Materials Lab

Faculty

The Materials Lab is an environment for art making as a means of learning and knowing. Using the power of art making and close looking to model interdisciplinary inquiry and critical thinking, the lab provides unparalleled opportunities for students and faculty to take part in hands-on art making experiences that both complement and extend beyond academic boundaries. Through interaction with artists, scholars, conservators, and other experts, programs delve into how people transform materials into art and how artworks may in turn be altered over time. We welcome collaborations with faculty from across the university to co-design class visits to the Materials Lab.

Workshops developed in support of past courses include those focused on indigo dyeing for the Art of Monsoon Asia course, image transfer technologies and oil painting for the first-year seminar Changing Perspectives: The Science of Optics in the Visual Arts, and various forms of sculpture for the Exploring Contemporary Art in Early Childhood Education course.

To explore curricular possibilities with the Materials Lab, please contact:
Francesca Bewer
Research Curator for Conservation and Technical Studies Programs and Director of the Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art
francesca_bewer@harvard.edu

Students

Group Workshop Opportunities and Course Offerings
The Materials Lab works with Harvard undergraduate and graduate student groups interested in enhancing their understanding of artworks, materials, processes, and other course-related topics, through hands-on experimentation. The lab has engaged students with diverse interests in activities that have ranged from fresco painting, relief printing, and sound collage to wire sculpture and casting. The lab also offers an undergraduate course in collaboration with the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies that combines experiments in art making and an introduction to scientific research.

Graduate Student Internships
The lab offers internships to graduate students with diverse backgrounds and interests who are enthusiastic about the technical study of art, the arts and education, and the museum-as-laboratory. Interns work on Materials Lab programs developing hands-on experiments with artists’ materials and techniques, creating related presentations for public audiences, and supporting workshops. 

Candidates must be registered graduate degree students in good academic standing during the internship period. They may apply for a single semester or a full academic year. Application information is posted in the Spring for the following Fall. Inquiries are always welcome at am_dapp@harvard.edu.

SITSA

The Materials Lab is home to the Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art (SITSA), an intensive two-week workshop focused on object-based and art-technical research for Ph.D. students of art history enrolled in North American graduate programs at the time of the course. 

Please visit the SITSA page for further information.