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 woman gazes at large decorative letters with her reflection and two stylized faces beside them.

The True Cost of Grade Inflation at Harvard

How an abundance of A’s created “the most stressed-out world of all.”

by Lindsay Mitchell

Agee as an aspiring writer at Harvard, cigarette and Dostoevsky's <em>The Posses

Vistas of Perfection

A profile of writer James Agee, at Harvard and beyond

by Adam Kirsch

Pardis Sabeti

Pardis Sabeti

For this systems biologist, the interaction of science and music is multiplicative.

Chasing Bogeys

A novel book on golf

George Martin Lane

Song for Hard Times

The classic folksong “One Meat Ball” got its start at Harvard.

Warrior Artists

Lakota drawings inspire a dramatic exhibition.

by Christopher Reed

Yucky Pollution, Shiny Pretty, 2001, Hilltop Children’s Center, Seattle. From <em>Can Poetry Save the Earth?</em>

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

A still from Olch’s film shows Richard Rogers at his editing console, watching footage of his mother

The Windmill Movie

Filmmaker Alexander Olch has made an biographical documentary based on footage left behind by his mentor, Richard Rogers.

by Craig Lambert

Pete Seeger, shown singing in an undated photo, traveled light, always ready to make music.

The Bible and the Almanac

How Pete Seeger got his start: an excerpt from Alec Wilkinson's new biography, The Protest Singer

Ancestral Influences

View images of Phillip Charette's masks alongside masks from the Smithsonian Institution holdings that inspired him.

Arts Administration in Challenging Times

Michael M. Kaiser, known for steering the Kennedy Center and other troubled arts organizations back to health, shares his secrets with a Harvard audience.