Take a stroll around Harvard Square this summer and you’ll find a multitude of activities for all ages, ranging from the Summer Pops concert in Harvard Yard and the new Degas exhibit at the Sackler to skywatching at the observatory and tours of Walden Pond hosted by the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
THEATER
The American Repertory Theatre
www.amrep.org; 617-547-8300
• Through July 10
Frogz, by Carol Tiffler and Jerry Mouawad, is an artistic vaudeville circus performed by dancers dressed as penguins, sloths, alligators, cubed heads, giant balls, and other whimsical creations. For kids and adults.
• Through July 10
Amerika or The Disappearance, by Gideon Lester, is based on the Franz Kafka novel. Directed by Dominique Serrand.
• July 15 - August 7
The Syringa Tree, written and performed by Pamela Glen, is a memoir of a childhood spent under apartheid.
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| Left to right: A Solitary Fisherman on Walden Pond, smooth as glass, by Scot Miller, from Thoreau’s Walden at the Harvard Museum of Natural History; Untitled (Boy in cowboy outfit, Lockhart, Texas), 1949, by Harry Annas (1897-1980), is part of an exhibit that opens on August 6 at the Fogg. |
| From left to right: Scot Miller; Harvard University Art Museums, © President and Fellows of Harvard College |
NATURE AND SCIENCE
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
www.cfa.harvard.edu/events.html; 617-495-7461
Star-gaze during free observatory nights, on the third Thursday of every month.
MUSIC
• August 3 at 4 p.m.
The Harvard Summer Pops Band gives a free performance in Harvard Yard, and can be heard again on August 7 at 3 p.m. at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade in Boston.
• August 5 at 8 p.m.
The Harvard Summer School Chorus performs Mozart’s C Minor Mass at Sanders Theatre. www.fas.harvard.edu/~tickets; 617-496-2222
EXHIBITIONS
Sackler Museum
www.artmuseums.harvard.edu
617-495-9400/9422
• Opening August 1
Degas at Harvard offers 62 works by the artist, shown together for the first time. The exhibit also examines attitudes toward Degas in the United States and Harvard’s role in his career (see “Mad for Degas”).
• Opening August 27
Silver and Shawls: India, Europe, and the Colonial Art Market highlights the evolution of textiles and luxury wares.
Fogg Art Museum
• Opening August 6
A New Kind of Historical Evidence. Selected works from the Carpenter Center’s 28,000 prints and negatives question the true nature of photography.
Carpenter Center for Visual Studies
www.ves.fas.harvard.edu; 617-495-3251
• Opening July 16
Girls on Film looks at about 60 images of female studio workers who posed for films in production or “test strip images.” They are “stars” who were never meant to be seen by the movie-going public.
Harvard Museum of Natural History
www.hmnh.harvard.edu; 617-495-3045
Continuing: Thoreau’s Walden: A Journey in Photographs by Scot Miller. Taken over a five-year period, the 30 images chronicle the pond as an inspiration for artists, naturalists, and citizens. On July 9 and August 2 (from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.), the museum hosts a family day-trip and tours of Walden Pond. On August 6, at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., children’s author D.B. Johnson (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg) reads from his latest book, Henry Works, at the museum.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
www.peabody.harvard.edu; 617-495-1027
Continuing: Gifts of the Great River. The exhibit features artifacts dating from 1200 to 1600 C.E. that were unearthed along the St. Francis River in Arkansas by Edwin Curtiss in the late 1800s.
FILM
The Harvard Film Archive
www.harvardfilmarchive.org; 617-495-4700
• July 1 through August 21
The archive offers an eclectic summer season of hard-to-find art-house double features, including James Whale’s Frankenstein and films by Nicholas Ray, King Vidor, Sam Shepard, and William Wyler.
LIBRARIES
Houghton Library
• Through September 2
Miniature books from the collection of Julian I. Edison ’51, M.B.A. ’53, range from Babylonian tablets created circa 2300 B.C.E. to a 5-millimeter gold plaque incised with the words of the New Testament. 617-495-2440.
Events listings also appear in the University Gazette.
