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.

A bald man in a black shirt with two book covers beside him, one titled "The Magicians" and the other "The Bright Sword."

Novelist Lev Grossman on Why Fantasy Isn’t About Escapism

The Magicians author discusses his influences, from Harvard to King Arthur to Tolkien.

by Eric Olson

Jesse Cox smiling at a table with music notes and a book, with drums and cymbals behind him

Harvard Percussionist and Composer Jessie Cox

An experimental percussionist-composer pushing the limits of music

by Lydialyle Gibson

A person with long brown hair wears a sleeveless green dress with a kiwi fruit pattern, sitting in a vintage-style café.

Leslie Jamison on Isolation, Empathy, and Selfhood

The essayist on isolation, empathy, and selfhood

by Nina Pasquini

Edwin Frank sits with stacks of books in the background

Edwin Frank Explores the 20th-Century Novel in 'Stranger Than Fiction'

A book about books—and the protagonist is the twentieth-century novel itself.

by Lydialyle Gibson

A black-and-white portrait of Tomi Adeyemi, alongside the covers of her novels "Children of Blood and Bone," "Children of Anguish and Anarchy," and "Children of Virtue and Vengeance."

Harvard Author Behind Afrofuturist Trilogy “Blood and Bone”

The reality-based fantasies of novelist Tomi Adeyemi

by Lydialyle Gibson

Brooklyn Bridge Park: the beach at Main Street Park, in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge

How Was Brooklyn Bridge Park Planned?

Michael Van Valkenburgh and the making of Brooklyn Bridge Park

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

College students, one with a trump, another with an upright bass, gather around a piano with Dizzy Gillespie, who plays his trumpet while a student pianist also plays

A New Chapter for Harvard Arts

The Office for the Arts turns 50, and its longtime director steps down.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Nicholas Kristof reporting in the Sudan, 2012

Off the Shelf

Nicholas Kristof reporting, why voting matters, becoming famous, and more in books

Seamstresses at work in Egypt, 2006

In Egypt, Doors Closing

Leslie T. Change ’91 explores the lives of three women in the Egyptian textile industry.

Kitchen at Whittier Birthplace with round wood table and 4 chairs and wood surround fireplace

Civil War American Writer and Abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier

Homes of the poet and abolitionist, whose verses were said to have inspired Abraham Lincoln. 

by Nell Porter-Brown