Virtual Reality Expedition to Ancient Israel

Location: 

Harvard Semitic Museum, 6 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

"Travel" in fifteen minutes to an archaeological site in Ashkelon, Israel to explore the first-ever excavation of a Philistine burial ground. For years archaeologists have searched for evidence of these Biblical people. Transport yourself to the center of 360° scenes of an archaeological expedition while your gallery facilitator explains what you are seeing. Borrow a device from the museum or download the virtual reality app on your smart phone and bring it to place in a 3D viewer at the museum for an immersive experience.

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Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Biomedical Analysis of Mummies and Canopic Jars

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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Judy Chicago Research Portal Launch

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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Writing Black Lives

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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Molinillos and Chocolate in Contemporary Mexico

Location: 

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.

Participants must be aged 18 and over.

Cost:...

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Lecture: Breaking the Noses on Egyptian Statues

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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Lecture: Bauhaus Bashing: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

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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Maintaining Heritage Languages in Our Communities

Location: 

Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

How can we retain the strength of our identities when our language is attacked, denied, or just lost through lack of practice and resources? How can we ensure that culturally and linguistically sustainable practices are embedded in our teaching, parenting, and social activities? Join the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology for a free panel discussion, watch short animations, view children's books, and discuss ways to support multicultural communities using these tools.

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Dark Waters: All-Night Movie Marathon

Location: 

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...

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Film Screening: Volga Volga

Location: 

CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge

Join the Davis Center for a film screening of Volga Volga. 

Volga Volga (Волга-Волга) is typical of the escapist musical comedies directed by Russian filmmaker Gregori Alexandrov. The film's star is Alexandrov's wife Lubov Orlova, here playing a physical culturalist named Strelka. The hero is Byvalov (Igor Hinsky), an itinerant musical-instrument manufacturer who dreams of forming his own orchestra.

Directed by Grigori Alexandrov (1938). Running time 108 minutes. Russian language film with English subtitles.

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Harvard Film Archive: Summer Film Series

Location: 

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.

Month of August:

• August 2: ...

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Film Screening: Carnival Night

Location: 

CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge

Join the Davis Center for a film screening of Carnival Night. 

Carnival Night (Карнавальная ночь) managed to satirize Soviet life without offending the Politburo and was a box office hit. It’s New Year’s Eve at the House of Culture and the young stage performers in charge of entertainment are ready to put on a festive performance with singing, dancing, and magic tricks. Unfortunately, Comrade Ogurtsov (Igor Ilyinsky) arrives in time to review and disapprove of the scheduled entertainment. His idea of fun is playing serious classical music and reading...

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Exhibition: Arts of War: Artistry in Weapons Across Cultures

Location: 

Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

Nearly as universal as war itself has been the inclination to decorate the weapons of war. People through time and in nearly all cultures - rich and poor, leaders and followers, foragers in the most forbidding climates on the planet, and kings of the world’s great civilizations - have painstakingly embellished their weapons. We may marvel at their splendor in startling contrast to their deadly purpose, and we may wonder why we have always felt so compelled to transform implements of war into objects of surprising beauty.

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Exhibition: Cosmic Origins

Location: 

Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

On July 20, 2019, the Harvard Museum of Natural History marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first manned mission to the Moon with the unveiling of Cosmic Origins. Visitors to this new mini-exhibit—located within the Earth & Planetary Sciences exhibition—will investigate the origins of and processes shaping planetary bodies and stars using touchable specimens, colorful visuals, and interactive media.

Through November 27, 2019, the exhibit will also feature an original lunar specimen on loan from NASA, collected during the Apollo 12 mission. Don’t miss the...

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Film Screening: Jolly Fellows

Location: 

CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge

Prolific director Grigori Alexandrov scored his first major success with Jolly Fellows (Весёлые ребята). Alexandrov's wife, Lyubov Orlova, stars as Aniuta, a servant who falls in love with musically gifted young shepherd named Kostia (Leonid Utyosov). Aniuta is laboring under the misapprehension that Kostia is a famous conductor, and he certainly isn't about to set her straight.

Alexandrov's bubbling-over ebullience and clever staging of musical numbers is a welcome relief from the dogmatic Russian propaganda pieces then in vogue. The film, one of the first Soviet...

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Summer Sundays at the Harvard Semitic Museum

Location: 

Harvard Semitic Museum, 6 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

Free, fun, family activities allow visitors to explore arts from the ancient Near East! Activities change daily: construct models of an Egyptian pyramid, inscribe clay tablets, or decode hieroglyphics.

Activities take place on the first floor of the Harvard Semitic Museum. This HMSC museum explores the rich history of cultures connected by the family of Semitic languages. Exhibitions include a full-scale replica of an ancient Israelite home, life-sized casts of famous Mesopotamian monuments, authentic mummy coffins, and tablets containing the earliest forms of writing.

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Film Series: The Complete Howard Hawks

Location: 

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. 

Month of July:

• July 5: ...

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Harvard Art Museums: Cambridge Open Archives

Location: 

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...

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Gallery Talk: Introduction to the Dark Arts—Ancient Egyptian Magic

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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Exhibition: Prince Shōtoku: The Secrets Within

Location: 

University Teaching Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

This exhibition gives visitors the rare chance to encounter a significant 13th-century Japanese icon, Prince Shōtoku at Age Two, from the inside out. Legendary prince Shōtoku Taishi (c. 574–622) is regarded as the founder of Buddhism in Japan. At two years old (one by the Western count), he was believed to have taken several steps forward, faced east, put his hands together, and praised the Buddha. A sacred relic, the eyeball of the Buddha, then appeared between his hands. The diminutive life-size sculpture—the oldest and finest of its kind—depicts that miraculous moment....

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