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 policy makers, urban designers, and artists in Boston and Cambridge for a discussion about the future of public art!
Public art has the potential to make a community a more vibrant and welcoming place. Free and accessible to all, it also has the power to provoke debate about our shared cultural experience. As engaged citizens call for the removal of certain public monuments that evoke harmful systems, the conversation about the role of public art in our communities gains momentum.
On October 5, join City of Boston Chief of Arts & Culture Kara Elliott-Ortega...
Harvard Ceramics Program, 224 Western Ave., Allston
Register now for Ceramics Program fall 2021 courses, open to adults 18+. From introduction to wheel throwing and hand building to figurative and abstract sculpture to glaze chemistry and experimental photography on clay, we offer courses for adults of all levels to explore and develop new skills in clay.
Most fall 2021 courses will be held in the Ceramics Program studio in Allston, with several online options available.
Cost: Varies. If you have questions about registration procedures and pricing, please email Ji Eun Kim at...
Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard—Online
Join former Ceramics Program Artist-in-Residence and instructor Ruth Easterbrook in a virtual demonstration of her unique method of glazing to create her inviting utilitarian ware. Over this two day event, the artist will share some of her inspiration for her surface design using and interpreting botanicals elements as seen in the natural world and art history. During her demonstration, Ruth will share new ways of thinking of glaze as a pallet of not only colors but also using the other qualities of glaze as well. Participants will observe how she plans and executes her complex surfaces...
This three-hour workshop (with 3 different dates to choose from) will provide an overview of basic glazing and decorating techniques. Consider it part introduction, part refresher, part crash course in glazing, decorating and surface. The session covers how to prepare your work for glazing and explores different ways to apply glaze. Considerations related to atmosphere, use and functionality will be discussed. Basic decorating methods using slips, underglazes and wax resist will be demonstrated. This includes the use of different tools and techniques including brush work, slip trailing,...
*For high school students living or attending school in Allston, Brighton, or Cambridge!*
Reflect on where you are right now to where you want to be. What comes easily to you? What do you love the most about yourself? Where do you want to put your energy?
Explore these questions and learn more about your inner world in this hands-on workshop led by Brighton artist Deborah Johnson. Start with a short meditation, look at examples of self-published...
*For high school students living or attending school in Allston, Brighton, or Cambridge!*
Do you daydream about places you've loved or imagined? Are you curious about how writers turn ideas into stories? Join author Abdul-Razak Zachariah for a glimpse into the children’s book writing process. Write your own story idea for a new generation of readers based on your life and experiences. Abdul will read from his children’s book "...
*For high school students who live or attend school in Allston, Brighton, or Cambridge!*
Have you ever visited or heard about a museum and wondered what it would be like to work there? While exhibitions may not magically spring to life every night, the reality of a museum career can be just as exciting. A job in an art museum means working in an enriching environment where you can turn your passion for art, people, and history into a meaningful career. We invite you to join employees at the Harvard Art Museums to learn more about the types of careers...
*For high school students living or attending school in Allston-Brighton or Cambridge!*
Remember Play Doh when you were a kid? What if we told you you're never too old to play with clay? Sign up for our 4-session Zoom clay class, where we will make and decorate mugs, phone holders, sculptures—whatever you want, really!—using our hands and objects you can find at home. No experience necessary!
We'll teach you everything you need to know, PLUS we'll mail you all the stuff you'll need! You'll get to keep your final product and, as an added bonus, we'll...
The Ceramics Program offers a wide variety of visual arts classes for adults of all levels. The next six-week session includes online classes such as: Handbuilding Basics; Experimental Photography on Clay; Plant-Based Printing; Sculpting from Observation; Wheel Intensive; Animal Sculpture; and much, much more!
Classes meet weekly live on Zoom, and class meetings are recorded for participants to view later via Google Classroom. Clay pickup, glazing, and firing options are available for participants able to travel to the Ceramics Program studio in Allston.
Clay Etc., an upcoming digital publication by Summer Chen and Ty Billman, aims to provide a space for our global community of designers, makers and craftspeople to share the unique passions for, and experiences with, clay as a medium. As part of the publication’s launch, co-author Summer Chen will be in conversation with fellow designers Kevin Rouff of ThusThat and Lonny van Ryswyck of Atelier NL to present and discuss the points of intersection they have experienced with the ceramic medium and design. Access to the publication will be made available to all registrants.
What leads an artist to work in clay? How does an artist develop their artistic voice and practice in clay? In this series, we’ll learn through conversation with eight multicultural contemporary artists and educators who use clay in ways that are functional, sculptural or performative.
May 8: Donté K. Hayes The sculptural ceramic work of Donté K. Hayes pulls from his interest in hip-hop culture, history, and science fiction to explore themes in Afrofuturism, a projected vision of an imagined future which critiques the historical and cultural events of...
Do you want to sell more of your handmade work in a socially-distanced world? Learn key strategies to be successful as a maker from jeweler Rebecca Haas and potter Becca Webb. This 2-hour online workshop is designed to help you build a reliable and growing online community of customers and fans so you can not only survive this pandemic, but grow in it.
Topics include:
Easy things you can do to take and share photos that inspire people to buy online;
Why you need an email list and how to best use it;
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard—Online
“What college does, it helps us learn about the nation,” said Rodney Spivey-Jones, a 2017 Bard College graduate currently incarcerated at Fishkill Correctional Facility in New York, in the docuseries College behind Bars. “It helps us become civic beings. It helps us understand that we have an interest in our community, that our community is a part of us and we are a part of it.”
The Bard Prison Initiative and programs at other institutions of higher learning across the country have brought together teachers and learners in incarcerated spaces for years. This panel will gather...
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard—Online
By the early 1980s, a new political landscape was taking shape that would fundamentally influence American society and politics in the decades to come. That year, the long-standing effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment—championed by suffragist Alice Paul and introduced to Congress in 1923—ran aground, owing in significant measure to the activism of women who pioneered a new brand of conservatism.
This panel will draw together strands and stories that are often kept separate: the ideas and growing influence of conservative women, the political activism of gay communities...
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard—Online
Robert F. Reid-Pharr is a professor of studies of women, gender, and sexuality and of African and African American studies at Harvard University. During his Radcliffe fellowship year, Reid-Pharr is completing a draft of "James Baldwin: The Making of an American Icon." Drawing heavily on archival materials housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Houghton and Beinecke Libraries of Harvard and Yale Universities, the book follows the story of Baldwin’s life from birth to death. Join Reid-Pharr as he explores how Baldwin achieved his celebrity status and why...
The lectures pair Harvard professors with celebrated food experts and renowned chefs to showcase the science behind different culinary techniques. The series is based on the Harvard course “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” but public lectures do not replicate course content.
Each presentation will begin with a 15-minute lecture about the scientific topics from that week’s class by a faculty member from the Harvard course. This week's topic is "Honorary Book Celebration Lecture."
The lectures pair Harvard professors with celebrated food experts and renowned chefs to showcase the science behind different culinary techniques. The series is based on the Harvard course “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” but public lectures do not replicate course content.
Each presentation will begin with a 15-minute lecture about the scientific topics from that week’s class by a faculty member from the Harvard course. This week's topic is "Honorary Book Celebration Lecture."
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard—Online
Although Massachusetts formally abolished slavery in 1783, the visible and invisible presence of slavery continued in the Commonwealth and throughout New England well into the 19th century. Harvard professor Louis Agassiz’s theory about human origins is but one example of the continued presence and institutionalization of racism in the North.
Taking as a starting point the new book To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes, this panel of experts will examine the role and impact of slavery in the North and discuss the influence...
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard—Online
The passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 did not "give" women the vote. Rather, it established a negative: that the right to vote could not be abridged on account of sex alone. This session brings together diverse participants who will each illuminate one facet of women’s political history at this key transitional moment. Together, participants will emphasize the radical achievement of the amendment, exploring the full implications of what it meant to remove sex as a barrier to voting, which resulted in the largest-ever one-time expansion of the electorate and mobilized a...