2019 Nov 06
Great Russian Jews: Solomon Mikhoels (1890–1948)
4:30pm to 5:45pm
Location: 
CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
This panel discussion with two leading Jewish cultural historians examines the remarkable contributions and tragic death of the great actor, theater director, playwright, visionary of Yiddish culture, and Jewish activist Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels (1890–1948).
Born Shloyme Vovsi in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), the genius actor Mikhoels became the chief director of the State Jewish Theater in Moscow. During World War II, he served as chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Mikhoels’ assassination by Stalin’s secret police, although officially billed as an accident,...
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2019 Oct 17
Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Biomedical Analysis of Mummies and Canopic Jars
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Egyptian mummies and the remains found in ancient canopic jars can now be studied in great detail using noninvasive medical imaging techniques such as X-rays and computerized tomography, and chemical analysis using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.
Drawing from interdisciplinary research conducted in the Valley of the Kings and Egyptian museum collections, Frank Rühli will discuss the value of using state-of-the-art technologies for understanding the life conditions, pathologies, death, and mummification procedures of ancient Egyptians. He will also address ethical...
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2019 Oct 17
Judy Chicago Research Portal Launch
4:00pm
Location: 
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge
This event is to celebrate the launch of a collaborative project, the Judy Chicago Research Portal, and to discuss the role of portals in providing access to feminist art archives.
The Judy Chicago Portal will be presented, challenges in the technology of portal development will be discussed, and Christina Schlesinger and Judy Chicago will discuss the importance of preserving feminist art archives.
...
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2019 Oct 11
Writing Black Lives
4:15pm
Location: 
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Imani Perry, and Robert Reid-Pharr will join in conversation to discuss how their work as biographers speaks to key contemporary discussions about black politics, community, identity, and life.
Perry will consider her recent book, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Beacon Press, 2018), while Reid-Pharr and Brown-Nagin will share perspectives from their own research, writing, and forthcoming books on, respectively, James Baldwin and Constance Baker Motley.
...
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2019 Sep 26
Lecture: Breaking the Noses on Egyptian Statues
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues? Why were other sculpted body parts, including eyes, mouths, arms, and feet, purposely shattered in antiquity? Focusing on the ancient world of the pharaohs and on the Late Antique world that emerged following Egyptian conversion to Christianity, Edward Bleiberg (Senior Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art at Brooklyn Museum) will examine the patterns of damage inflicted on Egyptian images for personal, political, religious, and criminal reasons. He will also highlight how close inspection of statue damage can...
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2019 Sep 13
Lecture: Bauhaus Bashing: Looking Back and Looking Ahead
12:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Join the Harvard Graduate School of Design for a lecture delivered by Philip Ursprung, Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. 
For the 100th birthday of Bauhaus, the German State supports two new museums, several exhibitions, and many celebrations. However, the current celebrations repress the fact that the Bauhaus in the late 20th century was criticized for its formalism and dogmatic design education. And while a...
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2019 Jun 25
Gallery Talk: Introduction to the Dark Arts—Ancient Egyptian Magic
12:30pm to 1:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Jen Thum, the Inga Maren Otto Curatorial Fellow in the Division of Academic and Public Programs, will give this gallery talk.
The Harvard Arts Museums galleries are full of stories—this series of drop-in 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.
Free with museums admission. Gallery talks are limited to 15...
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2019 May 21
Preserving Zapotec Weaving Practices
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
The town of Teotitlán Del Valle in the Mexican state of Oaxaca is renowned for its weaving traditions and its importance as a Zapotec cultural center. Porfirio Gutiérrez will examine the rich history of Zapotec weaving from the perspective of its practitioners. He will also discuss his studio’s role in preserving and promoting the use of natural dyes in his community, and abroad, using pigments derived from plants and insects.
...
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2019 Apr 17
The American Land Museum: Places as Cultural Artifacts
6:00pm
Location: 
Menschel Hall, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
The Center for Land Use Interpretation explores how land in the United States is apportioned, utilized, and perceived. Through exhibitions and public programs, the Center interprets built landscapes—from landfills and urban waterfalls to artificial lakes—as cultural artifacts that help define contemporary American life and culture.
Matthew Coolidge, Director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, will discuss the Center’s approach to finding meaning in the...
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2019 Apr 16
The Mexican Revolution of 1910: A Sociohistorical Interpretation
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
The Mexican Revolution of 1910 began as a multilocal revolt against the 35-year regime of dictator Porfirio Díaz and evolved into a national revolution and civil war lasting nearly a decade. Javier Garciadiego—a leading historian of Mexico’s revolution—will discuss the precursors, armed struggles, political factions, U.S. manipulations, and triumphs of Mexico’s revolution, including the development of a landmark constitution—one of the first in the world to enshrine social rights.
...
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2019 Apr 09
Film Screening: The Barber of Siberia
7:00pm to 10:00pm
Location: 
CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Join the Davis Center for a film screening for "The Barber of Siberia." This 1998 Russian film follows the story of Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond), a beautiful American woman, writes to her son, a cadet at a famous military academy, about a long kept secret. Twenty years ago she arrived in Russia to assist Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), an obsessive engineer who needs the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich's patronage to sponsor his invention, a massive machine to harvest the forests. On her travels, she meets two men who would change her life forever: a handsome young...
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2019 Mar 13
Great Russian Jews: David Oistrakh
4:30pm to 5:45pm
Location: 
CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
This panel examines the remarkable achievements of the great violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974). Born and raised in Odessa, Oistrakh became one of the 20th century’s preeminent musical virtuosi. He collaborated with leading musicians and composers of his time, among them Aram Khachatourian and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Panelists will include: Oleh Krysa (Ukrainian-American Violinist; University of Rochester) and Harlow Robinson (Northeastern University).
Moderated by Maxim D. Shrayer (Boston College; Davis Center).
...
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2019 Mar 11
Lecture: Kenneth Helphand, “Lawrence Halprin”
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Join us for a lecture from Kenneth I. Helphand FASLA, a Philip H. Knight Professor of Landscape Architecture Emeritus at the University of Oregon where he has taught courses in landscape history, theory and design since 1974. He is a graduate of Brandeis University (1968) and Harvard's Graduate School of Design (MLA 1972). Helphand is the recipient of distinguished teaching awards from the University of Oregon and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. He is also the author...
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2019 Feb 12
Are Koreans Human? A Lecture with Best-Selling Author Min Jin Lee
4:15pm
Location: 
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Who are the modern Koreans, and what do they care about? Koreans have experienced colonialism, diaspora, war, national division, immigration, and a persistent nuclear threat—and yet, they have achieved extraordinary gains in their homelands and elsewhere. Min Jin Lee, the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko who is working on the third novel of The Koreans trilogy, will explore the will of Koreans to survive and flourish as global citizens, their enduring faith in education, and the costs of such a quest and what it may mean...
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2018 Dec 06
Lecture and Book Signing: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
After World War II, evolutionary scientists began rethinking their views on humanity’s past. What if human history was not merely a cooperative struggle against a harsh environment? What if violence and war were normal states of existence, punctuated by brief moments of peace? These are the questions Erika Lorraine Milam explores in her new book, Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America. She will discuss how anthropologists and zoologists during the Cold-War era struggled to reconcile humanity’s triumph as a species with the possibility that this...
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2018 Nov 07
Photographing Tutankhamun: How the Camera Helped Create “King Tut”
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Christina Riggs, Professor of the History of Art and Archaeology, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
When Howard Carter found the sealed entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, he secured the services of archaeological photographer Harry Burton to document the site. Over the course of ten years, Burton produced more than 3,000 glass negatives of the tomb, its contents, and the many people—including Egyptian men, women, and children—who participated in the excavation. Christina Riggs will discuss how Burton’s photography helped create “King Tut” at a...
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2018 Sep 25
Creating a King for Eternity
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Florence D. Friedman, Visiting Scholar, Department of Egyptology and Assyriology,
Brown University
...
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2018 Jun 19

Translating into Colors: Van Gogh’s Copies after Millet

6:00pm to 7:30pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Van Gogh Museum curator Nienke Bakker will explore Van Gogh’s copies after the French artist Jean-François Millet, one of which is now ... Read more about Translating into Colors: Van Gogh’s Copies after Millet

2018 Jun 11

Cambridge Open Archives

5:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 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... Read more about Cambridge Open Archives

2018 Jun 11

Cambridge Open Archives

4:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 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... Read more about Cambridge Open Archives

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