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

    Clay—Modeling African Design

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On View:
    November 17, 2018–November 13, 2022
    University Collections Gallery, African Art, Harvard Art Museums

    This exhibition highlights artistic innovation and creativity in Africa as seen primarily through the traditions of ceramic arts from across the continent and over its long history. Countering the assumption that African arts and societies are largely unchanging and bound to traditions and customs, the remarkable diversity of objects and styles on display here tells a different story. A selection of more than 50 works on loan from the...

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    Mediterranean Marketplaces: Connecting the Ancient World

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, 6 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

    Mediterranean Marketplaces: Connecting the Ancient World explores how the movement of goods, peoples, and ideas around the ancient Mediterranean transformed the lives and livelihoods of people at all levels of society, driving innovations that had lasting impacts—even on the modern world.

    Make an advance reservation to visit the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.

    ...

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    Muchos Méxicos: Crossroads of the Americas

    Location: 

    Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 1 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

    Muchos Méxicos explores Mexico’s rich history as a site of human innovation, creativity and cultural diversity. Featuring Mexican objects from the Peabody Museum collections, this bilingual exhibit tells the story of Mexico as a multicultural and geographic crossroads—one where the exchange of resources, products, and ideas among Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas before the Spanish invasion, and then with cultures around the globe—have all created a vibrant nation.

    ...

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    From the Hands of the Makers

    Location: 

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

    Over their fifty years creating the Glass Flowers, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, father and son, continually experimented with materials and methods that pushed the boundaries of glassworking. Years later, their complex and varied practices presented unique challenges for the conservators preserving and protecting the models, which led to a suite of conservation processes nearly as varied as the Blaschka’s techniques. From the Hands of the Makers explores what it takes to both make and conserve a model and investigates the lingering mysteries surrounding the making of the glass...

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    Himalayan Art: Art of the Divine Abode

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On View:
    January 22, 2022–May 8, 2022
    University Teaching Gallery, Harvard Art Museums

    Drawn from the museums’ rich Asian art collections, this installation complements a Harvard undergraduate course that explores the art of the Himalayan region, focusing on the major cultural centers such as the Kathmandu Valley and Buddhist sites across the Tibetan plateau, while examining the history of reception and imagination of the Himalayas in the west. The course is taught by Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art. In...

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    Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    On View:
    January 22, 2022–May 8, 2022
    University Research Gallery, Harvard Art Museums

    From swaddling newborns to enshrouding the deceased, woven fabrics touch nearly every aspect of human existence. The textiles in this exhibition are particularly meaningful, for they tell a bigger story about political and social power, class, trade, and concerns for the afterlife during a transformative period in Egyptian history. In the medieval era, control of the region shifted repeatedly, as Egypt was subsumed under a sequence of empires—Byzantine,...

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    Visit An Artist: En Iwamura

    Location: 

    Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard—Online

    We are off to Japan to visit with the incredibly prolific sculptor En Iwamura! 

    En Iwamura's current research investigates how he can influence and alter the experience of viewers who occupy space with his installation artworks. When Iwamura describes the space and scale in his works, he references the Japanese philosophy of Ma. Ma implies meanings of distance, moment, space, relationship, and more. People constantly read and measure different Ma between themselves, and finding the proper or comfortable Ma between people or places can provide a specific relationship at a...

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    Visit an Artist: April Felipe

    Location: 

    Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard—Online

    This week, we'll go to Albany, Ohio to visit April Felipe. April explores themes of personal history, identity and belonging through her ceramic work. In this 1-hour studio visit, April will invite us into her home studio to discuss her incredibly crafted sculptural work as well as give us a look at what she is working on now!

    Cost:
    Free for Harvard Undergraduates
    $25.00 for Harvard Graduate Students, Harvard Staff, and Adult Community

    ...

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    Visit an Artist and Demonstration: Suze Lindsay—Form

    Location: 

    Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard—Online

    During this visit we have the pleasure of traveling to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina to visit the one and only Suze Lindsay for a special two-hour edition of our series! During this visit, Suze will be focused on demonstrating simple drop molds and  how to make drape platter forms/molds. Attention will be  directed towards resolutions for feet and rims. We will be creating new tools for our studio practice and all materials used will be shared with each participant prior to the event so that you can follow along with Suze!

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    Visit an Artist and Demonstration: Mac McCusker

    Location: 

    Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard—Online

    During this visit we travel to Durham, North Carolina to visit with figurative sculptor Mac McCusker and view a demonstration of his work. Mac McCusker’s figurative work and narrative vessels document personal experiences and struggles as a transgender artist. McCusker addresses preconceptions and prejudices about transgender and gender non-binary individuals as well as about the larger LGBTQIA community by sharing personal narratives through self-portrait busts, small-scale figures, and sculptural vessels. 

    ...

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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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    Visit an Artist and Demonstration - Christina Erives

    Location: 

    Online Event

    Join us for a virtual field trip to an artist's studio! We will visit contemporary ceramic artists for a guided tour of their space, a demo of their process, and discussion about their work and how it has progressed throughout their career. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and participate in the discussion.

    This week, we visit the studio of sculptor Christina Erives! Christina believes that ceramics as material has permanence, it is one of the ways we were able to learn about ancient...

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