Beyond the Classroom | The Arts

In the performing arts, students sing, dance, act, and make music in groups or as soloists. There are student-led performing groups and others directed by Harvard faculty. All groups perform at a variety of venues, and many take their productions on tour nationally and around the world. College facilities include concert halls, theaters with large stages or more intimate surroundings, dance and recording studios, rehearsal spaces, and practice rooms.

Students can join one of five orchestras, two jazz bands, a marching band, a concert band, a gospel choir, a glee club, many a cappella groups, several jazz combos, or a madrigal vocal ensemble. There are more than 60 drama and dance productions each year, ranging from Broadway musicals and Shakespearean tragedies to experimental pieces and original student plays. The Office for the Arts Dance Program offers noncredit classes in modern dance, ballet, jazz, tap, choreography, and improvisation, and approximately 20 student dance companies

Creative students may enjoy the visual arts as a personal endeavor or as a field of academic study. Harvard offers instruction and workshops as well as studios and exhibition spaces for painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and filmmaking. In both the performing and visual arts, the Office for the Arts (OFA) at Harvard is a central student resources, which supports student engagement in the arts through a broad array of programs and services.