This week at the Harvard Art Museums is packed with special events related to our newest exhibition, Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment. And this weekend, admission to the museums is free! On Thursday evening, you can catch a free introduction to the exhibition; explore the exhibition on Saturday, enjoying free admission thanks to a sponsorship from Smithsonian magazine for Museum Day; or stop by on Sunday, a day that’s always free for everyone.  

Check out our calendar to see what else is in store this month at the Harvard Art Museums!

Sneak Peek

Get a special preview of Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment by attending the opening lecture on Thursday, September 15. Curators Elizabeth M. Rudy and Kristel Smentek, along with several contributors to the exhibition catalogue, will present a series of brief presentations and discuss all things Dare to Know. Attendees will have a chance to visit the exhibition after the event. Register for your spot today!

Opening Day

If you can’t attend the introductory lecture for Dare to Know on September 15, spend the day at the museums on the exhibition’s official opening day, September 16. Come out to see how the graphic arts inspired, shaped, and gave immediacy to new ideas in the Enlightenment era, encouraging individuals to follow their own reason when seeking to know more.

Courtyard Concert

Join us Friday afternoon in the Calderwood Courtyard for a free jazz performance hosted by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA). Yosvany Terry, Alicia Hall Moran, and other talented performers will present Atlantic Connections, a performance inspired by poets from the African diaspora including Maya Angelou, Salgado Maranhão, and Sylvie Kandé.

Free Admission Weekend

This Saturday and Sunday, admission to the Harvard Art Museums is free! On Saturday, we’re offering two complimentary tickets as part of Museum Day, an annual event sponsored by Smithsonian magazine. Be sure to reserve a ticket for you and a friend so you both can experience three floors of unforgettable art. And because Sundays are always free for everyone, you have a whole weekend to explore the museums!

Images: (Header) Louis Carrogis de Carmontelle, French, Figures Walking in a Parkland (detail), 1783–1800. Transparent and opaque watercolor with traces of black chalk underdrawing on translucent Whatman paper. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 96.GC.20, TL42418.3. Sneak Peek: John Russell, British, Lunar Planisphere, Hypothetical Oblique Light, 1806. Stipple and line engraving on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B2016.39.2, TL42412.2. Opening Day: Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty, French, Muscles of the Back, Plate 14 from Myologie complette en couleur et grandeur naturelle (Complete Scientific Study of Muscles in Color and Life-Size), by Joseph Guichard Duverney (Paris: Gautier, 1746). Color mezzotint. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the SmithKline Beckman Corporation Fund, 1968, 1968-25-79n, TL42415.2. Image: Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Joseph Hu. Courtyard Concert: Alicia Hall Moran (Photo: Thais Aquino) and Yosvany Terry (Photo: Nicola Dracoulis).