Events

    ARTS FIRST Festival

    Location: 

    Throughout Harvard's campus

    Enjoy an artstravaganza during ARTS FIRST, Harvard's annual festival of creativity! Produced by the Office for the Arts, the festival opens University spaces to everyone for an experience of community togetherness and exciting discovery featuring performances and artwork by students, staff, faculty, alums and affiliates. Plus exhibitions and other events, including the pre-festival Arts Medal Ceremony honoring Adrian Piper AM ’77, PhD ’81 on April 26 at Harvard Film Archive. All are welcome! Come for a little; stay for a lot.

    Most events are free; some evening events...

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    Day of the Dead Family Fiesta

    Location: 

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

    Learn more about this joyful holiday, a national symbol of Mexico shared with the world.

    The annual tradition of building ofrendas—altars with photos, favorite foods, and memorabilia of the departed—encourages visits by the souls, and is an occasion to honor and celebrate the lives of the departed. Enjoy three floors of activities for the young and young-at-heart including crafts, scent stations, traditional decorations, Nahuatl stories, decorating a sugar skull (extra $7 fee), painting demonstrations, folk dances and two live music performances. Outside the museum, visitors...

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    Take Your Place/Toma tu lugar

    Location: 

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

    Latino/a/x teens in the Hear Me Out/Escúchame project exhibit a group artwork that challenges stereotypes. What is important to know about Salvadoran or Honduran culture? What is overlooked in Mexican, Colombian, or Guatemalan culture? Drop in to see their response, and create “light-up” postcards or an art piece about your identity with simple art materials. Sketch and try other hands-on activities. Take your place with us and share how you want to be represented.

    Limited metered parking available on Oxford Street or...

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    Harvard Art Museums: Student Guide Tour

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    These tours, designed and led by Harvard undergraduates from a range of academic disciplines, focus on objects chosen by each student guide and provide visitors a unique, thematic view into collections.

    Tours are limited to 18 people, and it is required that you reserve your place. At 10am the day of the event, reservations will open and may be arranged online through this form. The Student Guide Tour reservation will also serve as your...

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    Mythical Creatures Scavenger Hunt Kick-Off

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Join us to hunt for mythical creatures across the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. Can you find a genie, merfolk, or a centaur? What might have inspired a cyclops or a piranha plant? Travel through the galleries of four museums on your quest for these amazing creatures. Test your skills in the galleries of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments.

    On April 15, let the adventure begin! Time is limited, so plan...

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    2022 May 15

    Mythical Creatures Scavenger Hunt

    Repeats every day until Mon May 30 2022 .
    11:00am to 4:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Join us to hunt for mythical creatures across the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. Can you find a genie, merfolk, or a centaur? What might have inspired a cyclops or a piranha plant? Travel through the galleries of four museums on your quest for these amazing creatures. Test your skills in the galleries of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments.

    On April 15, let the adventure begin! Time is limited, so plan...

    Read more about Mythical Creatures Scavenger Hunt

    Members: Discover Oceania with Ingrid Ahlgren

    Location: 

    Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology—Online

    Join us for a casual evening of conversation with the Peabody Museum’s Curator of Oceanic Collections. Ingrid Ahlgren stewards one of the largest and most historically significant collections in the U.S. from the Pacific Islands, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Hear her share some of her recent work, including the exhibit Uncovering Pacific Pasts and the important roles that Harvard University and the state of Massachusetts have played in the history of Oceania. Ingrid will also discuss her upcoming collaboration with Pacific Islanders living in Utah.

    ...

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    Drawing Plants & Flowers

    Location: 

    Online—Harvard Museum of Natural History

    Capture the beauty and variety of plant forms with pencil and paper in this online workshop with artist and educator Erica Beade. Participants will explore botanical drawing techniques through close observation and practice with contour, gesture, foreshortening and shading. Groups will be limited to 10, allowing ample time for individual feedback. All skill levels are welcome.

    Cost:
    $30 for members
    $35 for nonmembers

    Learn more about...

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    Drawing Plants & Flowers

    Location: 

    Online—Harvard Museum of Natural History

    Capture the beauty and variety of plant forms with pencil and paper in this online workshop with artist and educator Erica Beade. Participants will explore botanical drawing techniques through close observation and practice with contour, gesture, foreshortening and shading. Groups will be limited to 10, allowing ample time for individual feedback. All skill levels are welcome.

    Cost:
    $30 for members
    $35 for nonmembers

    ...

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    I Heart Science

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Awaken your love of science with activities led by Harvard scientists, graduate students, and enthusiastic explorers. Meet scientists who investigate fossils, microbes, and carnivorous plants. Hear short talks on current research at Harvard. Explore fermenting microbes in action as they perform in a musical art installation! Bring your own collections to show to local shell and minerals clubs. This program has something for everyone and is appropriate for children and adults of all ages.

    Note: Regular museum admission rates apply.

    ...

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    Native American Poets Playlist: Poems in the Gallery

    Location: 

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

    Enrich your museum visit by listening to an evocative playlist of contemporary poems by Native American authors. Wander freely across the first-floor galleries to see where the poems take you and expand your understanding of Native arts and cultures. The poems, drawn from a powerful recent anthology, New Poets of Native Nations (edited by Heid E. Erdrich; Graywolf Press) celebrate Native poets first published in the twenty-first century. Hear the exhibits “come into voice” and experience the museum in a new way. Borrow a free audio player with regular museum admission.

    ... Read more about Native American Poets Playlist: Poems in the Gallery

    Harvard Art Museums: Cambridge Open Archives

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, Art Study Center, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    The Harvard Art Museums Archives is participating in Cambridge Open Archives, an annual event that offers the rare chance to visit a number of unique archives and collecting agencies in Cambridge. In the Art Study Center, select archival photographs, correspondence, and objects documenting the history of the museums’ teaching mission and its wider impact in the United States will be on display for close examination. Archives staff will be on hand to share the stories behind the materials.

    Cost: Free with museums admission (note that admission is always free...

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