Harvard Art Museums to Join in Association of Art Museum Directors’ Celebration of Art Museum Day on May 18, 2013, with Free Admission and Membership Discount

The Harvard Art Museums announced today that it will offer free admission and a 10% discount on all new membership purchases on Saturday, May 18, 2013, as part of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ (AAMD) Art Museum Day, coinciding with International Museum Day. Last year, the Harvard Art Museums—along with more than 120 AAMD member museums across North America—participated in Art Museum Day.

In 2012, AAMD launched an initiative encouraging visitors of all ages to share their experiences of Art Museum Day through social media. Last year’s event prompted an outpouring of responses with tweets, “check-ins” via FourSquare, and other personal responses from across North America. The Harvard Art Museums invite visitors to continue the conversation this year by sharing their perspectives via social media with the hashtag #artmuseumday.

On Saturday, May 18, visitors to the Harvard Art Museums will receive free admission to the galleries at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum located at 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. Exhibitions on display include Re-View, an overview of objects drawn from the collections of the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler museums, including American, Latin American, European, Islamic, and Asian art from antiquity to the present. Visitors will also receive free admission to the special exhibition In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, a brilliant display of some 150 objects from the Persian cultural sphere, including fine ceramics, illustrated manuscripts, drawings, and lacquerware. See our exhibition listings for more detail: www.harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions.

A 10% discount will also be offered on all new membership purchases. To join, please go to the admission desk in the Sackler Museum lobby or call 617-495-4544. For more information about the many benefits of membership, visit: www.harvardartmuseums.org/members.

The galleries at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum will close at the end of regular hours on June 1, 2013, so that the Harvard Art Museums can conduct the final phases of the renovation project at 32 Quincy Street, including packing and moving collections and preparing to install the galleries in the new facility.

“Art museums bring communities together and engage people of every background in the shared exploration of human expression across time and cultures,” said Chris Anagnos, Executive Director of AAMD. “AAMD is so pleased that the Harvard Art Museums are joining us in celebrating Art Museum Day and is encouraging everyone in Cambridge and the greater Boston area to participate and share their experiences in a public forum.”

Art Museum Day emphasizes the essential role that art museums play in their communities, highlights the value of the visual arts in society, and provides new opportunities for audiences to participate in the wide-ranging programs offered by AAMD member museums. These member institutions—located across the United States, Canada, and Mexico—include regional museums as well as large international museums. International Museum Day is organized annually around the world by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). AAMD’s Art Museum Day is an opportunity to focus attention on the role of art museums in North America, as part of ICOM’s global celebration.

A comprehensive list of participating AAMD member art museums will be available on the AAMD website (www.aamd.org). Note that while AAMD’s Art Museum Day and ICOM’s International Museum Day are formally held each year on May 18, some institutions shift their celebrations to adjacent dates.

About the Harvard Art Museums
The Harvard Art Museums, among the world’s leading art institutions, comprise three museums (Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler) and four research centers (Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art, the Harvard Art Museums Archives, and the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis). The Fogg Museum is dedicated to Western art from the Middle Ages to the present; the Busch-Reisinger Museum focuses on works from central and northern Europe with a special emphasis on the art of German-speaking countries; and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum is dedicated to Asian, ancient, and Islamic and later Indian art. Together, the collections include approximately 250,000 objects in all media. The Harvard Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. Integral to Harvard University and the wider community, the museums and research centers serve as resources for students, scholars, and the public. For more than a century they have been the nation’s premier training ground for museum professionals and are renowned for their seminal role in developing the discipline of art history in this country. www.harvardartmuseums.org.

In June 2008 the building at 32 Quincy Street, formerly the home of the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums, closed for a major renovation and expansion. Since the project began, the building that currently houses the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at 485 Broadway has remained open, providing access to the collections of all three museums. In order for the Harvard Art Museums to conduct the final phases of the project, including the installation of the galleries in the new facility, the Sackler Museum’s galleries will close at the end of regular hours on June 1, 2013. Offices, classrooms, and the lecture hall at 485 Broadway will remain open for staff, faculty, and students, and programs and events will continue to be offered in the lecture hall and at a number of different campus venues. When complete in the fall of 2014, the renovated historic building on Quincy Street will unite the three museums in a single state-of-the-art facility designed by architect Renzo Piano. www.harvardartmuseums.org/renovation.