Arts & Culture

Actress Laura Linney provided insights on her work — and on acting in general — for 100 members of the Harvard community as part of the Office for the Arts’ Learning From Performers series.

Since 2009, three of Harvard’s main arts positions have changed hands. The fresh leaders of the music, dance, and choral spheres represent an important new direction for the arts.

Harvard Professor Jill Lepore led off a murderers’ row lineup of six Harvard professors for “GenEd at Bat: A Discussion of America’s Favorite Pastime with the Faculty of Gen Ed” at Science Center A on Tuesday.

A tactile exhibit called “Cold War in the Classroom” views recent history through the artifacts of a dangerous era, the tensions from which penetrated American schools.

The Silk Road Ensemble, a group of musicians from around the world led by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, was at Harvard for a weeklong residency, helping students to compose, playing with undergraduates, exploring the link between business and the arts, and discussing arts and education.

Harvard President Drew Faust will host a panel discussion Nov. 15 with the alumni behind the groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China” as part of Harvard’s 375th anniversary celebration.

Harvard’s new director of the OFA Dance Program, Jill Johnson, brings a love of movement and a boundless curiosity to the post and a desire to connect her disciplines to a range of academic pursuits.

Radcliffe fellow Tayari Jones’ new novel, steeped in the South, shows the knotty complexity of families’ lives.

Students from the Boston Arts Academy got some positive reinforcement today when they came to Harvard University for a special panel discussion with celebrated jazz musician Wynton Marsalis.

Before a rapt audience at Sanders Theatre, jazz great Wynton Marsalis explored the history of American dance in the second lecture in a two-year series, “Hidden in Plain View: Meanings in American Music.”

Common Spaces, the initiative that encourages community in and around Harvard Yard, kicked off its fall programming with four songs by the cast of the American Repertory Theater’s “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.”

A new exhibition at the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum explores how the rich exchanges between artists and scholars of the 16th century advanced the creation and dissemination of knowledge.

Harvard University announced today that Wynton Marsalis will continue his two-year lecture series with an appearance at Sanders Theatre on Sept. 15.

A.R.T. reimagines the classic Gershwin opera, with help from some Harvard undergraduates.

A Harvard historian weighs in on a controversy about “black Confederates,” describing how many there were and what meaning they have in an ongoing debate over the causes of the Civil War.

A roundup of recent books by Harvard faculty members.

An undergraduate on summer break is inspired to write a poem celebrating Harvard’s 375th anniversary.

The tradition of visiting faculty at Harvard’s Department of Visual and Environmental Studies brings art and insight to the classroom.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History celebrates the world of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter in a gallery scavenger hunt that has proven to be a popular and educational experience.

A Radcliffe Fellow is working on an opera about the world’s love affair with coffee and how it grew from the bean that made goats jittery to the potion we all get jittery for.

In late May and early June the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra traveled to Cuba for a series of concerts in Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Havana.

The renovated and expanded facility of the Harvard Art Museums eventually will link the University’s collections under one roof.

Through an innovative program, immigrants explore the Harvard Art Museums’ galleries, polishing their English skills and learning lessons in American democracy.

The arrival of the first components of the new Fisk Opus 139 organ for the Memorial Church was welcomed with song on June 20.

Historian Joyce Chaplin is completing her latest book, on the history and influence of circumnavigation. For her, globalization is an old story.

The new Transit Gallery in Gordon Hall at Harvard Medical School lets students and staffers appreciate the fine arts while getting from place to place.

The 2011 Elliot Norton Awards, awarded on May 23 at the Paramount Theatre in Boston, honored the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) with six awards in the Large Theater category.

A handful of authors featured in Harvard Bound over the past year answer the question: What is an essential book for today’s graduates — and why? Here are their suggestions as the newest Harvard degree-holders head out into the world.

Actress and playwright Amy Brenneman and longtime collaborator Sabrina Peck, both Harvard graduates, reunite at the American Repertory Theater to present their play about spirituality, fame, and a debilitating illness.

Harvard Linguistics Professor Maria Polinsky and her lab team work to understand and preserve ancient Mayan tongues, with the help of native speakers.