Weekend Watch: At Boston College, the McMullen Museum of Art presents “Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World”

Chestnut Hill, MA — McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College is exploring sources of wonder in the upcoming exhibition titled Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World, which will be on display in the McMullen Museum’s Daley Family and Monan Galleries until June 1, 2025.

“We hope that Wonders of Creation will spark conversations and new research leading to future innovations among a receptive audience in New England, where the arts and sciences have flourished for centuries, especially in our colleges and universities,” said Inaugural Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Director of the McMullen Museum Nancy Netzer, a professor of art history at Boston College, in a press release.

Intermixed with art, the exhibit boasts three astrolabes with origins as early as the 13th century, a 19th-century quadrant for telling time, and a 12th-century lockbox with an eight-digit combination lock. Visitors even have the opportunity to hold and manipulate a replica astrolabe in the palm of their hand.

Emine Fetvaci, art historian and Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor in Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College, told Civic Science Times, “we want to transport people into the past to give them hope for the future. We want people to see that art and science have always moved us forward hand-in-hand.”

In-person and virtual docent tours, including the McMullen Spring Celebration in April, are planned for the public and museum Members through the end of May. For more information and to sign up for those events that require advance registration, visit the McMullen Museum events calendar.

Emma Sobieski

Sobieski is a science writer and covers the latest news in informal science, public engagement, and science communication in the New England area for the Civic Science Observer. Sobieski is based in New Hampshire.