The tranquility that usually greets visitors at Harvard Art Museums was cast aside on Sept. 11 as 1,300 undergrad and graduate students poured in for Student Late Night.
The annual event kicked off the fall semester by inviting students to spend quality time with works by artists such as Kerry James Marshall and Vincent van Gogh.
Within 15 minutes, 532 students had passed through the threshold and been greeted with stickers inspired by colors from the Forbes Pigment Collection, raffles, and Harvard Art Museums-themed goodies. Music curated by DJ Saskia (Luke Martinez ’19) drifted through the courtyard and provided a thoughtful auditory companion to one of the museums’ latest exhibitions, “Crossing Lines, Constructing Home: Displacement and Belonging in Contemporary Art.”

According to Erin Northington, assistant director of student programs and campus initiatives at the museums, the DJ was in “rare form,” dancing across the turntables like a ballerina spinning across a stage: graceful, relaxed, and unflappable. The musical choices made an electrifying background as students gathered excitedly in the courtyard, which morphed from an ideal study spot to a dance hall for the night.