 |  | Looking ahead to the virtual Commencement next week, we want to offer our hearty congratulations to the Class of 2021 and give a special round of applause to graduating Student Board members Ava Hampton, Natalie Gale, Oliver York, Justin Wei, Zach Fraley, Justin Tseng, Amy Zhang, Shivani Aggarwal, Nikole Naloy, and Ho Family Student Guides Vlad Batagui, Kaitlin Hao, Sophia Mautz, and Mei Tercek. You did it!
This work by Mimi Smith represents our very best wishes for our graduates: May the next steps on your journey lead you to new heights and knotted threads remind you to stay connected to all of us cheering you on at Harvard. Congratulations, Class of 2021! |
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 | art talk live Reframing the Tianlongshan Cave Temple Fragments Tuesday, May 18
12:30-1PM ET Investigate fragments from China’s Tianlongshan cave temples and new efforts to uncover their recent history and original context. |
 | student guide tour Celebrating the Class of 2021 Wednesday, May 19
4-5PM ET Join Student Guides and Student Board members from the Class of 2021 for a special tour in their honor exploring the works that won't let them go! |
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 | lecture Vibrant Decay: Drifting among Moonlit Lotuses with Okuhara Seiko Tuesday, May 25
4-5PM ET Journey from an intricate web of tangled lines and inky blotches to a lotus pond bathed in moonlight as we explore this immersive work. |
 | art talk live Käthe Kollwitz and the South African Left Tuesday, June 1
12:30-1PM ET Discover how the artist's work circulated among South Africa’s Left and how her work came to influence an entirely new generation of lesser-known modernists. |
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| Harvard Art Museums Staff Spotlight  Meet Zak Jensen, Design Manager, and this week's guest of our Harvard Art Museums Staff Spotlight! Zak handles graphic design elements for inside needs, such as interior signage, pamphlets, and digital screens, as well as outside needs, such as marketing materials, advertisements, and books published through the Museums. Throughout all of Zak’s projects, he is responsible for establishing and maintaining the Museums’ brand guidelines and visual identity. For Zak, this requires asking, “what do our communications look like and why?” and “how do we develop a distinctive visual voice?” For the Museums specifically, Zak emphasizes how the visual identity mirrors the building’s design, with its “balance of contemporary with nods to the historic.” One of Zak’s favorite parts about his role is how he gets to “collaborate and learn” from staff all over the Museums. He specifically notes how the book production process gives him an opportunity to “dive in deeper and work closely with curators and staff to get a better understanding of the collections.” On the book production process, Zak notes that the design department “gets involved early in the conversation,” discussing aspects of the book including sizing, format, materials, and even sometimes how the content itself is organized. Those interested in a career like Zak’s should have “really strong skills in typography, branding, and visual identity, and strong understanding of book design, digital design, and environmental design.” Though the typical undergraduate graphic design route and graduate school route was helpful for adjusting his career’s trajectory, he notes “a degree is not necessary.” Zak also emphasizes that the design department is always happy to hear from students interested in graphic design -- feel free to reach out to zak_jensen@harvard.edu!
- Zak was interviewed by Zavier Chavez '23
Want to hear from more HAM staff members? Check out Season 1 of our podcast A Closer Look.
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Attention seniors! If you are currently living on campus, don't forget to check your House mailbox for a reissued set of our most popular pigment stickers. If you are not currently living on campus, we warmly welcome you to pick up your sticker sheet at the museums' Admissions window once we reopen.
Attention graduate students! The Harvard Art Museums are hiring for several positions within the Curatorial Fellowship Program. You can learn more and apply online for the Nam June Paik Curatorial Fellow, the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Curatorial Fellow in Photography, the Frederick Randolph Grace Curatorial Fellow in Ancient Art, the Emily Rauh Pulitzer Curatorial Fellow in Contemporary Drawings, and the Gregory and Maria Henderson Curatorial Fellow in East Asian Art.
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From Our Friends...
On Friday, May 21, join Cuban artist Tania Bruguera for a virtual seminar exploring art, activism, and censorship.
Celebrate AFVS graduating seniors (and our Student Board member Natalie Gale) on the presentation of their virtual show 2021 Senior Thesis Exhibition: What is Created Through Struggle.
Check out the Harvard Gazette for more ways Harvard is honoring the Class of 2021.
Congratulations to the 2021 Arts Prize Winners! Read more about the winners and their extraordinary accomplishments in the arts here.
Read all of Harvard Memorial Church's Virtual Senior Talks series of 2021, an online edition of the annual tradition, here.
Celebrate the Harvard Dance Project's 2021 season with a series of dance films, artist research, web design, and co-creative labs found in their Digital Archive. |
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Image (Header): Mimi Smith, Stairs, 1974. Knotted thread, tape measures, eyelets. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Margaret Fisher Fund, 2009.53. © 1974 Mimi Smith
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