MFA videos about the art and exhibitions you love are now available as free rentals, only for members. Enjoy this new member benefit periodically throughout the year to get behind-the-scenes access and hear from curators, artists, and more.
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You must be logged in to your member account in order to reserve your free videos. Once a video is reserved, you have two weeks to watch it on the Video Content page.
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Video Rental
Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence
Spend an hour with Sarah Thompson, curator, Japanese Art, and Kendall DeBoer, assistant curator, Contemporary Art, to hear about the creation of “Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence,” a major exhibition that explores Katsushika Hokusai’s impact on artists across time and around the world. The curators dive into responses to Hokusai’s work throughout history—from his contemporaries and the 19th-century French Japonistes to contemporary artists.
This video is available for a one-time 14-day rental per member through February 29, 2024.
Video Rental
Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina
Enjoy this 40-minute video to engage deeply with the exhibition “Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina,” which brings together ceramic objects from Old Edgefield, a center of stoneware production in the decades before the Civil War, with work by contemporary artists. Join Ethan Lasser, John Moors Cabot Chair, Art of the Americas, about the collaborative process behind this landmark exhibition and contemporary artistic responses.
This video is available for a one-time 14-day rental per member through February 29, 2024.
Video Rental
Touching Roots: Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas
“Touching Roots: Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas” traces narratives of Blackness across the Atlantic world by bringing together work from artists who absorbed and reinterpreted African artistic practices, sacred customs, and cultural expressions. In this hourlong discussion, hear from curator Martina Tanga and professor Reiland Rabaka as they reflect on topics in the exhibition by looking at work by various artists, writers, and thinkers.
This video is available for a one-time 14-day rental per member through February 29, 2024.
Video Rental
Member Talk: LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography
Take a revealing look at the collaborative processes behind some of the most recognizable, beloved, and controversial images of the 20th century with this 50-minute talk on “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography.” Hear from exhibition curators Katherine Bussard, Kristen Gresh, and Alissa Schapiro as they reveal how they drew from different archives to bring together vintage photographs, contact sheets, assignment outlines, internal memos, layout experiments, and more.
This video is available for a one-time 14-day rental per member through February 29, 2024.
Video Rental
Translating American Stories
This 50-minute talk goes deep into the development of “Translating American Stories,” the first initiative to bring multiple languages into the MFA’s permanent collection galleries. Led by Layla Bermeo, Kristin and Roger Servison Curator of Paintings, Art of the Americas, the presentation explores the project’s collaborative process, outreach to community members from diverse backgrounds, and fresh interpretations of historical art in the collection.
This video is available for a one-time 14-day rental per member through February 29, 2024.
Video Rental
Up Close with a Jewelry Curator
This 50-minute talk offers an in-depth look at a few highlights of the MFA’s extensive jewelry collection that are currently on view. Emily Stoehrer, Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry, shares the story behind the Museum’s dazzling starfish brooch, once owned by actress Claudette Colbert, and previews works by Winifred Mason, Joyce Scott, and Art Smith on view in the new “Art and Jazz” gallery.
This video is available for a one-time 14-day rental per member through February 29, 2024.