A strolling elegy, petite gallery, and subtle Brutalism

Initial installment of “Favorite Things,” a new series in which Harvard scholars share a few of their personal selections. Robin Kelsey holds the Shirley Carter Burden Professorship in Photography, the History of Photography, and American Art.

You can connect with the departed, with roaming birds, and with age-old trees. Each visit allows me to cherish the opportunity to greet lost companions, from significant contemporaries who left us prematurely (e.g., our faculty associate Svetlana Boym) to those long since passed but still inspiring us (e.g., Winslow Homer). When I seek rejuvenation, there is no superior site in Cambridge than this meandering sanctuary with its grand, upright oaks.

Where could be a better venue to discover contemporary art than up creaky stairs in a worn-down warehouse next to the Market Basket in Somerville? The space is small, the lighting gentle and stunning, and the curation marked by its insightfulness and thoughtfulness.

To label this structure “Brutalist” may fit academic definitions but feels entirely inappropriate to me. I find the Carpenter Center welcoming (who can resist that slope?) and visionary. The sightlines, the terrace, the cool concrete shadows on a warm summer afternoon. Gorgeous!

— As recounted to Sy Boles/Harvard Staff Writer