Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
The Olmec civilization of ancient Mexico is known for its mysterious sculptures of giant heads that rise up to eleven feet high. Touch a huge modern replica in the museum for one day that is based on Monument One, The King. Explore artifacts with an educator that show Olmec influence on architecture, the ball game, written language, and pigments. Handle reproductions and paint a mini-plaster head of your own to take home.
Workshops also available at 1:45pm and 2:30pm (one hour each)
Registration Deadline: Friday, May 13, 12:00 pm Ages 6–10,...
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...
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.
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.
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...
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,...
Students have been digging up and learning about Harvard's past through the Harvard Yard Archaeological Project. Meet the Peabody's Trish Capone and current Harvard student Nam Hyun Kim as they talk about the objects they have found and the larger history of what has been uncovered in this long-standing dig on campus.
To register, send an email to members@hmsc.harvard.edu. If possible, please include your member number. A...
Mesopotamian Monuments is a 60-minute live-streamed museum visit to investigate monuments from Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria exhibited at Harvard University. Guided by a museum educator, visitors at home observe sculptures in the gallery to understand the characteristics of these ancient river civilizations. The tour introduces the Sumerian ruler Gudea, Hammurabi of Babylon and the Assyrian Kings Ashurnasirpal II and his son Shalmaneser III. The experience includes the monument of Hammurabis' code and some ancient music with time for questions and discussion.
Matt Wolf’s engaging documentary tells two stories: one, the life story of a remarkably prescient and stubbornly individualistic radical librarian who refused to fit neatly into the role of wife or mother, and a second that traces the emergence and arguably disastrous effects of the twenty-four-hour American news cycle that she secretly recorded in her Philadelphia home from 1979-2012.
Be among the first to see over 120 works included in the Harvard Art Museums' latest show, which celebrates the rich visual culture of Japan's early modern era. The galleries are open late, and admission is free for...
Facilities director Peter Atkinson will take visitors on a 60-minute architectural tour of the museums, highlighting the strategies and stories behind the evolution of the recently renovated building, with a special focus on its environmentally conscious, certified LEED Gold design.
Free with museums’ admission (Note: Cambridge residents, all students, youth under age 18, and Massachusetts K-12 teachers get in free to the Harvard Art Museums). This tour is limited to 15 people and tickets are required. Ten minutes before the tour, tickets...
Peabody Museum Education Room, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
In this special event, Juan Alonso Rodriguez will explain how to make a molinillo, the whisk-like wooden tool that is traditionally used in Mexico to make froth in chocolate beverages. Together with Ana Rita García-Lascuráin, he will discuss the history of chocolate production in Mexico and its current renaissance. Using molinillos, members of the Cambridge-based Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute will make three different chocolate beverages that participants can taste during the program.
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge
This year’s annual movie marathon at the Harvard Film Archive finds danger on the high seas, in the churning rapids and even on a seemingly placid lake, presenting a selection of taut and waterlogged films where boat voyages become suspended states of mind: obsessive, delusional, perilous and even disastrous.
From Huston’s classic adventure of improbable romance aboard the dilapidated African Queen to Polanski’s vision of sexualized power games on a cramped sailboat, to the solitary epic ocean adventure of the young Japanese sailor in Kon Ichikawa’s Alone on the...
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge
The Harvard Film Archive presents films Friday through Monday nights year-round. Open to the public, all screenings are held in the Archive's 200-seat theater featuring state-of-the-art film and digital projection located in the historic Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.
Throughout August, The Harvard Film Archive will present screenings directed by Fritz Lang, Francesco Rosi, Howard Hawks, and Joan Tewkesbury.
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge
Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1969 moon landing at this one-of-a-kind evening event exclusively for guests 21+. Enjoy cocktails, beer, light refreshments, and 60s music, as well as moon-inspired demonstrations and activities. More details on the full program coming soon!
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge
The Harvard Film Archive presents films Friday through Monday nights year-round. Open to the public, all screenings are held in the Archive's 200-seat theater featuring state-of-the-art film and digital projection located in the historic Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.
Throughout July, The Harvard Film Archive will present screenings of director Howard Hawks' notable films.
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...
In this one-day workshop, master dyer and textile artist Porfirio Gutiérrez will discuss the history and uses of cochineal dye from the perspective of the Zapotecs from Oaxaca, Mexico, who have used the pigment since pre-Columbian times. Mr. Gutiérrez will demonstrate how to prepare cochineal dye and will guide workshop participants in dyeing their individual wool scarves with both cochineal and pericón, a wild marigold indigenous to Mexico, used to obtain a beautiful bright yellow dye.
This is an all-levels workshop; no previous experience is required. All supplies for...
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Join Harvard archaeology students in the museum galleries as they share their experience from excavations around the world and across time. Examine artifacts and see what archaeologists do. Try launching a spear with a spear thrower (weather permitting), carve cuneiform writing on clay, and experience up-to-the-minute technologies such as 3D printing and augmented reality. Test your listening skills in the World Music Challenge game hosted by colleagues from the social anthropology department. Activities will be spread across both the Peabody and the Harvard Semitic Museums.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Parents and children engage in hands-on activities to learn about the Ju/‘hoansi, the original people of the Kalahari desert, who hunted animals and gathered plant foods as a way of life until they took up farming in 1960.