A Night of Farewell at the Fogg

The courtyard of the Fogg Art Museum was a bit more crowded than usual last night: 718 people gathered to bid it farewell.

“Night At The Fogg”—an event hosted by the Organization of Undergraduate Representatives of the Harvard University Art Museums (OUR HUAM)—celebrated the Fogg before its summer closing for renovations.

The courtyard was filled with food, live music, and plenty of people. Student guides led tours every 10 minutes, and the Harvard Ballet Company and the Harvard Krokodiloes held performances.

Yichen Feng ’10 said she attended this third Night At The Fogg after enjoying the previous one. “I really liked the idea of socializing in a museum,” she said.

In addition to the students inside the Fogg, over 150 students lined up along Quincy Street waiting to get in. Even an hour and a half past the opening, the line still extended to the Carpenter Center.

Lillian Yu ’11, who had waited for 40 minutes, said that she was willing to wait more. “I love the Fogg; I’m sad it’s closing,” she said.

Representatives from OUR HUAM said they hoped that the event would pique students’ interest in an under-appreciated resource.

“Lots of people had told me that they needed a ‘reason’ to come to a museum,” said Paris A. Spies-Gans ’09, the founder and former president of OUR HUAM.

“Events like Night At The Fogg provided the reason. They realized that it wasn’t an intimidating place...and they continued to come,” Spies-Gans said.

The Fogg and the attached Busch-Reisinger Museum will be closing on June 30 for the next four years. However, despite early worries about access to the Harvard collections, HUAM Coordinator of Public Education Lynne A. Stanton said that the Fogg’s closing would not have a large negative impact.

“Art works aren’t going anywhere. They are just moving across the street [to the Sackler] and will be still accessible,” Stanton said. “Rather than saying that this is closing, let’s say that it is opening.”

Stanton also noted that showing artwork from all three museums—the Sackler, Fogg, and Busch-Reisinger—in a single space could create interesting contrasts between art from different cultures.

“Imagine having Asian art placed next to Dutch painting,” she said.

After last night’s event, the Fogg may have a few more final visitors.

Ashoke R. Khanwalkar ’09 said that the event had given him an excuse to visit the Fogg for the first time.

“I heard it was closing, so I wanted to take the last opportunity,” he said. Khanwalkar added that, now that he had found out about the museum, he would probably come back again before it closes.