In the downstairs Materials Lab (mlab), students got to create their own metal point drawings using different implements and objects on specially coated paper. Some doodled while others, such as Anna Li ’21, intently focused on their creations. Li painstakingly rendered an image of her teammate’s friend’s pet Sheba, studiously capturing the dog’s wide eyes. “[This is] a really cool thing,” says Li, looking around the packed room of students creating to their hearts’ content. “[It’s] a really nice study break for all of the students here.”

On the fifth floor was the Lightbox Gallery, “​a venue for digital experimentation” where the museums intersect with technology. The projects on this floor rotate regularly, and on Sept. 11 the gallery​ welcomed visitors to the world of Division of Digital Infrastructure and Emerging Technology (DIET). A projected display of colorful circles, each corresponding to a work of art in the museums, took up the majority of the space.

“We track everything that our curators and staff know about our collections … and then we try to make [that data] publicly available,” said Jeff Steward, director of DIET. “We’re just trying to introduce people who are science-minded to the ways in which data about collections can be used.”

Museum staff members also attended Student Late Night, and it was the first one for Soyoung Lee, the museums’ new chief curator. “I’m just really excited by the energy … I can’t thank the students enough,” she said. “I’m really inspired by their love of this place.”

Babi Oloko ’21 is a communications intern and on the student board at the Harvard Art Museums.