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.
How wild, really, is Albert Bierstadt’s wilderness in Rocky Mountains, "Lander’s Peak"? Curatorial intern Saffron Sener will discuss this American landscape.
Our galleries are full of stories—this series of talks gives visitors a chance to hear the best ones! The talks highlight new works on view, take a fresh look at old favorites, investigate artists’ materials and techniques, and reveal the latest discoveries by curators, conservators, fellows, visiting artists, technologists, and other contributors.
Join staff as they discuss and activate this experimental device from 1930 by László Moholy-Nagy, a Bauhaus pioneer.
Artists "double" their visual worlds by creating artworks within artworks. Curator Miriam Stewart will explore how these artists create intriguing interactions between painter, subject, and viewer.
Join curator Sarah Laursen for a closer look at artworks in the exhibition Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade (September 15, 2023–January 14, 2024). The exhibition explores the entwined histories of the opium trade and the Chinese art market between the late 18th and early 20th centuries. Laursen will share how these two commodities—acquired through both legal and illicit means—have had a lasting impact on the global economy, public health, immigration law, education, and the arts.
Join curatorial assistant Casey Monahan to explore how two 19th-century ceramic vessels tell different stories of the United States. One vessel is made by enslaved potter David Drake and shows us both the artist’s agency and the lack of it. The other vessel is a presentation vase created for the U.S. centennial; it includes narrative imagery intended to evoke a shared American identity after the Civil War.
Join Jen Thum and Caitlin Clerkin for a conversation about a recently refreshed display of ancient Egyptian reliefs from tombs, which places the spotlight on ancient people and processes, as well as provenance.
In conjunction with the exhibition Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade, join the Harvard Art Museums for a discussion about the opioid crisis, featuring specialists in addiction medicine, harm reduction, and public health policy.
Join associate curator Sarah Laursen for a lecture on opium and Chinese art—two influential commodities traded in China, the British Empire, and Massachusetts between the 18th and early 20th centuries.
Join curatorial fellow Talitha Maria G. Schepers for an interactive talk that explores why 17th-century Dutch artists decided to draw female nudes from life, the conventions they broke while doing so, and why they used blue paper. The talk will focus on a recent installation of Dutch drawings in the 17th-Century Dutch and Flemish Art Gallery.
Join curator Joachim Homann for an in-depth discussion about works in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Homann will share insights about the making of the exhibition, which seeks to inspire conversations and enrich today’s practitioners of watercolor.
Join exhibition curator and Houghton librarian Dale Stinchcomb for a 30-minute guided tour of the Royal Chicano Air Force posters currently on display in Houghton's lobby gallery. This will include discussion of the themes of the exhibition, highlights from the materials on display, and ample time for participant questions.
Join frames conservator Allison Jackson and senior conservation technician Adam Baker for a closer look at a selection of artworks in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Jackson will share insights about the variety of frames she treated for the exhibition.
Join Elisa Germán, curator at Colby College Museum of Art, for an in-depth discussion about works in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Homann will share insights about the making of the exhibition, which seeks to inspire conversations and enrich today's practitioners of watercolor.
Join curator Elisa Germán for a closer look at a selection of artworks in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Germán will share insights about the museums' collection of American watercolors from the mid- to late 20th century, focusing on a selection of drawings that reveal how this practice evolved into a new contemporary American medium.
Conservator Penley Knipe and curator Miriam Stewart will lead an in-depth look at the materials and techniques used to create the varied works in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Learn about watercolor cakes, papers, and techniques, such as "wet-into-wet," "resist," and "scraping."
Join curator Joachim Homann for an in-depth discussion about works in the exhibition American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, on view from May 20 to August 13, 2023. Homann will share insights about the making of the exhibition, which seeks to inspire conversations and enrich today’s practitioners of watercolor.