In high school, I was one of those kids who spent as much time in the studio as in my own home; I don't think I owned a single pair of jeans that didn't have at least one splotch of paint on them. My best friend was a ballerina, and my younger brother spent the better part of a decade keeping me awake with late-night practice sessions on his piano or saxophone.
When I came to Harvard as a freshman, all that changed. I never stopped loving art, but I was no longer connected to the arts scene on campus. I stopped drawing; I no longer lived with a musician who loved late-night jazz, and I stopped going to gallery shows, dance performances, and plays with the regularity that had previously defined my existence.
Needless to say, it was weird state of affairs, one that felt inherently wrong and, for me, thoroughly unsustainable. For while Harvard may not be first and foremost an arts school, it certainly has a vibrant artistic community all its own, full of variety, talent, and, perhaps most importantly, passion.
So began my re-education in the arts. My sophomore year, I worked at the Office for the Arts helping them put together the guide for ARTS FIRST, a yearly celebration of arts on campus that regularly features hundreds of performances and shows across campus.
Now, as a junior, I'll be engaging with the arts on campus more directly. This blog is an opportunity to present a student's take on the arts at Harvard, and, over the next few weeks, I'm going to do my best to do just that.
