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.

Woman with long hair, smiling, wearing a black sweater, in a textured beige background.

For This Poet, AI is a Writing Partner

Sasha Stiles trained a chatbot on her manuscripts. Now, her poems rewrite themselves.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Head and torso of a man painted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

A monumental book reveals a monumental work of art

Nicholas Callaway publishes the Sistine Chapel in closeup.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Photograph of author Justin Deabler

“Lone Stars”—an HLS grad’s semi-autobiographical debut novel

Fiction about “the power that comes to us when we uncloset ourselves”

by Lydialyle Gibson

Photo of a cheerleader group composed of elderly women, all in red tops and white skirts, with pompoms

“Some Kind of Heaven,” a documentary by Lance Oppenheim

Documentarian Lance Oppenheim explores life in The Villages.

by Alex Huls

Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones poses stylishly in a studio

Profile of Radhika Jones

Radhika Jones at the helm of Vanity Fair

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

A detailed 1598 map of Iceland, with monstrous sea creatures in the surrounding waters and polar bears on ice flows.

How cartographers filled “empty” space with animals

The era of imaginative mapmaking

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

Photo of the exterior of Coolidge Corner Theater, with its vertical red neon sign.

Greater Boston’s art-house cinemas: a status report

Greater Boston’s small cinemas strive to engage film-goers during the pandemic.

by Nell Porter-Brown

Zoom-like grid of colorful portraits of people in pandemic-era face masks.

“This is Not a Gag,” MASS MoCA

Richard Nielsen: “This is Not a Gag,” at MASS MoCA

by Nell Porter-Brown

A photograph of the border wall stretching toward a mountain in the distance

Photographer Morgan Smith's Images and Encounters at the Mexican Border

Photographer Morgan Smith ’60 documents life on the precarious precipice between Mexico and the United States.

by Lydialyle Gibson

A photograph of art historian Cassandra Albinson next to a photograph of a portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour applying pink rouge to her cheeks

Harvard Portrait: Cassandra Albinson

A curator takes a fresh look at portraits of aristocratic European women.

by Jonathan Shaw

Producer Jeff Schaffer sits between star Larry David (left) and another cast member on the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” set.

TV writer and producer Jeff Schaffer talks shop

TV writer and producer Jeff Schaffer on how to be funny

by Stuart Miller