Allen C. Soong '96, who is now a member of the student Friends steering committee, says he was impressed on his first visit to the Fogg and now visits regularly.

"It was a chance for me to actually go to a museum without getting on the T and going to the [Museum of Fine Arts]," he says. "I would never have forgiven myself for not going."

The Friends, he says, offer an alternative for beginning art lovers who don't have time for a fine arts class.

"If I can't fit any fine arts electives into my schedule...as a total neophyte to art, the Friends offer a very attractive alternative," he says.

The Friends also make some contacts with student groups, Myszkowski says. For an exhibit on women and Asian art, she says, Asian-American student organizations were invited to participate in the gallery talks and other Friends events.

The Friends are a good outreach organization because the targeted membership are not art concentrators, Myszkowski says. Only a fifth of student Friends major in arts fields, she says.

"One of our goals is to really reach out to those students that might not find an opportunity to use the museums as much as the fine arts or [Visual and Environmental Studies] concentrators," she says.

CURRICULUM

Some museums also draw students with curricular exhibits that interact with classes.

For instance, Literature and Arts B-21, "The Images of Alexander the Great," emphasizes objects in the Sackler, and Literature and Arts B-39, "Michelangelo," requires students to view art in the Fogg.

Classes even draw students to the less-popular Harvard museums.

In Anthropology 159, "Museums and Representations: Exhibiting Cultures," students use not only the Peabody but also the Semitic and Sackler.

Peter S. Cahn '96 says he enjoyed looking at Peabody exhibits in several anthropology courses. For instance, he says, he had to examine the museum's hunter-gatherer display to learn about prehistoric lifestyles.

"I felt like I was a kid again," he says. "If I got there early I would just sort of poke over exhibits."

Professors also applaud museum cooperation with their classes.