October 2021, David Odo

October Member of the Month, David Odo, standing in a gallery space in the Harvard Art Museums at Harvard University where he is the Director of Academic and Public Programs, Division Head, and Research Curator David Odo
Photo Matthew Monteith; © President and Fellows of Harvard College

David Odo is the Director of Academic and Public Programs, Division Head, and Research Curator for the Harvard Art Museums at Harvard University. Thank you, David, for your membership and sharing your time with us.

What’s one thing — either industry/work-related or not — you learned in the past month?

Wombats produce cube-shaped poop. (Thank you virtual trivia night!)

Calderwood Courtyard in the Harvard Art Museums.
Copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College
Photo Credit Matthew Montieth

If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be?

I’d love to experience a day as a master woodworker or furniture maker. I’d love to be able to create beautiful and usable wooden objects with my hands.  

David Odo (left), and Student Guides [with Zhan Wang’s Sculpture in the Form of a Nine-Hole Scholar’s Rock (2002.270.A-B)]
Photo © Matthew Monteith

Coffee or Tea?

Tea – coffee – coffee – coffee – tea.

Exterior Prescott Street side of the Harvard Art Museums
© President and Fellows of Harvard College
Photo R. Leopoldina Torres

Book/Author suggestion?

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee, a lawyer and former president of Demos. The book is a disturbing but incredibly enlightening discussion of racism and inequality and its costs to all people in this country, not just people of color.  

Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts (view from Harvard Yard)
Photo © Nic Lehoux

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Cake decorator. I think I simply liked cake. (A lot!)

What do you enjoy most about being a part of an academic museum?

I so appreciate being part of a large, multidisciplinary academic community, which ensures my own work remains connected to students and colleagues in many different fields. This keeps me constantly challenged and engaged.

Visitors in one of the arcades overlooking Calderwood Courtyard
Photo Matthew Montieth
© President and Fellows of Harvard College

What are your hopes for our industry?

I hope academic museums will engage (even more) deeply with the students, colleagues, and publics who want to help us honestly confront our institutional histories and current practices, to co-create better museum futures.

Odo with students in his Thinking with Collections course visiting the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies
R.Leopoldina Torres
© President and Fellows of Harvard