“The arts represent an impulse to question and to create, an impulse that has sparked centuries of inquiry and progress and learning.”
—Drew Gilpin Faust, President and Lincoln Professor of History, Harvard University
Friday, September 15
Alumni Arts Weekend Registration Desk Open
Noon–7:00 p.m.
Science Center Plaza Tent
Explorations
1:00–3:00 p.m.
Locations across campus
- Interactive Dance Experience, Dance Center
Join Mario Alberto Zambrano, award-winning artist and lecturer on Theater, Dance & Media, for an exploration of GAGA—the movement language created by Ohad Naharin, artistic director and choreographer of Batsheva Dance Company in Israel. GAGA People, a continuous, sensation-based movement class, is intended for and welcomes students who have not had any previous dance training. GAGA offers a creative framework for students to engage with physicality and imagination, bridging the activity between body and mind while increasing physical potential.
- Fostering Dialogue Around Mental Health Through the Arts: Looking for Luke Screening and Discussion, Carpenter Center Lecture Hall
Looking for Luke is a short documentary—produced by Jubilee Project’s Eric Lu AB '09, HMS '14 and The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds—about Luke Tang, a well-liked Harvard sophomore who caught family and friends by surprise when he took his own life. Come experience this film’s power to ignite deep conversation around mental health issues, a topic rarely addressed openly in many communities of color—even today—and to discuss the role of narrative and the arts in confronting these difficult experiences. A discussion will follow the screening. Sponsored by the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance.
- Tours of Campus Art Museums and Spaces
Western Ave. Arts Walk
Join the Harvard Ed Portal for a new Western Ave. Arts Walk, featuring temporary and permanent public art along this exciting corridor of North Allston, future home of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the University’s enterprise research campus. We’ll visit the Ceramics Program—the Office for the Arts at Harvard; a green space activated by students from the Graduate School of Design; Zone 3, a Harvard-sparked initiative to further energize Western Avenue with creativity; and more. Meet at the Harvard Ed Portal; tour begins at 1:30 p.m.
Explorations
3:00–5:00 p.m.
Locations across campus
- Harvard Art Museums Art Study Center, Art Study Center—Harvard Art Museums
3:00–4:00 p.m.
Analog Culture: Printer’s Proofs from the Schneider/Erdman Photography Lab, 1981–2001
Jennifer Quick, John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Associate Research Curator in Photography, and Davida Fernandez-Barkan, Mongan Curatorial Intern in the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Examine what will be one of the first exhibitions to explore the productive and dynamic nature of the photographer-printer collaboration, through the lens of the Schneider/Erdman Printer’s Proof Collection. Among the Harvard Art Museums’ most significant holdings in photography, the collection affords a singular opportunity to explore the technical and material dimensions of analog printing alongside significant historical, institutional, and cultural developments of the 1980s and ’90s.
Advance registration is required.
3:30–4:30 p.m.
The Royal Hunt in India
Rachel Parikh, Calderwood Curatorial Fellow in South Asian Art
This session will explore the popular, courtly pastime of hunting in India through the Harvard Art Museums’ striking collection of related drawings and paintings. Rachel Parikh will discuss the hunting practices and techniques represented as well as the political and cultural significance of these works.
Advance registration is required.
- Adding Color to the Arts: Addressing Inequalities in the Cultural Sphere, Deknatel Hall—Harvard Art Museums
- National Arts in Education Week Meetup with Harvard Alumni for Education Shared Interest Group, Harvard Ed Portal
Celebrate the arts and National Arts in Education Week! Join the Harvard Alumni for Education Shared Interest Group (HAEd) and arts program staff at the Harvard Ed Portal, a collaborative partnership between Harvard, the Allston-Brighton community, and the City of Boston. Visit this new space where the community and the University meet and learn about the Ed Portal’s work in education across the arts, public school partnerships, digital literacy, wellness, workforce development, mentoring, and more. Meet other members of the Harvard community eager to connect and reflect on the transformative power of arts education.
- Women’s Empowerment Expo: Connect, Recruit, Inspire—In the Arts and Beyond, Gutman Conference Center
In support of Question + Create: A Harvard Alumni Gathering on the Arts, Harvard Alumni for Global Women’s Empowerment will be targeting a variety of girls- and women-focused organizations with a particular emphasis on the arts. The Women’s Empowerment Expo will provide a forum for organizations leading the way globally for women’s empowerment in the arts—as well as other fields such as social services, education, health, economic development, entrepreneurship, policy, and STEM—to connect with Harvard students and alumni who seek internship, volunteer, mentorship, career exploration, and fundraising opportunities. Contact Harvard Global Women's Empowerment at HGlobalWE.expo@gmail.com and visit their website at www.harvardglobalwe.org.
- Tours of Campus Art Museums and Spaces
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The following exhibitions will be open between noon and 5:00 p.m. on Friday, September 15, and Saturday, September 16, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Radcliffe Yard.
Docents will be on hand to speak about the exhibitions and answer any questions between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Friday, September 15.
Refreshments will be available between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. on Friday, September 15, in Byerly Hall.
Visual Intelligence: A Multidisciplinary Group Exhibition of 2017–2018 Radcliffe Institute Fellows
Byerly Hall, Radcliffe Yard, 8 Garden Street
Noon–5:00 p.m.
Playing Fair? Title IX at 45
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Yard, 3 James Street
Noon–5:00 p.m.
Docents available between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m on Friday.
In Search of 100+ Years at 73 Brattle, Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Garden, Radcliffe Yard
Noon–5:00 p.m.
Docents available between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m on Friday.
Welcome Reception
5:00–7:00 p.m.
Science Center Plaza Tent
Join fellow attendees for a reception featuring welcoming remarks by Drew Gilpin Faust, President and Lincoln Professor of History, Harvard University; and performances featuring students from the Harvard Dance Center and Grammy-award winning artist Alison Brown AB ’84.
Optional Evening Activities (additional fees and registration may be required)
7:00 p.m. onward
Locations across campus
- Harvardwood QUESTION + CREATE Mixer, Charlie’s Kitchen
Members of the Harvardwood Boston/On-Campus chapter invite you to help us celebrate Question + Create: A Harvard Alumni Gathering on the Arts—and all the alumni and students who make it happen! Harvardwood's executive director, Dona Le AB '05, will be on hand to answer any questions you might have about Harvardwood and its events and programs. Friends are welcome; cash bar.
- The Bitter Game, OBERON—separate ticket purchase required
Award-winning director, writer, and performer Keith A. Wallace presents a solo performance in the form of a basketball game—charged with pain, poetry, and laughter—about what it means to survive as a black man in America. Purchase tickets directly from Harvard’s American Repertory Theater.
- Warhol Capote, Loeb Drama Center—separate ticket purchase required
In the late 1970s, Truman Capote and Andy Warhol decided to create a Broadway play together. Over the next several months, they recorded a series of intimate, wide-ranging conversations. The play never came to be, and hours of tape were lost to the ages. Until now.
With the support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Truman Capote Literary Trust, award-winning director Rob Roth—who discovered the recordings in the late 2000s—will unveil the content of the tapes in the world premiere of Warhol Capote
, a new play directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer. Purchase tickets directly from Harvard’s American Repertory Theater.
Saturday, September 16:
Morning Movement
7:00 a.m.
Gund Hall Courtyard—Graduate School of Design
Start the day with a modified version of a movement and conditioning class offered by the Harvard Dance Center, led by Laurel McCaull COL ’18.
Alumni Arts Weekend Registration Desk Open
8:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.
Science Center Plaza Tent
Breakfast
8:00–9:00 a.m.
Science Center Plaza Tent
Morning Plenary—Irreplaceable Instruments: The Centrality of the Arts in a Research University
9:00–10:30 a.m.
Lowell Hall
Come together for conversation and an interactive performance featuring Susan Fales-Hill AB ’84 (moderator); Claire Chase, Professor of the Practice of Music; Dan Byers, John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University; and Cassandra Extavour, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Jack Megan, Director of the Office of the Arts at Harvard, will provide remarks.
Coffee Break
10:30–11:00 a.m.
Science Center Plaza Tent
Experiences + Conversations
11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Locations across campus
- The A.R.T. of Human Rights, OBERON
Experience The A.R.T. of Human Rights—a groundbreaking collaboration between the American Repertory Theater and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. This ongoing series of public conversations brings together leading artists, academics, and activists to explore the relationship between art, politics, and the most pressing human rights issues of our time. Host and director Timothy Patrick McCarthy (lecturer on history and literature, public policy, and education and core faculty and director of the Carr Center’s Culture Change & Social Justice Initiatives and Emerging Human Rights Leaders Program) will welcome select guests to discuss how artists are engaging the nation's current political climate.
- The Art of Looking, Menschel Hall—Harvard Art Museums
See for yourself how students in Harvard’s introductory Visual Humanities course improve their visual literacy and hone their ability to process visual information, transforming their historical awareness, social experience, and civic participation. Join Jennifer L. Roberts, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities and Harvard College Professor, to understand how, in a world of superabundant visual information, our habits, experiences, and ways of thinking have been conditioned by visual interfaces that have long and complex world histories.
- Integrating Art-Making, Carpenter Center Lecture Hall (B04)
In areas across the disciplinary map—from anthropology to science studies, from sociology, psychology, government and economics to architecture, literature, engineering, and public health—students and faculty are seeking to integrate media production into their academic work. Experience students’ efforts to make original and interpretive creative projects in image, sound, and emerging hypermedia technologies in tandem with their written scholarship.
- The Philosophy Chamber, Deknatel Hall—Harvard Art Museums
Join Ethan W. Lasser, head of the Division of European and American Art, and Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. Curator of American Art, for a behind-the-scenes exploration of the Harvard Art Museums’ latest exhibition. Between 1766 and 1820, Harvard College assembled an extraordinary collection of paintings, portraits, and prints; mineral, plant, and animal specimens; scientific instruments; and relics from the ancient world. The Philosophy Chamber played a vital role in teaching and research at Harvard, while also serving as the center of artistic and intellectual life in the greater New England region for over 50 years. A new Harvard Art Museums exhibit, The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820, reunites many of these original objects, showcasing a range of works that have been hidden away for nearly two centuries.
Lunch
12:30–1:45 p.m.
Science Center Plaza Tent
Afternoon Plenary—Art + Experimentation: Life and Leadership in the Arts
2:00–3:15 p.m.
Lowell Hall
A life in the arts takes many turns. Hear and share your experiences with fellow alumni, including Arthur Cohen MBA ’88 (moderator), Gish Jen AB ’77, and Franklin Leonard AB '00. Robin Kelsey, Shirley Carter Burden Professor of Photography and Dean of Arts and Humanities at Harvard University, will provide welcoming remarks.
Coffee Break
3:15–3:30 p.m.
Science Center Plaza Tent
Experiences + Conversations
3:30–5:00 p.m.
Locations across campus
- Art + Conflict, Farkas Hall—Room 203
Hosted by Dona Le AB ’05, this interactive conversation will include Arturo Navarro MPA ’98, Elizabeth Samet AB ’91, and Krzystof Wodjiczko GSD.
- Art + Satire, Piper Auditorium—Graduate School of Design
Hosted by Jennifer Luce MDes ’94, this interactive conversation will include Claude Cormier MDS ’94, Jonathan Guyer RI ’18, Craig Lambert AB ’69, PhD ’78, and Nell Scovell AB ’82.
- Art + Social Impact, Lowell Lecture Hall
Hosted by Robert Kraft AB ’76, this interactive conversation will include Kelley Johnson Purcell AB ’02, April Bang MPP ’06, and Suzanne Nossel AB ’91, JD ’96.
- Art + Well-Being, Deknatel Hall—Harvard Art Museums
Hosted by Meredith “Max” Hodges AB ’03, MBA ’10, this interactive conversation will include Whitney Cover EdM ’15 and Lisa Wong AB ’79.
Closing Celebration
5:00–7:00 p.m.
Science Center Plaza Tent
Join Harvard Alumni Association Executive Director Philip Lovejoy for an informal evening of connection and conversation, and a lively performance with Yosvany Terry, Director of Jazz Bands. Beer, wine, and light hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Optional Evening Activities (additional fees and registration may be required)
7:00 p.m. and onward
Locations across campus
- A Toast to A Cappella, Holden Chapel
Celebrate music–making at Harvard with a cappella performances from the Harvard Choruses. Mingle over wine and refreshments while enjoying vocal entertainment. Sponsored by the Radcliffe Choral Society Foundation. All Harvard alumni and friends welcome.
- The Bitter Game, OBERON—separate ticket purchase required
Award-winning director, writer, and performer Keith A. Wallace presents a solo performance in the form of a basketball game—charged with pain, poetry, and laughter—about what it means to survive as a black man in America. Purchase tickets directly from Harvard’s American Repertory Theater.
- Warhol Capote, Loeb Drama Center—separate ticket purchase required
In the late 1970s, Truman Capote and Andy Warhol decided to create a Broadway play together. Over the next several months, they recorded a series of intimate, wide-ranging conversations. The play never came to be, and hours of tape were lost to the ages. Until now.
With the support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Truman Capote Literary Trust, award-winning director Rob Roth—who discovered the recordings in the late 2000s—will unveil the content of the tapes in the world premiere of Warhol Capote
, a new play directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer. Purchase tickets directly from Harvard’s American Repertory Theater.
Advisory Board
Mia Riverton Alpert AB ’99
Helena Fruscio Altsman MPA ’15
Dan Borelli MDes ’12
Madelyn Ho AB ’08, MD ’17
Meredith “Max” Hodges AB ’03, MBA ’10
Robert Kraft AB ’76
Dona Le AB ’05
Jennifer Luce MDes ’94
Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence AB ’16
Kelley Johnson Purcell AB ’02
Ellen Gordon Reeves AB ’83, EdM ’86