Arts & Culture

Explore Harvard’s vibrant arts scene—from campus exhibitions and theater to cultural analysis and literary reviews. Discover how creativity shapes the Harvard experience.

Woman with long hair, smiling, wearing a black sweater, in a textured beige background.

For This Poet, AI is a Writing Partner

Sasha Stiles trained a chatbot on her manuscripts. Now, her poems rewrite themselves.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Photo of a cheerleader group composed of elderly women, all in red tops and white skirts, with pompoms

“Some Kind of Heaven,” a documentary by Lance Oppenheim

Documentarian Lance Oppenheim explores life in The Villages.

by Alex Huls

Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones poses stylishly in a studio

Profile of Radhika Jones

Radhika Jones at the helm of Vanity Fair

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

A detailed 1598 map of Iceland, with monstrous sea creatures in the surrounding waters and polar bears on ice flows.

How cartographers filled “empty” space with animals

The era of imaginative mapmaking

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

Photo of the exterior of Coolidge Corner Theater, with its vertical red neon sign.

Greater Boston’s art-house cinemas: a status report

Greater Boston’s small cinemas strive to engage film-goers during the pandemic.

by Nell Porter-Brown

Zoom-like grid of colorful portraits of people in pandemic-era face masks.

“This is Not a Gag,” MASS MoCA

Richard Nielsen: “This is Not a Gag,” at MASS MoCA

by Nell Porter-Brown

A collage of emblematic figures in American history set against the Stars and Stripes

An intellectual history of the Cold War era

In a new book, Louis Menand probes the cultural currents of postwar America.

by Spencer Lee Lenfield

Solomon Gate in an open position.

An innovative gate for Harvard Yard

At Houghton and Lamont libraries, a creative new entry into the Yard

by Jacob Sweet

A photograph of the border wall stretching toward a mountain in the distance

Photographer Morgan Smith's Images and Encounters at the Mexican Border

Photographer Morgan Smith ’60 documents life on the precarious precipice between Mexico and the United States.

by Lydialyle Gibson

A photograph of art historian Cassandra Albinson next to a photograph of a portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour applying pink rouge to her cheeks

Harvard Portrait: Cassandra Albinson

A curator takes a fresh look at portraits of aristocratic European women.

by Jonathan Shaw

Producer Jeff Schaffer sits between star Larry David (left) and another cast member on the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” set.

TV writer and producer Jeff Schaffer talks shop

TV writer and producer Jeff Schaffer on how to be funny

by Stuart Miller