Paul Tamburro ’22 will explore the tension between abstraction and figural representation in three works of art: a Cycladic figurine from the third millennium BCE; a pair of Chimú earplugs from pre-Columbian Peru; and Georg Baselitz’s 1964 painting Saxon Motif. Throughout the tour, Tamburro will discuss the...

After the successful release of Coloring Ancient Egypt in 2020, the museums are excited to preview the next in our series of activity books, Coloring German Expressionism. In this seminar, Jen Thum, Lynette Roth, and artist Hannah Herrick will discuss how they conceived the book; the challenge of selecting examples from the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s expansive holdings; and how German expressionism can be an exciting means to explore the dynamic...

In this intricate drawing, 17th-century Dutch artist Balthasar van der Ast captured the natural beauty of a “feathered cone”—the discarded shell of a sea snail indigenous to the Indo-Pacific. Join curatorial fellow Joanna Seidenstein as she explores the histories of global trade and colonization behind this work and the curatorial questions that have come up in preparation for its display.

Led by:
Joanna Seidenstein, Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Curatorial Fellow, Division of European and American...

Sinead Danagher ’22 will explore the representation of motherhood as seen in three works of art: the wood sculpture Virgin and Child in Majesty [Seat of Divine Wisdom] made in 12th-century France; the erotic Madonna lithograph made by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in Berlin in 1895; and the woodcut Widow I (1922–23) that Käthe...

Among its many disruptions, the pandemic robbed students of the opportunity to explore works of art, in person, in the Harvard Art Museums. With considerable help from colleagues and some simple technology, however, visiting lecturer and senior scholar Margaret Morgan Grasselli was able to teach her seminar Drawing Lessons from the Art Study Center and to approximate for her students the joy of experiencing artworks up close. Join her as she talks about the challenges she faced and presents favorite drawings by Michelangelo, Rubens, Watteau, and Van Gogh, among others.

Led by...

In her tour, Maeve Miller ’22 will explore how performance and entertainment figure into three works of art. She will examine the woodcut Magician (1956), which Erich Heckel made in Germany more than 40 years after the heyday of his involvement with the Expressionist art movement; the painting Ventriloquist (1952), which Jacob Lawrence made in Harlem, New York, as part of his Performance Series; and a...

Western scholarship has focused on the monumental sculptures in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Valley as Buddhas created in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. This lecture tells an alternative story based on Islamic sources from the tenth to the twentieth century, which saw these sculptures not as Buddhas but as legendary heroes representing the mythic conversion of the Bamiyan Valley to Islam. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Taliban destroyed the sculptures—as Buddhas. After the fall of the Taliban, the sculptures’ entangled histories and the viewpoints of multiple...

People tend to think of ancient sculpture as colorless, as it appears today. But the carved surfaces were often vibrantly painted. Scientific analysis can help us envision the Persian capital city Persepolis in its original splendor.

Led by:
Katherine Eremin, Patricia Cornwell Senior Conservation Scientist, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies

Susanne Ebbinghaus, George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art and Head, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art...

In this virtual lecture, curator Makeda Best will introduce our latest special exhibition, Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970, on view at the Harvard Art Museums from September 17, 2021 through January 16, 2022.

Devour the Land explores the unknown and often hidden consequences of militarism on habitats and well-being in the United States. Featuring approximately 160 photographs across 7...

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Join us for a live performance as part of The Arboretum Experience, a collaboration between the Arboretum and the American Repertory Theater. Registration is not required.

This collaboration between the A.R.T. and the Arboretum features audio plays written and performed by artists from Greater Boston and beyond, movement experiences, as well as pop-up music and dance performances, all set against the 281-acre backdrop of one of the jewels of Boston’s Emerald Necklace.

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Advance Registration Required.

Are you curious about what fossils tell us about life on Earth—and how dinosaurs and other ancient animals, in turn, awaken our imaginations to create true and imagined tales? Come along on a journey to find out! The adventure will kick off with children’s book author Elizabeth Shreeve, reading and sharing surprising secrets from her newest book, Out of the Blue: How Animals Evolved from Prehistoric Seas (Candlewick Press, 2021...

What might your life be like if you spent half your day on land and the other half in the ocean? How would you hunt for food if you were only a few inches long? Is one type of snake really all that different from another? Get the answers to these questions and more as human museum staffers Javier and Ryan introduce you to several live animals. Each month we will discuss a different theme while feeding and interacting with some of the museum’s incredible animals!

Predators come in all sizes. Imagine that you are only a few inches long. How would you get around, hunt for food,...