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

The front and back of a die-cut trade card shaped like a donkey that was used to advertise coffee. When the card is flipped over, the viewer can see that there is a boy riding on the donkey's back.

Trade Cards, Eye-Catching Heralds of Mass-marketing

A nineteenth-century advertising medium traces the rise of consumer culture.

by Jonathan Shaw

Aerial view of historic downtown New Bedford buildings

New Bedford

Exploring the coastal fishing hub’s history, architecture, parks, and arts scene

by Nell Porter-Brown

Photograph of the world's first net-zero Victorian passive house

A Net-Zero-Energy Victorian Home Makes History

HBS alumna Betsy Harper develops the first net-zero-energy, Victorian “passive house” in the world.  

by Kristina DeMichele

The painting “Love Potion” features two lovers craning toward each other in a boat on roiling ocean waters.

Alexander Gassel retrospective at the Museum of Russian Icons

A blend of Russian Orthodox iconography and mythical motifs

by Nell Porter-Brown

Braxton Shelley sits at a keyboard

Musician and professor Braxton Shelley

A gospel scholar shapes music theory.

by Jacob Sweet

An illuminated manuscript page from thirteenth-century Iraq showing two men on a camel arriving in a village, depicted as two-story white buildings with people looking out the windows

al-Hariri, a master storyteller

Brief life of a master storyteller

by Michael Cooperson

Johnson plays his harmonica with the Boston Pops orchestra behind him.

Singer, songwriter, harmonica player Scott Albert Johnson

Scott Albert Johnson finds his path.

by Jacob Sweet

Portrait photograph of Marilyn Booth

Arabic translator Marilyn Booth

Marilyn Booth translates Arabic literature for Anglophone readers.

by Spencer Lee Lenfield

Portrait photograph of Maggie Shipstead

Novelist Maggie Shipstead and “Great Circle”

Maggie Shipstead’s time-spanning, globe-circling new novel

by Dan Kelly

a hat made of jaguar pelt

Dr. Jeffries balloons across the Channel

Two explorers strip to stay aloft.

by Jacob Sweet