With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum's living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in our Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum's phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will assist Arboretum scientists in their studies of the effects of...

With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum's living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in our Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum's phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will assist Arboretum scientists in their studies of the effects of...

Join Nomadik By Nature & The Unicorn Goddess for a Morning of Healing through Yoga & Meditation.

As a part of this year's F.U.N festival, we will gather at the Arnold Arboretum as we embody the deep message of “Remembering Your Power”. By connecting back to the Earth, Ourselves and Each Other through Movement and Meditation, We as People of Color can begin to gather the pieces we have lost for an ever Better Future, an Ever Better Boston.

Cost - FREE, Registration required through Eventbrite

Nomadik By Nature...

Our museums’ supporters are invited to discover the Harvard Art Museums collections during a special curator-led tour through select galleries, held outside the museums’ public hours.

Space is limited and registration is required. Please register here.

This event is complimentary for supporters. If you’re not yet a supporter, you can join here.

Dario Robleto is an artist and writer whose work explores the practice and philosophy of recording and the structures of intergenerational memory. In this seminar, presented in conjunction with the exhibition Winslow Homer: Eyewitness, Robleto will explore the theme of “witnessing” as it relates to auditory and material forms of war testimony. He will present his research on a rare and little-known audio recording made during a battle in Lille, France, in 1918, toward the...

In conjunction with the exhibition Winslow Homer: Eyewitness, New Orleans–based photographers Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun will discuss their decades-long, expansive documentary work that explores criminal and environmental justice, the history of slavery, and African American life and culture in the American South. They will be joined in conversation by Makeda Best, the Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums, and John Stauffer, the Sumner R...

In this seminar, Joanna S. Seidenstein, the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Curatorial Fellow in the Division of European and American Art, will explore Rembrandt’s drawings and prints, focusing on his interest in the social and psychological dynamics of viewing—and interacting with—art. 

From the beginning of his career, Rembrandt cultivated a highly sophisticated audience of collectors and fellow artists. His studio became an important space for viewing and discussing art and art making. The works he produced—from quick sketches to etchings made for wide circulation—...

In partnership with Documentary Educational Resources (DER), a center for documentary anthropology and ethnographic film based in nearby Watertown, the Harvard Art Museums present the new documentary Voices of the Rainforest, in 7.1 surround sound.

Directed and produced by acclaimed ethnomusicologist Steven Feld, Voices of the Rainforest is an experiential documentary about the ecological and aesthetic coevolution of Papua New Guinea’s Bosavi rainforest region and its inhabitants. Through sound and image, the film...

Gabriella Szalay, the Renke B. and Pamela M. Thye Curatorial Fellow in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and Tony Sigel, senior conservator of objects and sculpture in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, will trace some of the “clues” that have been left behind by the artisans who worked in the great porcelain manufactories of 18th- and 19th-century Europe. Szalay and Sigel will share how technical analysis, such as X-radiography, helped to decipher clues found in a range of porcelain works from the collections.

The seminar will take place in the Art Study...

In this seminar, Soyoung Lee, the Landon and Lavinia Clay Chief Curator at the Harvard Art Museums and a specialist in Korean art, will explore the bold aesthetics and the socio-economic circumstances that led to a new genre of ceramics created on the Korean peninsula during the 15th and 16th centuries. Known by the modern term punch’ŏng ware, these ceramics are defined by their experimental surface decoration of white-slip coating and often abstract or whimsical design. They possess an enduring appeal for the contemporary art lover.

The seminar will take...

Renowned artist Candida Höfer (b. 1944) is best known for her large-format photographs of vacant, sober, and highly detailed interiors. One of her earliest series, however, focused on “guest workers” who joined West Germany’s labor force after World War II. In this lecture, the artist will discuss the photographic series, titled Turks in Germany 1979. The work is featured in our current special exhibition Crossing Lines, Constructing...

Jen Thum, the Inga Maren Otto Curatorial Fellow in the Division of Academic and Public Programs, will give this gallery talk. 

Our 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 people and tickets...

We’re throwing open our doors: all day long, we’re offering free admission for two as part of Museum Day Live!

An annual event sponsored by Smithsonian magazine, Museum Day Live! offers visitors free access to participating museums across the country. Reserve a free ticket for two here and present it at the admissions...

Lynette Roth, head of the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, and the Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, will give this gallery talk.

Is it an experimental lighting device, the subject of New Vision films and photographs, or a motorized kinetic sculpture? The Light Prop has expanded our definition of art for 90 years. Learn more about this fascinating object and see it in operation in this gallery talk.

Our galleries are full of stories—this series of drop-in talks gives visitors a chance to hear the best ones! The talks highlight...

This workshop takes inspiration from the art of Kara Walker, whose U.S.A. Idioms will be on view at the Harvard Art Museums through October 2019. This monumental collage, made with Sumi ink on newsprint, sheds new light on the themes of race and history that Walker has explored throughout her long career, including in an extensive body of work featuring silhouettes and other forms of cut paper.

Mary Schneider Enriquez, the Houghton Associate Curator of Modern and...