After a nearly 18-month closure, the Harvard Art Museums will reopen to the public Sept. 4 with limited attendance and a slate of new exhibits, according to a statement released Tuesday morning.
The museums, among the region’s largest and most important art institutions, were part of a coordinated shutdown with a group of Boston-area peers on March 12, 2020, as coronavirus fears swelled. caused mass shutdowns across North America. The other three — the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – reopened as of July 2020 (although they were again closed for a time as cases of COVID-19 were increasing last winter). But Harvard has remained closed all along, meaning people will soon be strolling through its galleries for the first time since the early days of the pandemic.
The extended closure meant that the largest exhibition ever organized by the Harvard Art Museums, “Painting Edo”, was only available for a month after its opening on February 14, 2020. The museums will reopen with a list of new exhibitions , including “States of Play: Prints from Rembrandt to Delsarte” (until January 2) and “Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970” (from September 17 to January 1). 16).
While the MFA, ICA and Gardner museums are now operating at normal capacity, the Harvard Art Museums will be limiting visitor numbers for the foreseeable future. Timed tickets are also required, even for a new “Sunday free” program.
In its statement, Harvard advised visitors to the museum to check harvardartmuseums.org for “additional health and safety measures” when planning their trips. Reservations can be made from August 20.
Murray Whyte can be reached at murray.whyte@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheMurrayWhyte.
