Portrait of the Arts as a Young Program

The arts at Harvard today began at Radcliffe under the directorship of a small, misnamed Office of Sports, Dance and Recreation. Until the merger in 1972, this office coordinated the few art programs that Harvard had--the very few.

Today, the Office of the Arts at Harvard-Radcliffe under the guiding hand of director Myra A. Mayman, has grown enormously in breadth and depth, offering instruction in many arts including pottery, printmaking, painting and dance. "When I came to Harvard in 1973, the arts were too recreational," Mayman explains. "It was my intention to start serious and demanding programs in the arts that focused on expert direction and instruction." Following the merger, Harvard took responsibility for sports, dance became a stepped-up program and all vestiges of recreation were soon gone.

Mayman is quick to point out that today there is no such thing as "the arts at Radcliffe." The office runs programs for undergraduates, she explains, giving no preferential treatment to women.

However, many still associate the art programs here with Radcliffe because Radcliffe pays for the majority of the programs' expenses out of its annual budget. The rest of the funding comes out of President Bok's discretionary fund. Mayman says that Radcliffe pays for most of the programs because of "tradition." "There are some programs that were specifically developed by Radcliffe and Harvard doesn't want to pay for them or have anything to do with them," Mayman says. "Radcliffe developed the pottery studio and will continue to pay for it." The programs that Bok pays for are those that Mayman developed in conjunction with the president after the merger.

So while Mayman's office "serves undergraduates" Radcliffe still carries the economic burden. No one is complaining too loudly about this less-than-equitable arrangement. Mayman does say, however, that money from the Radcliffe Century Fund Drive and the Harvard Core Campaign will both go towards making the Office of the Arts a permanent fixture at the University by supplying it with an endowment.

Until then, the office will continue to offer the kind of intense programs it has been coordinating for the last six years. Claire Malardi directs the developed dance program. Affiliated with the Cambridge School of Ballet, the program includes instruction in ballet, modern and jazz dance as well as concerts and workshops in dance. Although Malardi believes no credit for dance courses forces students to make dance a second priority to graded course work, she praises the program for supplying intellectual and philosophical instruction as well as many students' outstanding dedication.

Its location beyond the Observatory makes the Radcliffe ceramic studio inconvenient for some undergraduates, Mayman says. She adds, however, that the staff there is "the most unique on the east coast." The studio, which started in a small basement many years ago now fills a large former warehouse with five kilns, 18 wheels and many varied experimental programs. It is just one example of the Office's success stories.

Much of the money for the arts that comes from Bok's discretionary fund provides capital for programs that deal more directly with the analytical and philosophical side of the arts. "Learning from Performers" is one such program. Each year it brings guest artists to Harvard to work on a small scale with undergraduates. Last year, the program brought the director of Broadway's Pacific Overtures. He ran a three-part seminar with students interested in theatrical direction. This year the office will offer seminars with tenor Paul Sperry and playwright Jonathan Levy. Sculptor Ann Sperry will offer a seminar as well as lecturing about contemporary American women artists. "We want to get students involved with artists in a way that they couldn't themselves," Mayman says, and the personal interaction that goes on in the seminar ensures this goal.

The office also provides money to student artists who want to work independent of the office's programs. A standing committee of the faculty grants up to $10,000 a year to students proposing innovative programs "which will broaden undergraduates' understanding of the arts." The office also coordinates the goings-on at the Agassiz theater next door to its Radcliffe yard office. "At the theater we've got a doctrine of anti-interference," Mayman says--a policy which is largely absent from all other aspects of the office's intense professional instruction.

The Office of the Arts, as it is today, Mayman explains, was spawned by two events: the merger and by the recommendations of Bok's 1973 committee to review the state of the arts at the University. The committee, headed by James S. Ackerman, professor of Fine Arts, suggested that the presidents create an office which might eliminate the "confusion and diffusion" of the arts at the newly merged schools.

It didn't take long for Mayman and her office to eliminate whatever confusion and diffusion that plagued the arts at the schools before and during the merger. The office--and the arts at Harvard-Radcliffe--now look as complete and polished as a painting by a master artist.