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 bronze sculpture of intertwined hands in a park, with a discussion panel in the foreground.

Is the Constitution Broken?

Harvard legal scholars debate the state of our founding national document.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Troubadour style dagger from France in Harvard Art Museums described

Is this a dagger which I see before me…? Not primarily.

by Christopher Reed

The <i>Invention of Book Printing</i> comes from <i>Nova Reperta</i> (New inventions and discoveries of modern times), by Stradanus (Jan van der Straet), the first such illustrated compendium of postclassical innovations (ca. 1599- 1603). The ability to print many copies of such works revolutionized communication of ideas in the sixteenth century.

Sackler exhibition reveals artistic discovery in Renaissance Europe

An exhibition at the Sackler reveals the connections among Renaissance art, invention, and the evolution of science.

by Jennifer Carling , Jonathan Shaw

Brent R. Stockwell

David Nathan reviews Brent R. Stockwell's book on drug development

David Nathan reviews Brent R. Stockwell's "The Quest for the Cure"

An a cappella group performs in the rain. Despite monsoon-like weather, dozens of student music and dance groups performed in Harvard Yard as part of the evening's program.

Harvard 375th anniversary student music and dance performances

After much waiting and wondering, student music and dance groups perform around the Yard for a wet but appreciative crowd.

Eric Chivian, director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, supplied heirloom apples from his orchard in central Massachusetts, including the Roxbury Russet, a variety that Chivian believes was once grown in Harvard Yard.

Food from Harvard's 375th anniversary celebration

Heirloom apples, "1636" ale, and a historical dining hall menu provide sustenance for the 375th anniversary gala.

Workers assembled the cake under a tent to protect it from the rainy weather. A Harvard Dining Services truck brought over the individual sheet cakes, which form the 15-by-18-foot H-shaped cake. Sixty individual sheet cakes were baked, two per day, by Flour bakery and deep frozen at Harvard awaiting the day of the celebration.

Joanne Chang '91 creates 15-by-18-foot H-shaped red velvet birthday cake

A step by step gallery of Joanne Chang ’91 assembling the 15-by-18-foot H-shaped red velvet cake for Harvard's 375th birthday.

Stephen Greenblatt and other Harvardians are finalists for National Book Awards

The Cogan University Professor's recent book, and works by other Harvard authors, reach the finals of the prestigious competition.

Dancers rehearse for performance as part of a "flash mob" in the University's 375th anniversary celebration on October 14.

"Flash mob" preps for Harvard 375th anniversary dance

The Harvard 375th “flash mob” danced to James Brown as they rehearsed for the Friday night gala.

Georg Brentel the Younger, from <i>Pamphlet describing the construction and function of a conical sundial,</i> Lauingen: Jacob Winter, 1615. Pamphlet with engravings and woodcuts.

Photographs of early modern printed-paper sundials

Photographs of early modern printed-paper sundials

Jan Sadeler I, after Maarten de Vos,<i> Rhetoric,</i> from the series <i>The Seven Liberal Arts,</i> after 1575. Engraving

Jan Sadeler’s engravings of The Seven Liberal Arts

Jan Sadeler’s engravings of The Seven Liberal Arts