Art and the immigrants
When she was a girl in Brazil, Angelica Silva made a regular, cherished detour on her way to school, stopping at a local museum to wonder at the treasures inside. Last week Silva, now a Harvard custodial worker, was back in a space filled with beautiful artworks. “For me, it’s amazing,” said Silva, who looked like a kid in a candy store during a recent outing to the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum. “I loved the museums since I was a little kid.” It was Silva’s first visit, but it won’t be her last. She is participating in an outreach program created by museum officials that helps immigrants to enjoy Harvard’s collections, develop their English skills, and connect to important lessons in history and democracy. “We wanted to invite people into a mainstream cultural institution that they might not seek out on their own,” said Ray Williams, the museums’ director of education, who...