Ancient fashion show kicks off Sackler Saturdays

This fall the Harvard University Art Museums will return with a fourth year of its successful Sackler Saturdays program. Families with children ages 6 to 11 are invited to explore artworks from ancient cultures and distant lands such as China, Japan, Korea, India, Greece, and Rome. The program, which is free and open to the public, is held in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum. The first Sackler Saturdays event – “Dressed to Impress: What Did Ancient People Wear?” – will be held Oct. 23.

This month’s program will give children the opportunity to learn about the clothing and accessories worn by people from ancient Greek, Roman, East Asian, Indian, and Islamic cultures. Children will have the chance to try on costumes of ancient peoples, such as Roman armor, a Chinese emperor’s robe, or a Persian turban, and make costume accessories to take home.

Activities include games, hands-on art projects, sketching, storytelling, and self-guided activities families can experience together. The program runs from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on a drop-in basis, but families are encouraged to arrive as close to 10 a.m. as possible. Always based around a cultural theme, future Sackler Saturdays events include “Fascinating Faces from Faraway Places” and “Stories in Art,” and are scheduled to take place Feb. 5 and March 12, respectively.

“The popularity of Sackler Saturdays increases every year and we continue to be pleased to provide free family programming that provides a hands-on approach to learning about art and culture,” said Lynne Stanton, coordinator of public education at the Harvard University Art Museums.

The Feb. 5 event, “Fascinating Faces from Faraway Places,” will ask children to look at human and nonhuman faces in artworks from the cultures represented in the museum’s galleries, while the program’s final installment, “Stories in Art,” to be held March 12, will give families a chance to view artworks from the collection and take in the amazing stories each individual work can tell. A professional storyteller will also be on hand to spin tales from these ancient cultures.

Admission is free, registration is not necessary, and an adult must accompany children. For further information about Sackler Saturdays, contact the Public Education Office at (617) 495-4402. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is located at 485 Broadway.