Harvard Art Museums Launch Index Magazine

The Harvard Art Museums announce the launch of the digital magazine Index, which provides a dynamic and interactive space for readers to discover a broad range of content and media produced by staff at the Harvard Art Museums and from arts-related venues around the world. Found at www.harvardartmuseums.org/index, the digital magazine supplements the printed edition of the magazine with new content posted each weekday. Index includes multimedia components that put viewers behind the scenes at the museums and also provides regular updates during the final stages of the museums’ renovation and expansion project in Cambridge.

Index presents a platform for discussions about visual culture and an exchange of ideas, which is at the heart of the Harvard Art Museums’ teaching and research mission. Readers are encouraged to join in the conversation through the integrated commenting tool and through social media. Readers can stay connected to the digital edition of Index through social media: like the museums’ page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/harvardartmuseums, or follow the museums on Twitter at www.twitter.com/harvartmuseums to get regular updates on recently posted articles. New articles about various aspects of the collections, activity, and history of the museums from staff, students, and others are added nearly every day to the magazine, including links to stories published by other institutions and media outlets. Articles are arranged in chronological order, from top to bottom, allowing readers to easily access new content. Tags are used, as opposed to a traditional top-level hierarchy, to create a more organic navigation. Index is also optimized with responsive web design for viewing on mobile devices.

Print editions of Index are available three times a year (spring, summer, and fall) and can be found at various locations around the Harvard University campus, including the lobby of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at 485 Broadway and the Harvard Information Center in the Holyoke Center Arcade at 1350 Massachusetts Avenue. Articles in print editions of Index serve as a lure and encourage readers to access additional, richer content in the digital magazine. Each print issue features additional content that can be accessed through the use of Layar, an augmented reality technology for mobile devices. Layar connects readers directly with online extras in just one touch via their mobile device, eliminating the need to use a search engine.

Index was designed by Creative Director Steven Waldron and Senior Graphic Designer Zak Jensen at the Harvard Art Museums and developed by Your Majesty, a creative digital agency based in New York, Amsterdam, and Stockholm. Jenny Magee Stenger is the Staff Writer. Contributing writers include Jennifer Aubin, Public Relations Manager; Antoinette Hocbo, Marketing Coordinator; and Cheryl Pappas, Copy Editor, along with other staff at the museums. Former museum Fellows and interns, as well as Harvard students, also contribute articles.

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 collection comprises Western art from the Middle Ages to the present; the Busch-Reisinger Museum is dedicated to the study of art from the German-speaking countries of central and northern Europe, and is the only one of its kind in North America; and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum collection is focused on 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 historic building at 32 Quincy Street, formerly the home of the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums, closed for a major renovation and expansion project. 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 Arthur M. Sackler Museum’s galleries at 485 Broadway closed on June 1, 2013. When complete in the fall of 2014, the project will unite our three museums in a single state-of-the-art facility designed by architect Renzo Piano. www.harvardartmuseums.org/renovation

Events and News
Programs and events continue to be offered in the lecture hall of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at 485 Broadway and at a number of other campus venues. www.harvardartmuseums.org/calendar

Keep up with what’s happening at the Harvard Art Museums as we prepare for the opening of our renovated facility in the fall of 2014 in Index, our multimedia magazine. Index is available in fall, spring, and summer print editions (find copies on campus at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum and the Holyoke Center), with weekly updates in an expanded digital version on our website. www.harvardartmuseums.org/index