About
The Museum Project
This project developed through the endeavors of several courses I have taught on The Museum which have sought in part to address the history and legacies of our many museums on campus. The site also grew out of long standing concerns about how art works and visual culture more generally are too often segregated here and elsewhere in terms of exhibitions, collection and cataloguing taxonomies, display principles, and other factors that influence the ways in which we see art works around the world.
The website itself was created as a means to help organize and make available to students and others the myriad of materials that are of interest in addressing these issues both in their historic contexts and in proposing what steps might be taken in addressing some of the findings in a positive way.
Current Factors and Timing
A combination of factors from the global COVID pandemic, to grave new concerns raised by Black Lives Matter, and Harvard University's broad commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and its recent report on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery.
Recent Task Forces and Reports have sought to address these issues and include:
The Task Force on Visual Culture and Signage (Dean Gay)
The creation fo an FAS campus curator ad FAS Committee on Visual Culture and Signage.
The Initiative for Advancing Racial Justice
An FAS Process for Denaming Spaces, Programs, or. other Entities
The Harvard Legacy of Slavery Report
The Ongoing Work of Justice
Difficult, But Necessary Conversations
These efforts are critical and timely, and have followed on important earlier work seeking to address questions of museum collection segregation and display.
One such important earlier work is the 1956 Report on Visual Arts at Harvard University published by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Foreword by Nathan M. Pusey, Harvard President. "In addition to the collections housed at the Fogg, Harvard has important holdings in Germanic art (Busch-Reisinger Museum) and in prehistoric, African Negro, Oceanic, and precolonial art (Peabody Museum). The existence of these collections poses a problem: shall the Fogg Museum display merely that art which is not otherwise assigned to Harvard’s centers of defined cultural studies, or shall the Fogg in its capacity as the university’s principal art museum exhibit the best (or some of the best) of all that Harvard owns?.... Even though it is clearly impossible to draw an arbitrary line between what is significant as a work of art and what is significant as an archaeological artifact, we point out that Peabody Museum contains works of the highest aesthetic interest. Fortunately, these exist in some quantity as well. A policy of frequent borrowing by the Fogg from the Peabody should not be difficult to work out. We recommend therefore, that the Fogg Museum display a few examples of good quality borrowed from other Harvard museums from fields not represented in the Fogg collections.....We assume that steps will eventually be taken by Peabody to make these [African arts] a pleasure to see, but we urge that a small part of this collection be shared with the Fogg, which could make immediate use of it." pp.78-80. [emphasis in the original]
These issues are coupled with concerns about the legacy of ongoing museum practices, to rapid transformations in the workplace, to needs to transform education at every level, to new and emerging potentials in AI, visual display, 4D modeling, to new and better online cataloguing and display means to the the increased isolation and siloing of researchers and students make it especially important that we address the question of how Harvard's museums will grow, interact, and retool to meet the needs of the present and future.
Recent Task Forces and Reports have sought to address these issues and include:
The Task Force on Visual Culture and Signage (Dean Gay)
The creation fo an FAS campus curator ad FAS Committee on Visual Culture and Signage.
The Initiative for Advancing Racial Justice
An FAS Process for Denaming Spaces, Programs, or. other Entities
The Harvard Legacy of Slavery Report
The Ongoing Work of Justice
Difficult, But Necessary Conversations
These efforts are critical and timely, and have followed on important earlier work seeking to address questions of museum collection segregation and display.
One such important earlier work is the 1956 Report on Visual Arts at Harvard University published by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Foreword by Nathan M. Pusey, Harvard President. "In addition to the collections housed at the Fogg, Harvard has important holdings in Germanic art (Busch-Reisinger Museum) and in prehistoric, African Negro, Oceanic, and precolonial art (Peabody Museum). The existence of these collections poses a problem: shall the Fogg Museum display merely that art which is not otherwise assigned to Harvard’s centers of defined cultural studies, or shall the Fogg in its capacity as the university’s principal art museum exhibit the best (or some of the best) of all that Harvard owns?.... Even though it is clearly impossible to draw an arbitrary line between what is significant as a work of art and what is significant as an archaeological artifact, we point out that Peabody Museum contains works of the highest aesthetic interest. Fortunately, these exist in some quantity as well. A policy of frequent borrowing by the Fogg from the Peabody should not be difficult to work out. We recommend therefore, that the Fogg Museum display a few examples of good quality borrowed from other Harvard museums from fields not represented in the Fogg collections.....We assume that steps will eventually be taken by Peabody to make these [African arts] a pleasure to see, but we urge that a small part of this collection be shared with the Fogg, which could make immediate use of it." pp.78-80. [emphasis in the original]
These issues are coupled with concerns about the legacy of ongoing museum practices, to rapid transformations in the workplace, to needs to transform education at every level, to new and emerging potentials in AI, visual display, 4D modeling, to new and better online cataloguing and display means to the the increased isolation and siloing of researchers and students make it especially important that we address the question of how Harvard's museums will grow, interact, and retool to meet the needs of the present and future.
Report: Museum Legacies and Challenges
One result of this effort will be a report on the history and legacy of the Harvard Museums that in part will be organized around key periods and events that helped to shape them. While all Harvard museums will be engaged as part of this project, it is especially the collections of works made across time by humans throughout the world - art and visual culture - that will be of particular interest and concern. Most of these works are identified today within the Harvard Art Museum, the Peabody Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology, the Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Museum of Scientific Instruments, although other collections spanning the rich resources and collections of the university are also in play.
PROPOSED TIMELINE
Beginnings to 1929: Origins
1930-1959: A Period of Inspiration and Impact
1960-1989: Retrenchment
1990-2009: The Struggle to Find a Path Forward
2010-2023: Where We Go From Here.
PROPOSED TIMELINE
Beginnings to 1929: Origins
1930-1959: A Period of Inspiration and Impact
1960-1989: Retrenchment
1990-2009: The Struggle to Find a Path Forward
2010-2023: Where We Go From Here.
Reframing to Meet Core Equity Goals
Structural challenges: The Harvard Art Museums and the other Harvard museums with important visual culture collections sit in different campus tubs. The former is under the Provost (central), the latter are under the FAS Dean. While some strides have been made to bring the two in closer communication with each other, key divisions remain. These include differences in funding (amounts, sources, and potentials for fund raising), staffing numbers, exhibition opportunities and rationals, principal outside audiences (the Peabody tends to be K-6; the Art Museum tends to be adults, differentials in cataloguing systems and terms employed, There are also key differences in the geography and subjects of exhibitions and the availability of exemplary works to be seen by students, staff, and the public.
When the campus art museum does not include outstanding art works from key continents of the world (here especially Africa, Oceania, Indigenous America and Pre-Columbian America on an ongoing basis, it conveys to those who visit this museum from these regions or their descendants the view that their culture, history, art, and humanity is not of merit and does not count. They cannot be seen in (or see themselves in) the collections on view. Nor can visitors looking for the fullest museum and art experience get. to experience examples from the full range of excellent art forms on campus.
Championing and revitalizing questions of museum ethics around collections policies and exhibition strategies. We are at a moment in museum practice and politics where questions of profound moral and ethical importance are in play. Some of these issues are framed around more inclusive staffing of museums. Other issues are being addressed from the vantage of cataloguing information and museum labels. In still other cases there are concerns about bringing in more inclusive audiences and providing unique (separate) opportunities for individuals from once disparaged de-legitimated populations to view and engage with there arts. There are also critical issues around repatriation. NAGPRA is one example. The repatriation of Jewish-owned objects seized in the Holocaust is another example. The Macron decision (and follow-up Savoy and Sarr Report) on restitution of cultural heritage from sub-Saharan Africa in the context of French colonial endeavors is still another example, though surprisingly (and significantly) he left out other key areas of French colonial engagement from this endeavor, most notably South East Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia), Oceania (New Caledonia among other places), the Caribbean, Canada, and North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia), giving the appearance of a political move with both racial overtones and economic interests. Whatever the rationale the report has been met with diverse responses, even as the key. objects of engagement currently tend to be those removed from Africa during the late 19th century French and British Colonial wars (namely works of Benin and Dahomey origin). Following on the legacy of Holocaust-related art returns this focus makes sense. While questions remain as to where in these countries the works would be returned to, both have important and secure museums in place for such returns. Western countries and collections have taken different approaches in addressing this issue: some have followed the model of outright return of these works; others such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art have successfully engaged in a solution of partage, wherein the institutions provides scientific and technical support along with training and shared collection and/or exhibition agreements, in return for which the art objects remain in the host institution.
For Harvard this kind of solution appears to make the most sense, not only because of our importance in Africa (and elsewhere), but also because we have critical expertise to offer and the means for institutional support such as through the Museum Studies MA program at the Harvard Extension School. Much more could be done with the latter (see below).
Equally importantly, we now are in a position where we must address (redress) an array of other important ethical and moral issues around bringing greater equity, inclusion and diversity to our art and visual culture museums so that the visual and intellectual legacy of these areas are "seen" rather than "silenced" by the manner in which our exhibition policies are conceived and carried out.
When the campus art museum does not include outstanding art works from key continents of the world (here especially Africa, Oceania, Indigenous America and Pre-Columbian America on an ongoing basis, it conveys to those who visit this museum from these regions or their descendants the view that their culture, history, art, and humanity is not of merit and does not count. They cannot be seen in (or see themselves in) the collections on view. Nor can visitors looking for the fullest museum and art experience get. to experience examples from the full range of excellent art forms on campus.
Championing and revitalizing questions of museum ethics around collections policies and exhibition strategies. We are at a moment in museum practice and politics where questions of profound moral and ethical importance are in play. Some of these issues are framed around more inclusive staffing of museums. Other issues are being addressed from the vantage of cataloguing information and museum labels. In still other cases there are concerns about bringing in more inclusive audiences and providing unique (separate) opportunities for individuals from once disparaged de-legitimated populations to view and engage with there arts. There are also critical issues around repatriation. NAGPRA is one example. The repatriation of Jewish-owned objects seized in the Holocaust is another example. The Macron decision (and follow-up Savoy and Sarr Report) on restitution of cultural heritage from sub-Saharan Africa in the context of French colonial endeavors is still another example, though surprisingly (and significantly) he left out other key areas of French colonial engagement from this endeavor, most notably South East Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia), Oceania (New Caledonia among other places), the Caribbean, Canada, and North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia), giving the appearance of a political move with both racial overtones and economic interests. Whatever the rationale the report has been met with diverse responses, even as the key. objects of engagement currently tend to be those removed from Africa during the late 19th century French and British Colonial wars (namely works of Benin and Dahomey origin). Following on the legacy of Holocaust-related art returns this focus makes sense. While questions remain as to where in these countries the works would be returned to, both have important and secure museums in place for such returns. Western countries and collections have taken different approaches in addressing this issue: some have followed the model of outright return of these works; others such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art have successfully engaged in a solution of partage, wherein the institutions provides scientific and technical support along with training and shared collection and/or exhibition agreements, in return for which the art objects remain in the host institution.
For Harvard this kind of solution appears to make the most sense, not only because of our importance in Africa (and elsewhere), but also because we have critical expertise to offer and the means for institutional support such as through the Museum Studies MA program at the Harvard Extension School. Much more could be done with the latter (see below).
Equally importantly, we now are in a position where we must address (redress) an array of other important ethical and moral issues around bringing greater equity, inclusion and diversity to our art and visual culture museums so that the visual and intellectual legacy of these areas are "seen" rather than "silenced" by the manner in which our exhibition policies are conceived and carried out.
Proposed Changes
In 2027 The Harvard Art Museums will celebrate its centennial anniversary in 2027. The first exhibition at the then Fogg Museum included Mayan Art. It is important that the exhibitions on view at the Harvard Art Museums during the Centennial events include arts from other areas of the world that are not currently housed in the Art Museum in exhibitions that complement and makes clear that these arts of equal importance and merit to other works on view here.
The university currently does not have a committee or other entity comprising the art and visual culture museum directors: specifically, the Art Museums, the Peabody Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology, the Ancient Near Eastern Museum and the Museum of Scientific Instruments. This also could be broadened to include Dumbarton Oaks and I Tatti. To support key individual and global Harvard museum endeavors and goals as well as to facilitate the reaching of broad equity interests an overarching Harvard Director of Museums should be designated accountable to both the Dean of FAS and the Provost. Similar cross-tub leadership positions are held by the Directors of various Harvard Centers (African Studies among these).
More Inclusive expertise and voices at the table: The art museum curatorial meetings where decisions are made about museum policies, acquisitions, and exhibitions should include curators responsible for unrepresented or underrepresented art collections on Harvard campus, most importantly, African, Oceania, Indigenous America, and Pre-Columbian works, regardless of where they are situated in the university. These curators will help provide critical expertise and insight on a myriad of museum issues and decisions important in part to making the art museum more inclusive. Many faculty now have joint appointment across departments and across schools. Salaries and accountability seem to be worked out fine. The same should be true for curators and other museum staff. At the same time one of more curator from the Art Museum (the Americanist among these) should also be given a seat (and vote) at the Peabody Museum curatorial table.
Providing new funding opportunities: Many global art lovers who have long funded museums and exhibitions see their works and interests as part of a global art history rather than ethnology. They chose not to fund the latter. With a more inclusive art museum curatorial board and opportunities for occasional art museum exhibitions on the arts of their areas of expertise should come new fund-raising opportunities for these collections, by allowing the art museum to receive donations for related subject and thematic exhibition spaces and exhibits. These funds in turn could be used to support related exhibits. In key cases important to teaching and other needs new works should be acquired through donations or purchase. Regardless of where these objects are stored, or under whose curatorial expertise they now lie, they should also be given an art museum cataloguing number, as should art works that were once part of the Harvard Art Museum that were transferred to the Peabody because of their provenance.
inter-museum collaborations and exchange: 1970: this is the date most Harvard museums now accept as a base around which provenance decisions are made and is based on the UNESCO 1970 Convention. This makes sense for new acquisitions, however it may be important to allow that occasional exemptions be made for works either in collections elsewhere or where shared ownership with the country of origin might be possible. At the same time, work should be undertaken to look at contexts where particularly large collections are held that might be shared and/or returned. It may be warranted also to explore long term loans with other museums, for example the Museum of Fine Arts where joint scientific excavations were made by Harvard faculty and art works important for exhibitions here might be enhanced (Nubian art for example) providing works we may have multiple examples of to that or another museum in exchange.
Five year reviews: We may want to require a five year report and review from the Art and Peabody Museums on progress toward greater equity, diversity and inclusion globally within the public exhibition and event corpus, along with examples of shared endeavors they are undertaking and critical needs they are facing that could be alleviated together. Work such as cataloguing, conservation, or online mapping are possible examples.
A visiting committee will be set up to address the collections and display of African, Oceanic, Indigenous/Pre-Columbian Arts on campus. This committee will include a range of museum professionals, academics and funders knowledgeable and interested in these works.
The university currently does not have a committee or other entity comprising the art and visual culture museum directors: specifically, the Art Museums, the Peabody Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology, the Ancient Near Eastern Museum and the Museum of Scientific Instruments. This also could be broadened to include Dumbarton Oaks and I Tatti. To support key individual and global Harvard museum endeavors and goals as well as to facilitate the reaching of broad equity interests an overarching Harvard Director of Museums should be designated accountable to both the Dean of FAS and the Provost. Similar cross-tub leadership positions are held by the Directors of various Harvard Centers (African Studies among these).
More Inclusive expertise and voices at the table: The art museum curatorial meetings where decisions are made about museum policies, acquisitions, and exhibitions should include curators responsible for unrepresented or underrepresented art collections on Harvard campus, most importantly, African, Oceania, Indigenous America, and Pre-Columbian works, regardless of where they are situated in the university. These curators will help provide critical expertise and insight on a myriad of museum issues and decisions important in part to making the art museum more inclusive. Many faculty now have joint appointment across departments and across schools. Salaries and accountability seem to be worked out fine. The same should be true for curators and other museum staff. At the same time one of more curator from the Art Museum (the Americanist among these) should also be given a seat (and vote) at the Peabody Museum curatorial table.
Providing new funding opportunities: Many global art lovers who have long funded museums and exhibitions see their works and interests as part of a global art history rather than ethnology. They chose not to fund the latter. With a more inclusive art museum curatorial board and opportunities for occasional art museum exhibitions on the arts of their areas of expertise should come new fund-raising opportunities for these collections, by allowing the art museum to receive donations for related subject and thematic exhibition spaces and exhibits. These funds in turn could be used to support related exhibits. In key cases important to teaching and other needs new works should be acquired through donations or purchase. Regardless of where these objects are stored, or under whose curatorial expertise they now lie, they should also be given an art museum cataloguing number, as should art works that were once part of the Harvard Art Museum that were transferred to the Peabody because of their provenance.
inter-museum collaborations and exchange: 1970: this is the date most Harvard museums now accept as a base around which provenance decisions are made and is based on the UNESCO 1970 Convention. This makes sense for new acquisitions, however it may be important to allow that occasional exemptions be made for works either in collections elsewhere or where shared ownership with the country of origin might be possible. At the same time, work should be undertaken to look at contexts where particularly large collections are held that might be shared and/or returned. It may be warranted also to explore long term loans with other museums, for example the Museum of Fine Arts where joint scientific excavations were made by Harvard faculty and art works important for exhibitions here might be enhanced (Nubian art for example) providing works we may have multiple examples of to that or another museum in exchange.
Five year reviews: We may want to require a five year report and review from the Art and Peabody Museums on progress toward greater equity, diversity and inclusion globally within the public exhibition and event corpus, along with examples of shared endeavors they are undertaking and critical needs they are facing that could be alleviated together. Work such as cataloguing, conservation, or online mapping are possible examples.
A visiting committee will be set up to address the collections and display of African, Oceanic, Indigenous/Pre-Columbian Arts on campus. This committee will include a range of museum professionals, academics and funders knowledgeable and interested in these works.
The Global Museum and Learning Center
New Opportunities in a Shared Space
keLandscape designs often include both hard and soft interventions, the former involving interventions such as structures and the latter including plants and various living forms. This project too will seek to address both hard and soft features that together impact museums and exhibitions. The first, the hard components (in both real and metaphoric terms) comprise the structural components of the museum (buildings, exhibition spaces, storage, labs, offices and other elements related to the more permanent edifice of the museum). Soft. components on the other hand comprise principally the online-accessible imagery, records and other materials that are not a priori fixed in location and can therefore be cogently re-deployed and re-engaged in a virtual museums space accessible to both the community of Harvard itself and to the outside world and in multiple languages.
In addition to adding critical new diversity and inclusion to our principal arts and visual museums museums center is needed to achieve key goals and to offer new (additional) opportunities to address these collections. To do this most effectively we need a new center, ideally in Allston, one that will provide critical new opportunities for learning and exploring for Harvard students and staff as well as for the public at large. This center would bring together cross-disciplinary and cross-school vantages on our collections through several shared exploration (learning) features and exhibition spaces.
Ideally it would include:
Some shared open storage for the four main art and visual culture collections (Art Museum, Peabody, Near Eastern and Scientific Instruments - along with perhaps other campus museums in need. Since all these museums face critical storage shortages and issues, perhaps the university could acquire space further away for a shared storage area (in New Hampshire or elsewhere) and this space could also serve and an interim and/or transfer space for works going back and forth or objects needing conservation or of interest for further study.
As part of this center would be a shared conservation lab (for all the art and visual culture museums) with some of the work area open so that one can follow the work in process.
As part of this center would also be an art-science lab where projects involving related questions and materials can be studied by faculty and students with the aid of Harvard scientists (regardless of where the objects may be on loan from). Subjects might include: the analysis of metal contents, mapping the DNA of African silk; using sonograms to "see" inside Chinese sculptures; creating building models from sugar, experiments involving edible arts, experiments around the environment (newer building materials).
As part of this space would be a "doing" or "making" lab where students, faculty, and the public could learn key art and related processes (print making, bronze casting, glazing, dome making, model making, gis mapping, textile dying) in short 2-3 week periods. Possibly these classes could take place on weekends over a 6 hour period. Three such classes might could as a full course for requirement purposes. Special classes could also be set up to meet specific needs.
As part of this space could also be a student-staff center - including places for eating or conversing with students or faculty. This also could include an array of meeting rooms that affiliated faculty could schedule for informal meetings (along the model of the former We Works). These would also be set up with the means to display imagery on a screen for small groups of 5-10 collaborators.
Food served could be made collaboratively by groups of community members.
A group of affiliated faculty from various schools and disciplines would serve as a governance group.
As part of this center there also would be ongoing multi-media cross-disciplinary global exhibitions curated by teams of faculty, students and staff (see below).
In addition to adding critical new diversity and inclusion to our principal arts and visual museums museums center is needed to achieve key goals and to offer new (additional) opportunities to address these collections. To do this most effectively we need a new center, ideally in Allston, one that will provide critical new opportunities for learning and exploring for Harvard students and staff as well as for the public at large. This center would bring together cross-disciplinary and cross-school vantages on our collections through several shared exploration (learning) features and exhibition spaces.
Ideally it would include:
Some shared open storage for the four main art and visual culture collections (Art Museum, Peabody, Near Eastern and Scientific Instruments - along with perhaps other campus museums in need. Since all these museums face critical storage shortages and issues, perhaps the university could acquire space further away for a shared storage area (in New Hampshire or elsewhere) and this space could also serve and an interim and/or transfer space for works going back and forth or objects needing conservation or of interest for further study.
As part of this center would be a shared conservation lab (for all the art and visual culture museums) with some of the work area open so that one can follow the work in process.
As part of this center would also be an art-science lab where projects involving related questions and materials can be studied by faculty and students with the aid of Harvard scientists (regardless of where the objects may be on loan from). Subjects might include: the analysis of metal contents, mapping the DNA of African silk; using sonograms to "see" inside Chinese sculptures; creating building models from sugar, experiments involving edible arts, experiments around the environment (newer building materials).
As part of this space would be a "doing" or "making" lab where students, faculty, and the public could learn key art and related processes (print making, bronze casting, glazing, dome making, model making, gis mapping, textile dying) in short 2-3 week periods. Possibly these classes could take place on weekends over a 6 hour period. Three such classes might could as a full course for requirement purposes. Special classes could also be set up to meet specific needs.
As part of this space could also be a student-staff center - including places for eating or conversing with students or faculty. This also could include an array of meeting rooms that affiliated faculty could schedule for informal meetings (along the model of the former We Works). These would also be set up with the means to display imagery on a screen for small groups of 5-10 collaborators.
Food served could be made collaboratively by groups of community members.
A group of affiliated faculty from various schools and disciplines would serve as a governance group.
As part of this center there also would be ongoing multi-media cross-disciplinary global exhibitions curated by teams of faculty, students and staff (see below).
Cross-disciplinary Global Exhibitions
With over 6 million objects in Harvard's diverse collections (see below), we have huge opportunities to refashion the concept of museum anew in both "hard" (physical space) and "soft" (online) contexts, and in ways that are truly cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, trans-historical, and multi-sensory.
Every two years an exhibition on a global theme would be created for this space (or another on campus). The creation of this exhibition would be the undertaking of a team of faculty, students and staff who come together to address a particular theme using the diverse collections that we have, and making available an array of multi-sensory materials (art objects, film, music, contexts for tasting and touching).
Each exhibit would focus on a different cross-disciplinary global topic, among the possibilities are the following: flight, time, travel, the earth, water, color, seasons, animals, space, imagination, innovation, interiors, philosophy, the ages.
This would be both physical exhibition (in a special exhibition space on campus) and a virtual exhibition (accessible outside the community). As part of this exhibition creation and design work, the selected team would also designate 3-4 other institutions around the world to work with collaboratively in creating their own exhibition on the same topic (theme), working with the Harvard team in addressing the ways in which local vantages help to shape and understand the issues in play. As part of this project, a physical and on-line catalogue would be created comprised of c.250 word overviews of each included object and an array of framing essays. These would be undertaken by Harvard exhibition team (students, staff and faculty) collaboratively with the teams from the other selected global areas. There would be modest funding available to commission new art works around the designated theme as well.
A key piece of the exhibition will be aspects of online and physical mapping indicating where, for example, an object is from, its owner resided, or where it is today.
The exhibition will be up on view for two years where it would be the subject of different courses across the schools and divisions taught by individual and cross-disciplinary teaching pairs. Simultaneously, as this is happening, a new global cross-disciplinary exhibition theme would be under preparation by a different team of faculty, students, and staff. The existing exhibition would be taken down and the new one mounted during the summer.
Key institutional needs for this:
Space: This ideally would be a front-facing part of a new Harvard Global Museum Center (in Allston?) or it could be on the Cambridge campus for example in the ground floor of the Sackler (485 Broadway) or the ground floor/lower level of the Carpenter Center - both would be dependent on availability.
In addition we need a Harvard cross-school/institution on-line catalog system for all the core art and visual culture museums which share the same terminologies, search means, image access, and a space to create different groupings of images and multi-media forms (including film and music. It is important that all the museums and libraries participate in this new cataloguing system. If additional help is needed (either for cataloguing or photographing works or for crowd sourcing correct collection information) this should be provided.
Students from around the world participating in these projects - either as part of a given yearly theme or vis-a-vis other programs at the center could also be provided internal funds for a certificate or degree in the Museum Studies program at the Extension School. Conceivably the courses that are taught around the yearly themes could also be taught in the Extension School and/or through Harvard-X.
Benefits of this approach: This model brings together faculty, students, and staff in a project with clear cut goals and ends; it nudges participants and later viewers outside of narrow disciplinary and other boundaries. The online component of the exhibition will allow for inevitable corrections or alternative views. This model also opens up Harvard's collections for use by others not only who visit the area on a regular basis, but also people living in other parts of the world. In many ways this is a model for the museum that speaks to and anticipates a new century of museum practice and experience.
Every two years an exhibition on a global theme would be created for this space (or another on campus). The creation of this exhibition would be the undertaking of a team of faculty, students and staff who come together to address a particular theme using the diverse collections that we have, and making available an array of multi-sensory materials (art objects, film, music, contexts for tasting and touching).
Each exhibit would focus on a different cross-disciplinary global topic, among the possibilities are the following: flight, time, travel, the earth, water, color, seasons, animals, space, imagination, innovation, interiors, philosophy, the ages.
This would be both physical exhibition (in a special exhibition space on campus) and a virtual exhibition (accessible outside the community). As part of this exhibition creation and design work, the selected team would also designate 3-4 other institutions around the world to work with collaboratively in creating their own exhibition on the same topic (theme), working with the Harvard team in addressing the ways in which local vantages help to shape and understand the issues in play. As part of this project, a physical and on-line catalogue would be created comprised of c.250 word overviews of each included object and an array of framing essays. These would be undertaken by Harvard exhibition team (students, staff and faculty) collaboratively with the teams from the other selected global areas. There would be modest funding available to commission new art works around the designated theme as well.
A key piece of the exhibition will be aspects of online and physical mapping indicating where, for example, an object is from, its owner resided, or where it is today.
The exhibition will be up on view for two years where it would be the subject of different courses across the schools and divisions taught by individual and cross-disciplinary teaching pairs. Simultaneously, as this is happening, a new global cross-disciplinary exhibition theme would be under preparation by a different team of faculty, students, and staff. The existing exhibition would be taken down and the new one mounted during the summer.
Key institutional needs for this:
Space: This ideally would be a front-facing part of a new Harvard Global Museum Center (in Allston?) or it could be on the Cambridge campus for example in the ground floor of the Sackler (485 Broadway) or the ground floor/lower level of the Carpenter Center - both would be dependent on availability.
In addition we need a Harvard cross-school/institution on-line catalog system for all the core art and visual culture museums which share the same terminologies, search means, image access, and a space to create different groupings of images and multi-media forms (including film and music. It is important that all the museums and libraries participate in this new cataloguing system. If additional help is needed (either for cataloguing or photographing works or for crowd sourcing correct collection information) this should be provided.
Students from around the world participating in these projects - either as part of a given yearly theme or vis-a-vis other programs at the center could also be provided internal funds for a certificate or degree in the Museum Studies program at the Extension School. Conceivably the courses that are taught around the yearly themes could also be taught in the Extension School and/or through Harvard-X.
Benefits of this approach: This model brings together faculty, students, and staff in a project with clear cut goals and ends; it nudges participants and later viewers outside of narrow disciplinary and other boundaries. The online component of the exhibition will allow for inevitable corrections or alternative views. This model also opens up Harvard's collections for use by others not only who visit the area on a regular basis, but also people living in other parts of the world. In many ways this is a model for the museum that speaks to and anticipates a new century of museum practice and experience.
The Harvard Collections
Taken together, Harvard has over 6 million objects across its myriad collections, including:
-The Art Museums (250,000 objects)
-Peabody Museum of Ethnology & Archaeology (1.2 million objects: 103,272 = ethnographic; 370,797 = archaeological
-The Ancient Near East Museum (40,000 objects)
-The Museum of Scientific Instruments (over 20,000 objects)
-The Museum of Natural History (over 100,000 specimens)
-The Cooper Gallery
-The Hiphop Archive
-The Image of the Black in Western Art Archive
-Dumbarton Oaks (DC - 1200 objects)
-I Tatti (Florence - 235 objects)
-Herbaria Collection - over 5 million specimens
-The Map Collection - 400,000 maps, 6,000 atlases, 5,000 books
-The Theatre Collection
-Houghton Library (Rare Books and Manuscripts)
-Radcliffe: The Schlesinger Library
-The Business School: Baker Library Historical Collections
-The Environmental Collections: Environmental Science and Public Policy Collections
-Medical School: Warren Anatomical Collection
-Countway Library of Medicine & Center for the History of Medicine
-Loeb Music Library
-Fine Arts Library
-Francis Loeb Library (Graduate School of Design)
-Harvard Film Archive
-The Art Museums (250,000 objects)
-Peabody Museum of Ethnology & Archaeology (1.2 million objects: 103,272 = ethnographic; 370,797 = archaeological
-The Ancient Near East Museum (40,000 objects)
-The Museum of Scientific Instruments (over 20,000 objects)
-The Museum of Natural History (over 100,000 specimens)
-The Cooper Gallery
-The Hiphop Archive
-The Image of the Black in Western Art Archive
-Dumbarton Oaks (DC - 1200 objects)
-I Tatti (Florence - 235 objects)
-Herbaria Collection - over 5 million specimens
-The Map Collection - 400,000 maps, 6,000 atlases, 5,000 books
-The Theatre Collection
-Houghton Library (Rare Books and Manuscripts)
-Radcliffe: The Schlesinger Library
-The Business School: Baker Library Historical Collections
-The Environmental Collections: Environmental Science and Public Policy Collections
-Medical School: Warren Anatomical Collection
-Countway Library of Medicine & Center for the History of Medicine
-Loeb Music Library
-Fine Arts Library
-Francis Loeb Library (Graduate School of Design)
-Harvard Film Archive
Organizing Principles of the website
General Project Overview
:Overview of questions and proposal for change.
Overview of Harvard Museum and Library Collections.
Harvard Race, Diversity, and Inclusion Issues Around our University Culture and our Arts
Documents Critical to the History of Harvard and Other Museums
Links to pages of various Harvard Museum and Library Collections as well as Other Sites.
Addresses Two Harvard Exhibition Projects being Explored
Periodic Posts on Issues Germane to this Topic.
:Overview of questions and proposal for change.
Overview of Harvard Museum and Library Collections.
Harvard Race, Diversity, and Inclusion Issues Around our University Culture and our Arts
Documents Critical to the History of Harvard and Other Museums
Links to pages of various Harvard Museum and Library Collections as well as Other Sites.
Addresses Two Harvard Exhibition Projects being Explored
Periodic Posts on Issues Germane to this Topic.