Join curator Sarah Laursen for a tour of 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.
Please join us at the Harvard Art Museums for an afternoon of family-friendly activities open to all ages. Explore the museums with scavenger hunts and family conversation cards; use your eyes, mind, and imagination to engage deeply with works on view; and play with clay, wire, and shadows in the Materials Lab.
The event is free and open to the public. Sign-up for certain activities during the day, such as art-making workshops, will occur on-site and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden St., Cambridge
Join the artist and educator Evelyn Rydz for an afternoon of conversation and collective artmaking within the exhibition Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis, on view September 18–December 16, 2023.
The exhibition presents artworks that tell alternative stories of water experience in the context of climate change, while encouraging viewers to appreciate the multivalent meaning of water and their own relationship to it. Rydz has repeatedly observed the increasing impacts on natural and cultural ecosystems throughout her various field...
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)
On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Our Artificial Nature, featuring Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities core and affiliated research faculty, the GSD hosts a candid dialogue on the trajectory of design research and practice in response to environmental change.
Carson Chan, curator of the concurrent MoMA exhibition Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism, will engage GSD faculty in a conversation about past design speculations, current research, and practice futures.
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.
Online or at Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge and Peabody Museum, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
Join Stephanie Mach (Diné), Peabody Museum Curator of North American Collections and Diné (Navajo) guests for a panel conversation about the ways they each care for Navajo cultural heritage within their various areas of work and interest.
Following the panel conversation, attendees are encouraged to visit the Hall of the North American Indian at the Peabody Museum where Harvard students will be available to share information about key cultural items on display.
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.
Harvard Museum of Natural History (26 Oxford Street) and Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology (11 Divinity Avenue)
Teen Saturdays is designed for Latino high school students. Workshops delve into four fascinating traditional celebrations from Central America. Participants will embark on a journey to discover diverse festivals that shape societies in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. During each workshop, teenagers will visit exhibits, use art and language to create original works, and challenge their sense of what a tradition can be through discussion. We will learn about the historical and social contexts behind these festivities, their cultural symbolism, and the values they embody...
Join Ph.D. candidate and graduate student teacher Sarah Eisen for a closer look at a work from the exhibition Seeing in Art and Medicine, on view from September 2 to December 30, 2023. Eisen will share insights about a grave marker from ancient Greece and will encourage participants to reflect on the role of empathy across time and place.
On this tour, Arielle Frommer ’25 will explore the intersection of art and astronomy in three works: Light Prop for an Electric Stage [Light-Space Modulator] (1930), a reflective kinetic sculpture by László Moholy-Nagy, who had been a professor at the Bauhaus in Germany; Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (datable to about 1292), an iconic Buddhist sculpture from Japan; and The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train (1877), a large canvas that Claude Monet painted in Paris, soon after he began painting in the Impressionist style. An astrophysics student, Frommer will ask, “How does our...
On this tour, Emily Feng ’25 will explore how certain works of art provoke a sense of disorientation. A student of philosophy and economics, Feng will look closely at three works: Saxon Motif (1964), an oil painting made in West Germany by Georg Baselitz; Zhan Wang’s Sculpture in the Form of a Nine-Hole Scholar’s Rock, made in China in 2001; and The End of the World (1936), a painting by David Alfaro Siqueiros, which he produced in New York City.
On this tour, Hannah Gadway ’25 will explore how works of art have envisioned the past, present, and future of the United States and will highlight their place in the Harvard Art Museums’ free U.S. Citizenship Course. Offered in partnership with the St. Mark Community Education Program, and featuring special tours led by Harvard students, this course prepares aspiring citizens for the naturalization test.
The stops on the tour include Charles Willson Peale’s 1784 portrait of General George Washington awaiting the British surrender at Yorktown; Rocky Mountains, “Lander’s Peak...
On this tour, Soleil Saint-Cyr ’25 will explore urban landscapes and how interactions between public and private spaces shape people’s experiences. The stops on the tour include Four Stops (2007), a large acrylic painting by Nina Chanel Abney; a tile panel with flowers and serrated leaves (c. 1570), an architectural element from Ottoman Turkey; and Head of an Oba, a sculpture from 1525–75 that belongs to the group of “Benin Bronzes,” which were taken from Benin City as part of the British Punitive Expedition of 1897.
Join exhibition curator and Houghton librarian Molly Schwartzburg for a special guided tour of At the Limits of the Book: Bindings from the Houghton Library Collections featuring the Fall 2023 Hofer lecturer, Julia Miller. This one-hour tour will include discussion of the themes of the exhibition, highlights from the materials on display, and ample time for participant questions.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
Learn more about this joyful holiday, a national symbol of Mexico. Enjoy craft activities for the young and young at heart. Personalize a sugar skull (extra fee), learn about the natural history of Mexico, watch live folk dance and mariachi performances, purchase traditional pan de muerto, hot chocolate or specialty cocktails. Contribute your message of love to honor and celebrate the lives of the departed at the museum’s altars.
Activities are free except where noted. RSVP by October 25 at 12:00pm and check in on arrival.
Join an evening of art, fun, food, and more! Gather with friends and mingle inside the museums' Italian-inspired courtyard while taking in the smooth sounds from DJ C-Zone. Browse the museum shop and chat over a snack or drink for purchase from local vendors. And of course, wander the galleries to take in world-class art collections with over 50 galleries to explore!
Join curator Sarah Laursen for a tour of 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 curator Laura Muir for a closer look at portraits from Timm Rautert’s photographic series Germans in Uniform (1974), which are included in the exhibition Seeing in Art and Medicine, on view from September 2 to December 30, 2023. Muir will share insights about the series and encourage participants to reflect on the role uniforms play in constructing our professional identities and the way we relate to others.
On this tour, Arielle Frommer ’25 will explore the intersection of art and astronomy in three works: Light Prop for an Electric Stage [Light-Space Modulator] (1930), a reflective kinetic sculpture by László Moholy-Nagy, who had been a professor at the Bauhaus in Germany; Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (datable to about 1292), an iconic Buddhist sculpture from Japan; and The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train (1877), a large canvas that Claude Monet painted in Paris, soon after he began painting in the Impressionist style. An astrophysics student, Frommer will ask, “How does our...
On this tour, Emily Feng ’25 will explore how certain works of art provoke a sense of disorientation. A student of philosophy and economics, Feng will look closely at three works: Saxon Motif (1964), an oil painting made in West Germany by Georg Baselitz; Zhan Wang’s Sculpture in the Form of a Nine-Hole Scholar’s Rock, made in China in 2001; and The End of the World (1936), a painting by David Alfaro Siqueiros, which he produced in New York City.