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.

Nineteenth-century prison ruins with brick guardhouse surrounded by forest.

This Connecticut Mine Was Once a Prison

The underground Old New-Gate Prison quickly became “a school for crime.”

by Nell Porter-Brown

Harvard Art Museums

Sackler—and Beyond

The “Objects of Addiction” exhibit explores Harvard’s opium ties.    

by Max J. Krupnick

People outside at art vendors' stalls at the RISD Craft fair

Staff Pick: RISD Craft Fair

Artists showcase their work in Providence, Rhode Island. In the foreground are pieces by Dwo Wen Chen/Three Wheel Studio. 

by Nell Porter-Brown

Scroll depicting Commodore Perry’s 1853 invasion of Japan

Speaking Volumes

Glimpsing Harvard’s East Asian language materials collection

by Nell Porter-Brown

“Joyous Protest Posters”

The Royal Chicano Air Force’s activist art at Houghton Library

by Ryan Doan-Nguyen

A page of medieval script with brightly colored initial letter and drawings in the margins

Words with No Freedom

A Houghton Library exhibit explores writing in prison.

by Rodrigo del Río

The Untold Story of Watercolors

Harvard Art Museums' exhibit highlights unsung facets of American watercolor.

by Nancy Walecki

Poster for Dos farkishefte shnayderl (the bewitched little tailor) in Paris, c. 1935

Charades with Chutzpah

Harvard’s Yiddish Theater Collection

by Max J. Krupnick

Watercolor painting of alligators in a swamp

Master Watercolorists

Works by Sargent, Homer, and others at the Worcester Art Museum

by Nell Porter-Brown

Photograph of stone bridge over a pond in a park

Happenings in Hartford

Literary legacies, parks, festivals—and more

by Nell Porter-Brown

Two women seated looking into the film camera, from Japanese film Tokyo Story

Films by a Japanese Master

The Harvard Film Archive’s “Complete Ozu Yasujirō”

by Nell Porter-Brown