The Intentional Museum

American historian Christy Coleman, Executive Director of Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, is the distinguished lecturer for the 2021 Seminar in Innovative Curatorial Practice. Coleman is renowned for creating innovative, engaging as well as inclusive museum exhibitions and programs that tell a comprehensive story of American history. In "The Intentional Museum" on Wednesday, March 24, she will discuss the power that museums have to genuinely engage with communities around what matters most to them. While expertise within the museums is invaluable, it is wasted if not used to help communities address their issues and aspirations. Advanced registration is required and will close 30 minutes before start time. This lecture is presented by Harvard Museums of Science & Culture in collaboration with the Harvard Art Museums and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, as part of the presidential initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery.

Makeda Best, Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography of Harvard Art Museums at Harvard University, and Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University, will also join this free, virtual lecture. This event will be moderated by Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute; Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School; and Professor of History at Harvard University.

Established in 2014, the Seminar in Innovative Curatorial Practice is a partnership between the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture and the Harvard Art Museums. The program engages renowned scholars whose innovative plus interdisciplinary practice challenges traditional approaches to exhibitions. These innovators share their work with the broader public through a lecture, and with Harvard students and faculty, through discussions focused on rethinking ways to integrate the university’s art, natural history, science and social science collections with the teaching and research mission of the university.