The same is not true for Harvard's non-art museums. Many students interviewed did not even know about the Museums of Cultural and Natural History located on Oxford Street.

The four museums--which include the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Mineralogical and Geological Museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Botanical Museum--are all in one building. Across the street is the Semitic Museum.

"I don't know where they are or how many of them there are," says Takchun Chung '98.

OUTREACH

Many students interviewed criticized the museums' outreach efforts. They rarely know what exhibits are showing, they say, because Harvard's museums do not poster.

The museums also do not use other traditional campus publicity forums, like advertising in student publications or on dining hall table tents.

"They cater to a small group," Krause says. "I don't see postering. You don't expect museums to poster but if they did, more would come."

Krause suggests that museums reach out to students by offering a cafe on their premises.

Director of the University Art Museums James Cuno says the art museums could conduct more outreach to students.

"It's never enough," he says of the museums' efforts. "[But] it's a good healthy amount. It assumes that students, especially Harvard students, can take their own initiative to come."

Cuno agrees that postering the campus would probably draw more students.

"It's a fair criticism," he says. "That's something we should do."

Most Harvard museums do list exhibits in the Harvard Gazette and in the Crimson weekly magazine, Fifteen Minutes. First-years also found out about the museums through the glossy brochure they received.

The art museums also offer the Friends program for students who want to maintain a connection with their activities. Nearly 600 students belong to the program this year, according to Marian A. Myszkowski, who is coordinator of student and public programs for the art museums.

Members--who must pay a $20 fee--gain access to a number of museum events, from black-tie exhibit openings to study breaks at the museums featuring talks by curators.