 |  | Now on view, Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade takes a deep dive into the links between the opium trade and the Chinese art market between the 18th and 20th centuries. This multifaceted exhibition also considers the part opium played in the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States; turns a critical lens on the role Boston-area collectors played in the opium trade; and traces connections to today’s opioid crisis.
In this video, curator Sarah Laursen introduces the exhibition and reflects on how much she learned about the history of the museums’ collecting practices—and how to move forward.
Plan your visit today to see this fascinating, thought-provoking exhibition. |
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 | Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade is now on view through January 14, 2024. In our calendar, you’ll find several related programs that address how the commodities of opium and Chinese art had profound effects on the global economy, cultural landscape, and education—and in the case of opium, on public health and immigration—that still reverberate today. |
 | Join us this Saturday, September 16 to take part in a workshop designed to challenge participants’ ideas about addiction through a drama therapy model. Led by drama therapists Ana Bess Moyer Bell and Amy Lazier of the artist collective 2nd Act.
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 | Check out this newly published article in Index magazine to learn about the intriguing figure of Nydia, a sculpture representing a heroine from a 19th-century novel. Conservation fellow Adrienne Gendron recently treated the sculpture, and she shares the thoughtful considerations behind her conservation approach. You can visit Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii on Level 2! |
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 | On Sunday, September 24, we invite you to a discussion about the current opioid crisis, featuring specialists in addiction medicine, harm reduction, and public health policy. Admission is free, but seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. |
 | Join us for a guided tour of the exhibition Seeing in Art and Medicine, on Saturday, September 23, with curators Jen Thum and Laura Muir. They will offer insights about the museums’ medical humanities program for radiologists—on which the exhibition is based—the curatorial process, and what can be gleaned through close looking. |
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Images: September At Night: Photo: Caitlin Cunningham Photography. A Look Within: Rosemarie Trockel, German, Shutter (c), 2006. Stoneware with red glaze. Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Purchase through the generosity of Wilhelm Winterstein, 2006.236. © Rosemarie Trockel/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Support for Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade is provided by the Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund; the Robert H. Ellsworth Bequest to the Harvard Art Museums; the Harvard Art Museums’ Leopold (Harvard M.B.A. ’64) and Jane Swergold Asian Art Exhibitions and Publications Fund and an additional gift from Leopold and Jane Swergold; the José Soriano Fund; the Anthony and Celeste Meier Exhibitions Fund; the Gurel Student Exhibition Fund; the Asian Art Discretionary Fund; the Chinese Art Discretionary Fund; and the Rabb Family Exhibitions Fund. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. Additional support for this project is provided by the Dunhuang Foundation.
Support for Seeing in Art and Medicine is provided by the José Soriano Fund, the Gurel Student Exhibition Fund, and the Annemarie Henle Pope Special Exhibitions Fund. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund and the Richard L. Menschel Endowment Fund.
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