OFA Will Hire Student Intern to Assist Black Arts Program

Arts for black students at Harvard will soon receive new support, thanks to the Office of the Arts at Harvard and Radcliffe (OFA).

The OFA announced plans to employ an undergraduate student to study black artists and art groups on campus, and to possibly recommend a program of support for black artists.

One of the chief goals of the student research partner will be to survey the community of black artists on campus and see what kind of programs or organizations might best galvanize students and serve the community.

The OFA program is part of the Radcliffe Research Partnership Program, which funds the cost of the position. The program matches Harvard faculty and staff with undergraduate students for research and mentoring purposes. For the first time this year, with the merger of Radcliffe and Harvard, the research partnerships will be open to both male and female undergraduates.

"We will put the student to work with us as a full partner," said OFA director Myra A. Mayman.

Organizers said the OFA hopes to build on the recent successes of black arts programs with the new partnership.

The number of art programs designed especially for Harvard's black community has grown in recent years. The Black Arts Council, established in 1998, was created to make black artists on campus aware of the many artistic resources that the college provides. Also, Harvard's first annual Black Arts Festival was held in February 1998.

In creating the position, the OFA also wants to address perceived weaknesses within the campus black arts community.

"In some ways [the black arts community] is vibrant and in other ways it's lacking," said Adey K. Delbridge '00, president of the Kuumba Singers.

"Some avenues of black art need to be expressed and explored. Many black artist lack a support network," he said.

Delbridge is not alone in his feeling that more support is necessary for black artists.

"I think we definitely need a stronger voice of black arts on campus," said Aaliyah N. Williams '02, who sang with the Kuumba Singers last year.

"For instance, we need more black plays and [they need to be] promoted in the way they should be," she said.

Williams said she hoped that the new position would help create more black arts groups that would complement the current ones.

The specific idea of the position that the OFA is proposing came from the suggestion of Phillip A. Goff '99, a founder of the Black Arts Council.

He was worried about a potential leadership vacuum in the black arts community in the future, according to the OFA, so he requested the office's help in continuing the effort to support black arts on campus.

"We are responding to something that was brought to us as a need," Mayman said. "We want to see if there is indeed a leadership vacuum in the black arts community, and if so, what can we do to help."

Delbridge, however, said he's not concerned about the future of the leadership of the black arts community.

"There are people waiting in the wings ready to step in," Delbridge said. "There is not a vacuum of leaders; leaders will come forth."

Still, though, the OFA and Goff have pinpointed precarious areas within the black arts community. For example, the Black Arts Council has largely been inactive this year.

Delbridge, for one, said he believes the OFA position could help enliven the Council.

"Anything that tries to get the pulse of the black arts community is important," Delbridge said.

The focus on promoting black arts on campus is in keeping with the OFA's goal of maximizing undergraduates' creativity.

Mayman said she sees the focus on just one ethnic group's art not as something that will divide students or promote just one community, but as potentially promoting unity on campus.

"Arts is such a powerful way to create communities and bring people together," Mayman said. "It creates appreciation for common experience."

Other Radcliffe Research Partnerships for the OFA have focused on event management and a community partnership through the arts.