AFVS Alumni Gatherings: Jen Mergel

We are pleased to present the 2026 Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS) Alumni Professional Practice Gatherings in our Level 3 contemporary art galleries. These intimate, public conversations will bring together AFVS and Harvard students to engage directly with distinguished alumni from the department.

Supported by the Provostial Grant for Critical Humanities at Harvard and the Mignone Center for Career Success, this student-focused series will center on questions of professional practice, interdisciplinary trajectories, and life after the AFVS program. The gatherings aim to foster dialogue between current students and alumni whose work is shaping their fields in diverse and innovative ways.

These sessions are free and open to the public, with priority given to Harvard students. Refreshments will be offered. To RSVP, please email us at [email protected].

Jen Mergel is a cultural leader, curator and educator passionate about connections—between art and people, ideas and impact, vision and service.  For over 20 years, she has promoted inclusive engagement with contemporary art in museums, on campuses and in the public realm. She has developed nationally newsworthy exhibitions, talks, and programs in her leadership roles at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, the Association of Art Museum Curators, Voices in Contemporary Art, and most recently Olmsted Now. Boston-born and based, she is fiercely committed to championing culture makers, history keepers and change agents who deepen social and spatial justice, locally and globally. She is driven to initiate, innovate and collaborate on projects that foster community curiosity, connective capital and cultural equity through the intersection of the arts with a wide range of disciplines. From November 2021 - January 2023, she served as the inaugural Director of Experience & Cultural Partnerships for Boston's Emerald Necklace Conservancy, then as Senior Advisor, Cultural Partnerships & Parks Equity through May 2023. In June 2023, she assumed the role as James & Audrey Foster Executive Director of the Esplanade Association.