The Harvard Art Museums will offer free admission to all visitors on Wednesday, May 18, in celebration of Art Museum Day and International Museum Day, organized by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
Take in the beauty of the Calderwood Courtyard before exploring three levels of magnificent art from around the world and across the centuries. Check out our special exhibitions Prints from...
Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard, 224 Western Ave., Allston
Twice a year in May and December, the Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard hosts an exhibition and sale featuring thousands of pieces of original ceramic artwork by participants in Ceramics Program classes. From pottery to sculpture, ceramic jewelry, planters, and more, this popular exhibition has something for everyone!
Named after Washington Allston—a visionary painter and 1800 Harvard graduate—the town of Allston features vibrant, eclectic art that reflects the neighborhood's creativity and diversity. On this self-guided tour, you'll discover "can't-miss" public art installations along Western Avenue and learn the stories behind them and their artists. Follow along to explore hand-painted murals, sky-high sculptures, 25-cent art prints, and more!
Tour Stops: 27 Tour Length: 1 hour (shorter routes included) Tour Distance: Up to 2 miles...
Join us for an evening of art, fun, food, and more!
This evening marks the launch of Harvard Art Museums at Night, which will take place the last Thursday of every month, from 5 to 9pm. Each night will feature a new mix of local talent and community partners to make this a festive occasion for all.
Bring your friends to mingle in the Calderwood Courtyard, chat over a snack or drink at Jenny’s Cafe, browse the shop, and of course, wander the galleries to take in our world-class collections of art.
Let us introduce you to some of the most infamous female authors you’ve never heard of who carved out cultural spaces for themselves. Our challenge to you: Remember their names. Share their stories. Rewrite history.
Highlights include:
A copy of Phillis Wheatley's collection of poems autographed by the author
A mysterious ownership inscription by a medieval woman named "Johanna" in a copy of Jerome's Vitas Patrum
Mary Wroth's copy of Xenophon's Cyropaedia, bearing her cryptic monogram...
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.
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...
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,...
Repeats every week on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday until Sun Apr 17 2022 .
10:00am to 5:00pm
Location:
Harvard Art Museums, Modern and Contemporary Art, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Explore the state of democracy today through a commissioned artwork by internationally renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, presented at the Harvard Art Museums in partnership with the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Pre-recorded video interviews capturing voices and opinions from across the political spectrum will activate the Harvard Art Museums’ iconic portrait of George Washington (c. 1795) by Gilbert Stuart, fostering an exchange of views and responses at this time of heightened political division.
Repeats every week on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday until Sun Jan 02 2022 .
10:00am to 5:00pm
Location:
Harvard Art Museums, University Research Gallery, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Immerse yourself in the world of printmaking, tracing how artists move step by step to painstakingly rework and refine their images. Spanning more than three centuries, the works in this exhibition—by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Lee Krasner, Jacques Philippe Le Bas, and Louis Delsarte—unveil the layers of creative revision, correction, and adjustment behind finished prints.
Join us for the public reopening of the Harvard Art Museums on Saturday, September 4!
Begin in our Calderwood Courtyard before venturing into the galleries to enjoy three levels of art, spanning ancient to modern times. See the exhibitions “States of Play: Prints from Rembrandt to Delsarte” and “A Colloquium in the Visual Arts.” And don’t forget to stop by the museum shop, just off the courtyard, to round out your visit.
Our new ReFrame initiative, which reimagines the function, role, and future of the university art museum, introduces new artworks to many of our...
Gavin Moulton ’20 will explore the theme of architecture as art in a discussion focused on several works in the collections spanning a thousand years of art history.
Emilė Radytė, May Wan, Gavin Moulton, and Tommy Mahon, our Ho Family Student Guides from the Harvard Class of 2020, will share their favorite artworks from the Harvard Art Museums collections in this special, celebratory tour.