Lily Simonson: Painting the Deep presents six original mural-sized paintings that literally glow with luminescent pigments and together create an immersive visual experience where light and color materialize out of a sea of darkness, giving form to a hidden alien universe. Through her extraordinary art, Simonson envelops us in this astonishing world, invites us to share in the excitement of exploration and discovery, and challenges our preconceptions of what it is to be alive. On view at the Harvard Museum of Natural HIstory until March 1, 2020.

The Harvard Semitic Museum is reimagining its grand third-floor atrium gallery, featuring the arts of ancient Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). This first installment showcases newly fabricated casts from the ancient scenes that once adorned Mesopotamian palace walls. Meticulously created by museum curators and Harvard students, these relief sculptures show how the ancient kings commemorated their military triumphs and civic achievements. On view at the Harvard Semitic Museum.

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology will celebrate its 150th anniversary year by opening All the World Is Here: Harvard’s Peabody Museum and the Invention of American Anthropology. Unveiled within a beautifully restored 4th floor gallery, this new exhibition will feature an astonishing array of over 600 objects from Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, many on display for the very first time. Together they will be woven into a compelling narrative tracing the early history of the museum’s collections and the birth of American anthropology as envisioned and shaped by the museum’s second director Frederic W. Putnam. On view at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology.