When it comes to art museums in Boston, most people likely think of the grand staircase in the MFA, or the Gardner’s verdant courtyard. A quick trip on the red line, however, will lead you to another phenomenal museum, filled with a beautiful and diverse array of works.
This June, the Harvard Art Museum announced a new admission policy – anyone can now visit for free. That means you can see works by artists like Van Gogh and Monet, to Bernini and Botticelli, to Jackson Pollock and art from fourteenth-century Japan and the Roman Empire without paying a cent!
What sets the Harvard Art Museum apart from Boston’s other museums is its commitment to public education. That’s not to say that the other museums don’t want you to learn; Harvard’s museum is just completely focused on making understanding art and history accessible for the public.
Along with being free, the museum uses informational texts, displayed next to many of its paintings, that tell the reader about the context of the piece and encourage them to think critically about it. Not only can you see Franz Marc’s Grazing Horses IV, but you can also find out about the Nazi censorship of the work. When you see Gauguin’s Poèmes Barbares, you also get the colonial context of its creation. The added information allows the person viewing the art to form a more complete impression of the piece and understand the conditions that influenced the artist’s choices.
The museum houses a collection that serves as a fantastic overview of art from different times and places. They have beautiful collections of Islamic art, contemporary art, rococo paintings, and more! The beauty of the Harvard Art museum, however, is that its collection is just big enough that you can enjoy art from almost all continents and time periods without getting museum fatigue or feeling as if you missed out on seeing everything on view. If you do need a break, though, the food at the museum cafe is delightful.
Before the pandemic, Montrose freshmen took an annual field trip to the Harvard Art museum to do a scavenger hunt and take full advantage of this amazing and educational collection. This year, the tradition is going to start up again! Whether you’re one of our lucky ninth graders or you’re simply looking for something to do with your free time, don’t forget that a visit to the Harvard Art Museum is a fantastic place to spend a day.
By Lucy DeMeo ‘24, Arts and Entertainment Editor
