912–13).

    An integrative biology student, Crompton aims to address the health inequalities perpetuated by structural...

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    2023 Sep 09

    Spotlight Tour: Paths to Abstraction, with Isa Haro ’24

    2:00pm to 2:50pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Isa Haro ’24 will explore how abstraction in art has been practiced, viewed, and enjoyed over time, with three very different examples. She will look at a group of Ming dynasty garden rocks (16th–17th century), which served as focal elements in traditional gardens; Paul Cézanne’s Study of Trees (c. 1904), a radically austere painting that contributed to Cézanne’s renown as a pivotal figure in the history of abstraction; and Alberto Burri’s Legno e rosso 3 (1956), a painting made with lacquered bark and a blowtorch. An art, film, and visual studies student, Haro...

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    2023 Sep 09

    Spotlight Tour: Deconstructing Disorientation, with Emily Feng ’25

    11:00am to 11:50am

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On this tour, Emily Feng ’25 will explore how certain works of art provoke a sense of disorientation. A student of philosophy and economics, Feng will look closely at three works: Saxon Motif (1964), an oil painting made in West Germany by Georg Baselitz; Zhan Wang’s Sculpture in the Form of a Nine-Hole Scholar’s Rock, made in China in 2001; and The End of the World (1936), a painting by David Alfaro Siqueiros, which he produced in New York City.

    ...

    Read more about Spotlight Tour: Deconstructing Disorientation, with Emily Feng ’25

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