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.

Javier Ortega-Hernández wearing a straw hat and blue scarf stands in a vast, arid landscape.

Five Questions with Javier Ortega-Hernández

A professor of evolutionary biology on what shaped life more than 500 million years ago

by Olivia Farrar

Painting of bold purple tones reflecting experience of music

MASS MoCA Exhibition on the Experience of Jazz

Works by Jason Moran at MASS MoCA

by Nell Porter-Brown

Two MAD Magazine covers

MAD Magazine at the Norman Rockwell Museum

An illustrative retrospective at the Norman Rockwell Museum 

by Nell Porter-Brown

Tunic pattern

The Mystery Behind an Incan Tunic

Unraveling an Inca masterpiece’s secrets

by Max J. Krupnick

Brooklyn Bridge Park: the beach at Main Street Park, in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge

How Was Brooklyn Bridge Park Planned?

Michael Van Valkenburgh and the making of Brooklyn Bridge Park

Portrait of Kimberly Dowdell sitting on steps

Architect Kimberly Dowdell is Changing Her Profession

Kimberly Dowdell influences her profession—and the built environment.

by Nell Porter-Brown

Hudson in a baseball cap with her easel and paints at a rocky seaside

Landscapes of a Harvard Plein Air Painter

Kathleen B Hudson ’09 captures the essence of the outdoors, from the Rocky Mountains to the beaches of Maui.

by Brandon Rosas

Madeline Benson singing at the piano, her face lit up on an otherwise dark stage

Broadway Director from Harvard Adapting Disney

Broadway music director Madeline Benson on art and collaboration

by Lydialyle Gibson

Corita Kent’s a man you can lean on (1966) plays with its medium: screenprints are not reversed in the making, but her image is.

Harvard Professor on Printmaking

An art historian analyzes an overlooked medium.

by Murray Whyte

Green landscape with path in foreground leading to a pond and grassy open area.

Harvard's Landscape Architect Bas Smets on Cooling Cities

Bas Smets harnesses nature to cool cities.

by Max J. Krupnick

The opening display of the exhibit, showing introductory text and a large photograph of Harriet Hayden

The Picture of Freedom

A Boston Athenaeum exhibit explores an abolitionist with Harvard ties.

by Lydialyle Gibson