Things to Do
Your comprehensive guide to the best events and things to do in Boston
Where to see art in Boston
Museum of Fine Arts
Since its founding in 1870, the Museum of Fine Arts has dominated Boston’s cultural landscape, even growing in size and scope. This century, like at many other museums, curators have updated how museum-goers may interact and appreciate its artworks. That might include a time-jumping exhibit that pairs a contemporary work with a correlating old master, either linked by a theme or influence. Permanent collections include works from Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas. The MFA has one of the largest collections of impressionist painter Claude Monet’s work outside of France. Its Native American collections are impressive. The MFA’s curators do not distinguish between artifact and artwork: all are considered an artwork. While Paul Revere’s Liberty Bowl points to local history, the oldest artwork in the MFA’s collection is a Syrian vase (6400 BC), carved from gypsum and depicting a crouching rabbit.
Institute of Contemporary Art
There’s no doubting the ICA building is a work of art in itself: the eye-catching cantilevered, modernist structure sits adjacent to the Boston Harbor. (Across the water in East Boston, the ICA Watershed is a seasonal satellite gallery, open spring through summer.) The main building’s dynamic interior has window walls looking onto the water, creating a brilliant light and contrasting natural backdrop for the exhibits by new and the greatest modern artists, working in traditional, alternative, and new mediums, such as digital and video. Barriers between artistic disciplines are broken down in exhibits that merge visual art with other forms, including, say, sound or choreography. Also, social and gender barriers are eclipsed: the ICA’s permanent collection includes philanthropist Barbara Lee’s collection of 20th and 21st-century art by major female artists.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Whether by accident or design, Boston’s prettiest museum celebrates nature as art with seasonally changing floral displays in its charming interior courtyard. The wealthy and privileged Gardner and her husband built what was their house in the romantic style of a 15th century Venetian palazzo and filled it with art collected on their travels. The impressive works that make up the museum’s permanent collection includes European, Asian, and Islamic art dating from classical times to the turn of the 20th century. But the Gardner also embraces contemporary mores: its newer wing extends the gallery space for exhibits and events, and the Gardner’s artworks are often presented in new dynamic ways, adding, say, performance installations and even a bespoke opera.
Harvard Art Museums
There are three buildings that form the Harvard Art Museums, and each houses a different collection: The Fogg Museum is the oldest of the three and opened to the public in 1896, but was rebuilt circa 1925 in a Federal Revival style. It is also the largest, and houses Western art from the Middle Ages to contemporary works; the Busch-Reisinger Museum was founded in 1901 and is the only such museum in North America to focus solely on works from Germany and Northern Europe. It includes around 30,000 objects related to the Bauhaus; and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, which opened in 1985, displaying Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and a significant collection of Asian art. All three buildings are united by a glass roof, which allows visitors to wander the total collection of some 250,000 pieces, ranging from Neolithic to 21st century pieces.
More things to do in Boston
Time Out shop
North End Pizza Tour
Treat yourself to some of the best pizza in Boston on this walking food tour
Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum
Step back in time to discover how the Boston Tea Party shaped our nation's history
Art Lab For Beginners
Created for total beginners this class starts with basics of composition, color theory and art history
