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.

An illustration of a green leaf being hit by a beam of light and bouncing off the leaf and then becoming a color prisim

Harvard’s Plant Collection Meets Space Science

Light-based analysis of botanical collections link plants to Earth’s changing climate.

by Jonathan Shaw

Painting of masted ships on the ocean

Peabody Essex Museum’s “In American Waters”

From oceanic voyages to romping in the waves, a new exhibit explores relationships to water.

by Nell Porter-Brown

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

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

a hat made of jaguar pelt

Dr. Jeffries balloons across the Channel

Two explorers strip to stay aloft.

by Jacob Sweet

Photo of red, white, and orange Houston Astros jersey from 1983 worn by pitcher Joe Niekro

Baseball-jersey fashion

The Worcester Art Museum spotlights baseball garb.

by Nell Porter-Brown

Solomon Gate in an open position.

An innovative gate for Harvard Yard

At Houghton and Lamont libraries, a creative new entry into the Yard

by Jacob Sweet

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

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 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