Capture the diversity of animal forms using pencil and paper. Learn techniques for quickly sketching animals, closely observe the details of fur and feather textures and draw eyes in a way that brings animals to life.
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge
Explore the beauty of butterflies and moths using preserved museum specimens. This three-hour workshop will introduce observational drawing techniques with pencil, and then dive into colored pencil techniques to create a rich, vibrant image.
Landscapes are an appealing subject for drawings, but it can be difficult to know where to start. In this program we will learn how to select a landscape, create a sense of depth and volume, and use a variety of marks to capture a dynamic variety of textures.
Explore the beauty and variety of plants using colored pencils. This course will focus on a diverse range of techniques for using colored pencils to capture flowers, leaves, fruits, and vegetables, from quick monochrome sketching to richly layered, full-color images.
Looking closely at nature can inspire a broad range of imaginative artwork, from abstraction and decorative work to illustration and cartooning. In this workshop, we will use a variety of examples from nature as inspiration, and then explore techniques for unleashing our creativity through the drawing process.
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...
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge
Join the fall 2023 Public Building & Architecture Tours of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, housed within Le Corbusier’s only building in North America, led by architecture students. Walk through and learn more about the layered history of the building, its brutalist and modernist structural features, and the educational and cultural legacy of the Carpenter Center at Harvard University.
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.
Join curatorial assistant Casey Monahan to explore how investigating the verso (reverse side) of a painting can sometimes help construct the history and provenance of a work. Monahan will share how details such as labels, numbers, and other elements that are normally “unseen” are essential for curators as they research and catalogue works in the collections.
Join us for an evening of art, fun, food, and more! This event is free and open to everyone.
Gather with friends and mingle inside our Italian-inspired courtyard while taking in the smooth sounds from DJ C-Zone. Browse the museum shop and chat over a snack or drink for purchase from local vendors. And of course, wander the galleries to take in our world-class art collections—over 50 galleries to explore! Don’t forget to check out the current exhibitions.
Join curator Jen Thum for a tour of the exhibition Seeing in Art and Medicine. Thum will share insights about the museums’ medical humanities program for radiologists—on which the exhibition is based—the curatorial process, and what can be gleaned through close looking.
How wild, really, is Albert Bierstadt’s wilderness in Rocky Mountains, "Lander’s Peak"? Curatorial intern Saffron Sener will discuss this American landscape.
Join queer mender and natural dyer Maggie Ruth Haaland for an introduction to creating unique denim and woven patches. We will learn basic stitches and mending techniques, and then enjoy stitching together. We will co-create the space and time to rest and weave community—and to craft something beautiful in the process.
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge
Join us for a free art + science night at the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology!
This month, we are exploring virtual and augmented reality within the galleries. Meet geologists visualizing seismic events. Try your hand at painting in 3D space using an Oculus headset. Watch how paleontologists digitize research specimens with handheld 3D scanners. Shape landscapes and study water flow in the AR sandbox.
Artisanal cocktails and mocktails by CraftHouse Bartending will be available for purchase. Valid government ID...
A presentation from 2023–2024 Evelyn Green Davis Fellow Francesca Wade
At Radcliffe, Wade is completing her second book, "Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife," a new biography of Stein told through the story of her posthumous legacy. She will also begin work on a new project, exploring the intersecting lives and work of several women poets and activists in 1970s New York.
In conjunction with our special exhibition Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade, and with an abundance of care for our community, the Harvard Art Museums are hosting a one-hour on-site Narcan training, facilitated by the Cambridge Public Health Department and Somerville Health and Human Services. Their staff will also distribute the medicine for attendees to take home.
Please join us at the Harvard Art Museums for an afternoon of family-friendly activities open to all ages. Explore the museums with scavenger hunts and family conversation cards; use your eyes, mind, and imagination to engage deeply with works on view; and play with clay, wire, and shadows in the Materials Lab.
The event is free and open to the public. Sign-up for certain activities during the day, such as art-making workshops, will occur on-site and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden St., Cambridge
Join the artist and educator Evelyn Rydz for an afternoon of conversation and collective artmaking within the exhibition Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis, on view September 18–December 16, 2023.
The exhibition presents artworks that tell alternative stories of water experience in the context of climate change, while encouraging viewers to appreciate the multivalent meaning of water and their own relationship to it. Rydz has repeatedly observed the increasing impacts on natural and cultural ecosystems throughout her various field...
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge
Join the fall 2023 Public Building & Architecture Tours of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, housed within Le Corbusier’s only building in North America, led by architecture students. Walk through and learn more about the layered history of the building, its brutalist and modernist structural features, and the educational and cultural legacy of the Carpenter Center at Harvard University.
In this focused workshop, we will deeply explore feather structure and anatomy, and then learn techniques for capturing feather texture. The group will be limited to twelve, allowing ample time for individual feedback.