Harvard Report on the Arts - Dec 2008

This report calls for far-reaching changes in the undergraduate curriculum, for the creation of new graduate programs, and for the construction of major new facilities to give the arts a greater presence at Harvard. Our recommendations are the fruits of a year-long effort by the members and staff of the Task Force on the Arts in response to President Drew Faust’s request for “an ambitious rethinking of the place of arts practice at Harvard.” The vision we have is serious, time-consuming, and, in some cases, costly— and we are well aware that this report emerges at a time of grave economic hardship in our own community and throughout the world—but the measures we propose are, in our view, necessary. To allow innovation and imagination to thrive on our campus, to educate and empower creative minds across all disciplines, to help shape the twenty-first century, Harvard must make the arts an integral part of the cognitive life of the university: for along with the sciences and the humanities, the arts—as they are both experienced and practiced—are irreplaceable instruments of knowledge.

When I was studying at Harvard Law School, I wanted to continue creating art. Dance in particular. But there were very very few avenues for this within the campus. I remember going to a super boring jazz dance class. And never went again. I managed to do a nice classical indian dance for the campus wide Arts First event but it all felt like arts did not have a serious and integral role in the intellectual lives of Harvard. This shocked me to the core. I guess I expected a more enlightened approach to arts and the pursuit of creativity within a community like Harvard which seemed progressive and cutting-edge at many other fronts. But that was clearly not the case. Mira Nair, a Harvard graduate, also spoke of this and how she had to run away to New York on weekends for some serious artistic pursuits. This report recently issued by Harvard squarely addresses this issue. How arts has suffered benign neglect within Harvard and how it is high time that this be changed. Very exciting.