Just follow the list

Did you have a Merry Christmas with FUN?   If not, for the next Christmas (we will soon have one again) just follow this list, written down by our advisor Eva Mai:

We started with step one at the beginning of December, omitted step 4 and finished with step 8 today.

Now we are working on a list for the New Year 2015!

https://www.newyear.in/new-year-resolutions/

List or no list: Happy New Year, peace on earth and goodwill to all!

O Tannenbaum ...

In the rotunda of the MFA, the many lights of the traditional Christmas tree are both festive and shine on the illustrious Sargent murals.  If the symbolism of the figures is not easy to interpret, there is now a book in the bookstore, part of the MFA Spotlight series, which is a comprehensive guide to the murals and their surroundings.

The image above the tree and the first one that visitors see when walking up the great staircase symbolizes the role most museums have in allegorical form:

Athena, goddess of wisdom shields Architectura, Sculptura and Pictura from god Kronos and the ravages of time.

                                  http://www.sargentmurals.bpl.org/site/sargent/01_mfa.html

One of the reasons to visit museums as often as possible, to be shielded from time.....  

Two entrances to one museum

Entering the new 'Fogg' from Quincy street across Harvard Yard, all seems the same as before the renovation and enlargement works had been done behind closed doors.

However,  inside and looking up to the glass roof one  realizes the new spaciousness. Three museum collections - the Busch-Reisinger, the Arthur M. Sackler and the Fogg - are now united and the art objects juxtaposed in the galleries.  A 'teaching machine' which will give opportunities to look and learn not just for Harvard students but for the many other students in the Boston area.  

The Fogg building has now two entrances/exits and invites students and the public to use it as a 'shortcut' from Prescott street to Harvard Yard. The museum cafe and the museum shop can be visited without a museum ticket and invite passersby to forget the 'shortcut' and stay to enjoy the interior courtyard's space.

Compared to the Quincy entrance, the Prescott entrance has no trace of familiarity but the look of a new museum we waited for for so many years. Renzo Piano, the architect had to meet loud complains
by the neighbors. Too late for them now and better for them to enter and enjoy the inside and  all the beauty there.
http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/about/mission