Plans Revealed for Museums

In a few years, Lamont won’t be the only place where students cram for finals. Last week, the Harvard Art Museum released images of planned renovations to the Sackler, Fogg and Busch-Reisinger Museums, due to be renovated over the next five years.

Designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, the renovations will physically unite the three current museums, and will feature ample study rooms and an open courtyard conducive to working.

Plans to change the structure of the Harvard Art Museum buildings have been in the works since 2003, when current Museum director Thomas W. Lentz was appointed.

The new Harvard Art Museum complex will be able to display more of the University’s collection than before, which Museum officials hope will attract more visitors, said spokesman Daron J. Manoogian.

“Currently we are only able to display less than one percent of the collections,” he said. “We hope to create larger exhibition spaces.”

Additionally, Manoogian hopes that putting the all the art collections in close proximity to each other will attract more visitors to the lesser-frequented Sackler Museum.

“At the moment, the Sackler has one-fifth the visitors compared to the Fogg and the Busch-Reisinger because of the physical separation,” Manoogian said.

Manoogian also believes that connecting the museums will give rise to many creative opportunities.

“Now [the museums] work independently and the collections are displayed separately—the renovations will enable more collaboration,” he said.

Co-Founder of the Organization for the Undergraduate Representatives of the Harvard University Art Museums (OUR HUAM) Paris A. Spies-Gans ’09 said that she was excited about the upcoming modifications despite having initial reservations.

“I spend so much time at the Fogg that I didn’t like the idea of them changing the space,” she said. “But once I heard more about it, I realized how important it is. It will have more places that foster students being there.”

Many students said that they approved of the renovations but did not know whether or not it would increase their chances of visiting.

“I’ve only been to the museum once before,” said Yichen Shen ’10. “[The renovations] might increase my chances of going but I don’t think it would.”

Justin T. Keenan ’10 agreed, saying he is an occasional visitor, and that such modifications would not affect the frequency of his visits to the Museums.

“Theoretically, I would visit them no more than I do now,” he said. “I like the museums enough that I don’t mind the walk between them.”

–Staff writer Betsy L. Mead can be reached at emead@fas.harvard.edu.