No celebration for the Office for the Arts (OFA) could possibly capture the organization’s broad reach. Nearly 40 percent of Harvard’s 7,000 undergraduates participate in OFA programming every year. Through classes, apprenticeships, and funding opportunities, Harvard students dance, sculpt, film, act, and sing.
The OFA’s 50th birthday celebration showcased the wide range of artistic talent at Harvard. The February 13 Sanders Theatre event featured dancers shuffling to high-tempo tunes, actors previewing an original musical, and singers harmonizing with a vast chorus. Throughout the night, speakers praised the OFA’s support for student art.
Following a lively birthday song from the Harvard University Band, president emerita Drew Gilpin Faust opened the evening with a recorded speech. She recalled the early days of her presidency. One of her first acts was to convene a task force on the arts at Harvard. But the task force report—which argued that the arts should be recognized as a central part of a Harvard education—came out as the stock market crashed in 2008, wiping out almost one-third of Harvard’s endowment. Faust praised the OFA’s resilience, noting that the office was able “to do something with almost nothing.” Many plans hatched during that period of financial austerity are now coming to fruition, she said. “There is TDM [Theater, Dance and Media] and the ArtLab, wonderful new faculty, and a new A.R.T. [American Repertory Theater] rising in Allston, and much more.”
Between speeches, student dancers took the stage. The Omo Naija X Wahala Boys, an African dance group, raised the evening’s energy level, shaking their legs, swinging their shoulders, and shuffling their feet to modern African tunes. Performers caught their breath on the back stairwell as they cycled between dancers. Harvard Undergraduate Bhangra, a Punjabi dance group, moved with such grace that it seemed as if they were gliding. They blasted South Asian dance beats with modern twists (such as a brief Kendrick Lamar rap). Mariachi Véritas de Harvard set the soundtrack for Harvard RAZA Folklórico, whose dancers gracefully twirled their bright dresses.
Students shared their artistic journeys, crediting the OFA for providing on-campus creative opportunities. Maranatha Paul ’26 mounted a defense of Shakespeare, sharing his love of Othello and talking about his campus playwriting ventures. Tiffany Onyeiwu ’25 spoke about discovering her love for pottery and her ceramics senior thesis. Actor Courtney B. Vance ’82 took the stage with his daughter, Bronwyn Vance ’28, charting their different journeys toward the arts. And American Repertory Theater’s artistic director Diane Paulus ’88 discussed the theater at Harvard over the years, with A.R.T. staffer Karina Cowperthwaite ’24 speaking alongside her about the robust opportunities now available.
Even the plainspoken testimonies featured artistic twists. Jack Megan, who recently retired after serving as the OFA’s director for 23 years, thanked outgoing College dean Rakesh Khurana for his support for the arts but pointed out that Khurana would “insist that we begin with the mission of Harvard College.” So, Kate Vandermel ’25 and Henry Wu ’25 performed an operatic rendition of Harvard’s mission statement—surely the first recitation of its kind. Vandermel donned a gilded shawl, smiling while professing “the transformative power of a liberal arts and sciences education.” Wu’s piano grew more intense and, during the reprise, Vandermel approached the edge of the stage like a pop star.
President Alan M. Garber spoke about his engagements with the arts—a testament that the arts are not just for artists. Garber said he has been “artist-adjacent his whole life.” His twin sister is an artist, and his children enjoyed arts programming at Harvard. In high school, he fell in love with photography and worked as an usher at the local movie theater to save up for a camera. On breaks, he sat in the theater and watched the great movies of the early 1970s, including Clockwork Orange and The Godfather. He credits his career to the film industry; when the theater was not screening interesting movies, the future doctor instead pored over his AP Biology textbook. “I doubt that I would have scored a 5 on the AP if I hadn’t been employed—or underemployed—in the entertainment industry,” he said.
In addition to celebrating 50 years of operation, the OFA is welcoming a new director, Fiona Coffey (who took over last summer), and is implementing a new strategic plan (released in August 2023). The plan aims to increase opportunities in the visual arts, add programming in the Houses, highlight career pathways for students who want to pursue the arts professionally, and advance equity and inclusion. Harvard College committed $1 million to implement the plan’s artistic vision.
After nearly 200 student singers—filling the stage and the floor level of the theater—performed “This Little Light of Mine,” Coffey closed the evening by challenging Harvard students to “let [their] light shine,” saying, “Be brave, work hard, dream hard….We need more of your light in this world.”
