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.

Nineteenth-century prison ruins with brick guardhouse surrounded by forest.

This Connecticut Mine Was Once a Prison

The underground Old New-Gate Prison quickly became “a school for crime.”

by Nell Porter-Brown

Assorted vintage printing samples, including an Ames Plow Tavern advertisement and Walpole Society notice.

Museum of Printing Massachusetts

A unique museum in Haverhill, Massachusetts, offers a history of graphic arts.

by Nell Porter-Brown

A hairdresser meticulously braiding a client's hair in a vibrant salon, using a candle to seal the ends.

Harvard Film Archive West African Women in Films

The Harvard Film Archive features works by director Rosine Mbakam

"20-24" by Janiva Ellis, a dark, abstract painting featuring distorted human figures with vivid red and muted tones.

Artist Janiva Ellis at the Harvard Carpenter Center

Newly finished paintings unveiled 

Made in Germany

German national identity at the Harvard Art Museums

by Olivia Farrar

A collage featuring, from left: a young Ogden Codman Jr. in a sepia-toned portrait; items from the Codman Estate displayed in a museum; a close-up of a chair reflecting the English Arts and Crafts movement style; and a sample of the “Brother Rabbit” textile pattern, popular between 1882-90.

Men and Their Castles

Historic New England explores the “bachelor decorators”

by Nell Porter-Brown

Beau McCall, at left, wearing Button Jacket: Born in Philly, Made in Harlem, circa 1988, and his partner, Souleo, wearing Button Jacket: Stacked Sleeves, circa early 1990s-2021

Art Made Out of Buttons

Works by Harlem-based artist Beau McCall at Brockton's Fuller Craft Museum

by Nell Porter-Brown

Painting of bold purple tones reflecting experience of music

MASS MoCA Exhibition on the Experience of Jazz

Works by Jason Moran at MASS MoCA

by Nell Porter-Brown

Two MAD Magazine covers

MAD Magazine at the Norman Rockwell Museum

An illustrative retrospective at the Norman Rockwell Museum 

by Nell Porter-Brown

Tunic pattern

The Mystery Behind an Incan Tunic

Unraveling an Inca masterpiece’s secrets

by Max J. Krupnick

Corita Kent’s a man you can lean on (1966) plays with its medium: screenprints are not reversed in the making, but her image is.

Harvard Professor on Printmaking

An art historian analyzes an overlooked medium.

by Murray Whyte