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.

Conan O’Brien in a dark suit and light shirt, smiling and posing with hands clasped.

Conan O’Brien Named Harvard’s 2026 Commencement Speaker

The comedian, host, and 1985 graduate will deliver remarks at the May 28 ceremony. 

by Schuyler Velasco

Ram Venkateswaran, of the HMS class of 2017, performs in the Tosteson Medical Education Center’s atrium last spring. He and pianist Chris Lim, HMS ’16, offered a joint program: “<i>Sicilienne</i>” (Fauré); “<i>Sicilienne</i>” (von Paradis); “Spanish Dance” (Granados/Kreisler); and <i>“Widmung</i>” (Schumann/Liszt).

Music and medicine converge at Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School turns to the humanities.

by Karolina Brook

A new permanent exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History showcases more than 50 glass models of marine invertebrates from the collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology—models crafted by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, creators of the famous Glass Flowers. This model is <i>Tubularia indivisa</i>, or oaten pipes hydroid. (MCZ SC119)

The Harvard Museum of Natural History showcases Blaschka glass invertebrates

The Harvard Museum of Natural History showcases Blaschka glass invertebrates.

Robert Gardner in his Cambridge home, October 2013

Filmmaker Robert Gardner Dies at 88

The anthropological filmmaker founded the Harvard Film Study Center.

John Adams

John Adams’s “Klinghoffer” at Met prompts new controversy

The Metropolitan Opera cancelled plans to broadcast the opera The Death of Klinghoffer, by John Adams.

Seymour Slive

Harvard Art Museums’ director emeritus Seymour Slive dies at 93

Art historian Seymour Slive, Ar.D. ’14, dies at 93.

The bucolic Essex River property Cogswell&rsquo;s Grant, named for the 1636 royal grant given to John Cogswell, is now a house museum open to the public.

Cogswell's Grant, an Historic New England property, offers American artifacts

Early American artifacts help animate history.

by Nell Porter-Brown

In the e-book version of <i>Macbeth,</i> the witches&rsquo; dark mischief unfolds beside the text.

Shakespeare e-books link text with new performances

New e-books bring Shakespeare to life.

by Nell Porter-Brown

Harvard’s 1906 Dolmetsch harpsichord has two keyboards, or “manuals.”

Two classic harpsichords that Harvard owns

Two keyboards, each with a story to tell

by Craig Lambert

Eve at four, at Philadelphia&rsquo;s Franklin Institute

Geoffrey Biddle takes extraordinary family photographs

Photographs that admire, probe, and “flinch from” family members.

by Steve Potter

Artist Matt Freedman’s “cancer treatment journal” about adenoid cystic carcinoma

Artist Matt Freedman ’78 confronts adenoid cystic carcinoma.