Category: Museum Events

Harvard Art Exchange

By Kate Oksen

On Friday, November 9, student guides and staff members from the Harvard Art Museums came to the McMullen Museum to complete the second component of our exchange program. Harvard students were greeted in the atrium by Professor Nancy Netzer before heading to our first floor conference room.

Sophia Cocozza, co-chair of the Education Committee, had the opportunity to delve a little deeper into the specific roles and responsibilities of a McMullen student ambassador. The co-chairs of each of our six committees presented an overview of their main projects and goals for the semester while using visual aids to showcase components of our website, 3D-Vista tours of past exhibitions, an inside look at our database, and more.

The Harvard students were split into two groups and brought on tours of the second and third floor galleries of the museum. The tours were facilitated by members of our Education Committee, who each conducted extra research on components of Strategies of Engagement to inform Harvard’s student guides about Carrie Mae Weems herself and pieces from her vast array of work. Interacting with other student workers, conversing about the exhibition and discussing the differences and similarities of our experiences working in art museums coupled with the actual trips to these unique spaces has been such a positive endeavor for all involved. We are so happy to have had this exchange and so grateful to have had the Harvard student guides participate!

Museum Events

Harvard Art Museum Exchange

Post author By theterracebc
Post date November 5, 2018
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By Michael Kratochvil

On Friday October 19, a number of McMullen Museum Student Ambassadors made their way over to the Harvard Art Museum for a collaborative meeting with some of their student tour leaders.

Nestled in the middle of the hip and bustling city of Cambridge, the museum’s ambiguous exterior gave way to a breathtaking interior, with countless pieces of art and various artifacts from a plethora of eras.

To kick off the day, we met with some of the Harvard Art Museum’s best staff and students in a quaint and beautiful conference room, which had been brought over from New York City in thousands of pieces. After introducing ourselves, we broke off into groups, embarking on various specialized tours of some of the finest and most intriguing art in the museum.

Each group’s tour focused on a specific topic, chosen by the Harvard tour guide, and provoked extensive thought and reflection when looking at a piece from the lens of the tour’s subject. One of the tours featured Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Raphael and the Fornarina (1827), sparking conversation on such themes as love, the model’s perspective, and Raphael’s artistic commitment.

After about an hour of engaging discussion and analysis of highlighted works on tour, we were free to roam around the museum and get lost in the countless pieces of priceless artistry. The four extensive floors of art opened up the opportunity for exploration amidst galleries dedicated to Greek, Roman, Medieval, and Modern Art.

Unquestionably a student ambassador favorite, one of the galleries houses a special exhibition entitled, Animal Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes and Kings. The exhibit displays nearly 60 vessels—most made of silver, bronze, and gold—taking the form of different animals and shapes. From horns with majestical griffins to donkey head mugs, these “party animals” were the life of the museum!

The end of our exchange came around rather quickly, leaving us with an appetite for more and an incentive to return.

We look forward to hosting Harvard’s tour guides and museum staff at the McMullen on Friday, November 9.

Campus Creatives Museum Events Uncategorized

Darkroom Photography Workshop

Post author By theterracebc
Post date October 25, 2018
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By Sydney Bernal

It isn’t often that I ventured into Devlin, and even rarer that I find myself in the basement. However, if you plan on entering Boston College’s darkroom- that’s exactly where you will end up. With the makeshift negatives created in advance from digital files, we were introduced to the process of developing photos and set out to develop our own.

We entered the dark room through a chamber designed to keep the light out, and once in the room with the exception of the special lights that blanketed the room in an orange and red glow, we were in darkness. Each of us got set up at our own station, stationed between two small walls, as to not let our light bleed onto the paper of anyone else. Then, we got to work, mere seconds of light, 30 seconds in the first solution, agitate, a minute in the next, agitate, three in the last, agitate, then rinse. Now, I know magic isn’t real. But, watching my pictures appear on paper after being placed in what looks like water, after seconds of being exposed to light – feels pretty close.

It was inspiring to see the vast and varied creativity that exist within Boston College students, from the pictures of dogs, family members, places, stuffed animals, adventures, to the creative liberties that were taken in the creative process. People were creating as well as reproducing.

It felt both very strange and very romantic to develop photos by hand. I felt instantly like I had entered another world. A world that exists in movies, an analog world. A more careful, precarious world. Unlike, with digital. There was no undo. You can’t be sure of quality until after the fact, and it almost feels more special because of it.