New home will provide greater access to the collections, among the nation’s largest and most renowned, for students, faculty, scholars, and the public
The Harvard Art Museums—comprising the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum—will open their new Renzo Piano-designed facility to the public on November 16, 2014. The renovation and expansion of the museums’ landmark building at 32 Quincy Street in Cambridge will bring the three museums and their collections together under one roof for the first time, inviting students, faculty, scholars, and the public into one of the world’s great institutions for arts scholarship and research. In the Harvard Art Museums’ new home, visitors will be able to explore new research connected to the objects on display and the ideas they generate in the galleries; gain a glimpse of leading conservators at work; and in the unique Art Study Center, have hands-on experiences with a wide range of objects from the collections. To celebrate the opening, the Harvard Art Museums will host a suite of special events—engaging multiple groups, audiences, and supporters. The first of these events will be a celebration for Harvard students in keeping with the museums’ mission of teaching and research as well as their role in supporting a broad range of teaching across disciplines at Harvard. Special events for faculty, donors, museum supporters, alumni, and others will follow, culminating in a preview for Cambridge residents ahead of the public opening celebration on Sunday, November 16. “We are eagerly anticipating the opening of the new Harvard Art Museums facility,” said Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust. “Renzo Piano has designed a building that is as beautiful as the works of art it will house and as thoughtful as the people who will work and learn within it. It will expand the ways in which we use art and art-making as part of the curriculum, and it will invite our neighbors and visitors to enjoy some of the University’s unparalleled treasures.”