(Left) Jess T. Dugan, Tom, Director (detail), 2008, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum; (Right) Harvard Art Museums renovation and expansion project.
Commencement is fast approaching, and as always, it reminds us of new possibilities. This feeling is especially acute for us this spring, because when the fanfare of graduation dies down, the Harvard Art Museums will be busier than ever as we enter the final phase of construction and renovation of our historic facility at 32 Quincy Street, where the collections of our three constituent museums—the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler—will at long last be housed under one roof.
This also means that we are entering the final planning stages for the robust educational programs that will take place in the Harvard Art Museums when we reopen in fall 2014. Leading the Art Museums’ mission to teach with our collections is the Division of Academic and Public Programs (DAPP). There is a constant buzz of activity in the DAPP office, as they are training student guides who will lead visitors through our facility, working with curators to generate interpretive materials, and connecting the Art Museums’ rich resources—our collections and staff—to a diverse range of academic courses on campus, from applied mathematics to Persian literature.
This time of year also reminds us of change. In order to prepare for the museums’ reopening, at the end of regular hours on June 1 we will close the galleries in the Arthur M. Sackler building at 485 Broadway. The Sackler lecture hall, classrooms, administrative offices, and the Fine Arts Library’s Digital Images and Slide Collection will remain open to faculty, students, and staff.
Meanwhile, we have a number of ways for you to stay involved with the Harvard Art Museums. Our magazine, Index, will soon be available in an expanded digital format on this website. Index will give you daily behind-the-scenes access to the Art Museums. This summer, we look forward to seeing you at member programs in Cambridge, western Massachusetts, and Maine. We will continue offering our regular series of lectures, ArtistTalks, recitals, and workshops at the Sackler lecture hall and at a number of different campus venues. Our extensive publications, including a free sourcebook for students and teachers called Engaging New Americans: Preparing for US Citizenship with the Harvard Art Museums, recently published thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
We hope that you make it to the galleries at the Sackler Museum before and during Commencement, and that while you’re there, you take a look at the progress we’re making across the street. We believe you’ll be excited by the new beginnings that are on the horizon for the Harvard Art Museums.
Thomas W. Lentz
Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director