Harvard Art Museum Makes Plans to Renovate, Reach Out to Undergrads

Freshmen entering Harvard College this year may be the first to experience the new Harvard Art Museum—if it opens by its scheduled date in 2013. Originally meant to reopen in 2012, the Harvard Art Museum is the renamed, renovated collective of the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums. The full renovation has necessitated moving almost the entirety of their 250,000 pieces to an offsite storage facility, a change which continues to affect students and art aficionados looking to appreciate the Harvard collections. “In order to start the renovation process, the entire collection needs to be moved and the space needs to be emptied,” says Daron Manoogian, Director of Communications for the Harvard Art Museum. “The collection move is still ongoing.”

Throughout the years, additions to the original 1927 building, which includes the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums, have not been integrated well into the main structure, according to Manoogian. This current renovation is meant to create a more cohesive experience for visitors. “The new addition will be integrated seamlessly into the original building,” Manoogian says. “This way, visitors will experience the collection of all three museums [including the Sackler] in one building.”

In the meantime, students are eager to view and experience the many renowned artworks in the Harvard collection. On its end, the Harvard Art Museum has been actively working to keep its connection to undergraduate life alive. Student groups such as the Harvard Art Museum Undergraduate Connection strive to keep the college community abreast of new events occurring at the museum. In addition, the museum has appointed Kelsey McNiff as the Educator for University Audiences, and is supporting programs such as the upcoming October exhibition at the Carpenter Center titled “ACT UP New York: Activism, Art and the AIDS Crisis, 1987-1993” which is specifically targeted for students.

Besides involving undergraduate students, the museum has continued to welcome Harvard academics into its consideration. One example is the Sackler Museum, which has remained and will continue to remain open through construction. It unveiled an exhibition titled “Re-View” last fall, which compiled a variety of artworks from the greater Harvard collection and installed them on its fourth floor. Although only 600 pieces of art are on display, the fourth floor also hosts a “teaching gallery,” where classes, such as History of Art and Architecture 10, can display artwork discussed in the course. “Our main goals going forward are to reach out more to undergraduate community,” Manoogian says. “We hope to incorporate the museum more broadly into the undergraduate curriculum.”

One way this is being achieved is through the initiative of Susanne Ebbinghaus and Stephan S. Wolohojian, who are co-teaching a freshman seminar course titled “Art, Objects, and the Museum” this spring.

“We will be looking at the artworks themselves, as well as the history of looking at artwork,” says Ebbinghaus, a Lecturer in the Classics Department who specializes in Classical Art and Archaeology. “There are many different ways of looking at objects, from an art historian’s point of view to an anthropologist’s point of view, and we want the students to see the museum not as just an aesthetic place, but as something they can shape themselves.”

The course strives to allow freshmen to make a connection with the Harvard Art Museum so that they see the institution as an integral part of their time at Harvard, and, according to Ebbinghaus, not just a “dry, dusty place, but a place that is still changing.”

Actual construction on the Harvard Art Museum is scheduled to begin this fall, if the public approvals process is completed. Groups such as the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Corporation, Harvard’s version of a Board of Directors, need to approve the renovation before it begins. Despite the inconvenience that the renovation poses for most current students who will have graduated by the time the museum reopens, Manoogian believes the change is well worth it. “This renovation is so important for our long-term liability,” Manoogian says. “It may be a short-term pain, but it is for a long-term good.”

—Staff writer Marissa A. Glynias can be reached at mglynias@fas.harvard.edu.