Academic and Public Programs

Harvard students are encouraged to sign up for our student-only email list to stay connected with the museums and to learn about upcoming student events and opportunities.

Students can also visit our calendar for dates, details, and updates about the wide variety of talks, tours, workshops, films, exhibition openings, and much more happening throughout the year.

There are many ways for students to become involved with the museums during the academic year. Current positions in the Division of Academic and Public Programs’ Student Programs are listed below. Additional opportunities in departments across the museums are posted on the Student Employment Office throughout the year and are shared with our student email list.

Student Programs

Our three formal student programs—the Ho Family Student Guide Program, Programs Assistants, and Graduate Student Teacher Program—put students at the center of museum activity and allow students to play a crucial role in serving both our campus and our community.

Ho Family Student Guide Program
Student Guides are trained to create and lead original, research-based tours of the collections for university and community audiences. Taking place in person and online, these tours offer unique, thematic views into the collections. The Student Guides also develop educational and interpretive materials for social media, including Instagram (@harvardarthappens), Facebook (@HoStudentGuides), and YouTube. Students from all concentrations are encouraged to apply; no art history, studio art, or museum experience is required. Participants have come from a wide range of concentrations, including Chemistry, Applied Mathematics, Philosophy, Government, History and Literature, AFVS, and History of Art and Architecture. Through their training, Student Guides gain knowledge of the collections and develop skills in critical thinking, visual analysis, public speaking, and leadership. This program is supported by the Ho Family Student Guide Fund.

The application process for the 2023-24 academic year has ended. Please check back in Spring/Summer 2024 for next year’s position description and application instructions.

For the Ho Family Student Guide Program:
Camran Mani
Manager of Student Programs
camran_mani@harvard.edu

Programs Assistants
Programs Assistants support the Harvard Art Museums’ robust series of lectures, artist talks, film screenings, performances, and workshops featuring the world’s leading voices on art and visual culture. Programs Assistants help with set-up and clean-up, provide customer service to program attendees, and provide light audiovisual support for various programs at the museums. Harvard undergraduate and graduate students from all concentrations are encouraged to apply. No art history or museum experience is necessary, but an enthusiasm and excitement about the visual arts and the Harvard Art Museums is preferred. A background in customer service is helpful, but not required.

The application process for the 2023-24 academic year has ended. Please check back in Spring/Summer 2024 for next year’s position description and application instructions.

For the Programs Assistants:
Jeanne Burke
Academic and Public Programs Coordinator
jeanne_burke@harvard.edu
617-496-3546

Graduate Student Teacher Program
Open to all Harvard University graduate students interested in object-based interdisciplinary teaching at the high school level, this program is offered by the Harvard Art Museums’ Division of Academic and Public Programs (DAPP) in collaboration with the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), Cambridge’s only public high school. This is a year-long teaching position that explores different approaches to gallery teaching for high school students, builds multi-visit partnerships with high school teachers, uses visual art as a tool for teaching a variety of academic subjects, and helps develop and foster a museum-going identity and museum literacy among local teens.

The application process for the 2023-24 academic year has ended. Please check back in Spring/Summer 2024 for next year’s position description and application instructions.

For the Graduate Student Teacher Program:
Jen Thum
Associate Director of Academic Engagement and Campus Partnerships and Research Curator
jennifer_thum@harvard.edu
617-495-8003

Additional Student Opportunities and Campus Engagement

We encourage all Harvard students—of all backgrounds and levels of museum experience—to consider our building and collections as a place to explore their identities, creativity, academic perspectives, and questions during their time at Harvard and beyond. In addition to the formal student programs listed above, the museums offer many other ways for graduates and undergraduates to stay engaged and involved, including research and assistant positions across our departments, the Student Print Rental Program, collaboration with student organizations and campus offices, occasional performance opportunities, and much more.

Admission to the museums is free for all visitors, and we are open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10am to 5pm. Students are warmly invited to attend all of our public programs, including lectures, gallery talks, workshops, film screenings, special events, openings, and more, and are encouraged to regularly check our public calendar for what’s coming up next. All programs are offered free of charge.

For student engagement opportunities:
Ana Barros
Manager of Campus Partnerships
ana_m_barros@harvard.edu

Student Print Rental Program
The Student Print Rental Program, a beloved part of student life at Harvard since the early 1970s, gives current Harvard undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to bring art into their living spaces and make it a part of their daily lives. For the duration of an academic year, Harvard students living in freshmen dormitories, upperclassmen Houses, and Harvard-affiliated housing can enjoy and critically study their chosen print in their dorm room. This close contact fosters an appreciation of art as students learn to care for the works, interpret their meanings, and come to understand the intrinsic power of art. You can learn more about the Student Print Rental Program through Index, the museums’ digital magazine.

All news about each year’s Student Print Rental program is shared in the Harvard Student Newsletter. Subscribe today!

Student Assistants
The museums also welcome Harvard undergraduate and graduate students to join us as research assistants, office assistants, and more. Work ranges from administrative tasks and student outreach to research projects like building digital tools, developing programs focused on accessibility, and investigating virtual reality. Opportunities in departments across the museums are posted on the Student Employment Office throughout the year and shared with our student email list. Most hiring takes place at the beginning of each semester.

Graduate Student Internships
Harvard graduate student interns from a range of disciplines provide key research support for curatorial projects, helping develop exhibitions and catalogues, gallery text, digital content, and programming. Students should consult their home departments regarding the eligibility for graduate internships.

Opportunities for the 2024-25 academic year can be found here. Applications are due by Friday, April 26.

Hosting Programs and Events at the Harvard Art Museums
We welcome undergraduate and graduate students, student groups, and campus organizations to partner with the Harvard Art Museums. Please direct questions to ana_m_barros@harvard.edu.