Food Fight

FOOD FIGHT

By CHRISTINA B. ROSENBERGER and SOMAN S. CHAINANI

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

By CHRISTINA B. ROSENBERGER and SOMAN S. CHAINANI

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

"Space! Money! Resources! Cash!"

Four Harvard Students are screaming about money, power and real estate at fever pitch. A commanding voice breaks out over the din: "Space, resources and money. It's about who controls that, and how they're distributing it." Mutterings can be heard. A dark-haired senior with horn-rimmed glasses grumbles about "having a 19-billion dollar endowment and no equipment," while the blond female mentions grants, budgets, and out-of-pocket expenses. And finally, a soft-spoken young man quietly mentions "the Administration."

And then a nice, chipper waitress wearing a red apron leans over the table. "Would you like rice with your Crispy Chicken?"

Because this is not a meeting of the Harvard Corporation, or a Goldman interview, but a table of hungry artists. And the option of white rice, at no additional cost, is something they listen to.

In search of the truth about the Arts at Harvard, The Crimson set up a round table of student artists last week. And what, you ask, did we find? We found out that Sarah C. Haskins '01 is a vegetarian, when she isn't eating pork dumplings, that Jesse A. Green '02-'03 lives across the hall from the Rugby team, and that James C. Augustine '01 is, in fact, the mother of W. David Marx '01. We found out that the Loeb Experimental Theater doesn't have a sound system, that performance space is of primary concern to artists of various genres, and that it is nearly impossible to get into a VES class, no matter how pretty you are. We discovered, in short, what we already knew existed: a passionate, feisty group of young artists, constantly pushing both at the boundaries of their own art and those of the artistic community at Harvard. Let the food fly.

STARVINGARTISTS

Four Student Artists Ponder the State of the Arts at Harvard

Four Student Artists Ponder the State of the Arts at Harvard

The Harvard Crimson: What do you all think is the biggest problem with the arts at Harvard?

[Shouts heard amid general uproar: Space! Money! Resources! Cash!]

W. David Marx: Space, resources, money, who controls that, and how they're giving it out.

Jim Augustine: Yes. We have a $19 billion endowment and no sound equipment for the Loeb. Explain.

DM: Scandalous.

JA: Scandal!

Jesse Green: The arts do not seem high on the agenda of the Harvard administration at all.

DM: I don't think it's the administration's fault at all. I think the people who are in charge of these powerful positions in terms of art at Harvard are using their positions somewhat to their advantage.

Sarah Haskins: The people I've worked with in the grants office have been pretty helpful about telling you where the money is. But not every organization knows that they have a standard budget that they can rely on for the next year. And that way a lot of out-of-pocket expenses come from the members, which makes it difficult. If you get a $400 grant one year, and the next year you apply for it again but only get $100, it makes a big difference in what you can do and where you can go.

JA: My sophomore year, I spoke in front of the Board of Governors, which I didn't even know existed. So I spoke about theater. I explained to them what goes on and what we needed from them. And they just sat there, literally, with these smiles plastered to their faces. It's lip service. It's as if they're saying "Yes, there are arts at Harvard, and that's important because Harvard is Arts and Sciences, so there'd better be some arts! And as long as we hear that it's still going on, everything's fine." Going to the Board of Governors of Harvard University was the campiest adventure of my life.

THC: It's fall, and recruiting is going full force...

[JA begins breathing heavily]

DM: Don't remind me!

JG: Recruiting for who?

SH: McKinsey all the way!

THC: So, how do you feel about being an artist in an environment where the 'right' post-graduation job seems to be consulting or investment banking?

JG: I never want to do that.

JA: I think it's great. They always take us dancers. But seriously, you know what's so hard? It's so hard to see people going into senior year screaming "I'm an artist! I'm an artist!" And at the end of the year you ask them what they're doing next year, and they say "Working for Goldman Sachs..." It's always, always the amazing ballerinas or jazz dancers. I personally think that it's a conspiracy to put jocks and ballerinas together at work, where they work their lives away, so the only place they can meet people is at work, so they can have little Harvard babies who are either really good at ballet or really good at football.

DM: You read that on the Internet! You didn't make that up.

JA: Ooohhh! Is that on the Internet?

DM: Conspire.com, man.

JA: Really? Oh.

DM: Do you guys really feel like there's pressure? Great, there are people that do I-banking. But do you really feel...

JA: I do.

JG: I like the security of knowing that when I leave I have a Harvard degree, and if I really, really have to then I can maybe get one of those jobs, but it's not anything I want to do.

JA: I didn't feel it until I came back for senior year. I kept being like, "I'm going to be an artist." And even after having a revelation this summer-"Yes, I must go into theater, that's my life"-I still feel like I'm giving up the opportunity. It seems like if you don't do recruiting senior year, then you'll never have a job in business, ever. Which isn't necessarily the case, but-

DM: But do you want to have a job in business?

JA: No, never. I never want to do business in my entire life.

DM: You're like my Mom!

JA: Yes, I am your Mother.

DM: "Well, you have to get an I-banking job because of this..." "Well, Mom, I'm never going to do that." "Well, then..."

JA: I am your Mom. But I still think that that pressure is there.

DM: What's interesting is that being on the Lampoon [a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to be occassionally publish a so-called humor magazine], all the seniors go to L.A. or New York and go get writing jobs. And when you're surrounded by that, it's a different atmosphere. You think, "Oh, these guys do survive. They're still living, even though they're not I-banking."

JA: I've never lived by myself and had to deal with things like health insurance. My mother said, "How are you getting health insurace if you go into the arts?" And I said "I'll get it, I'll get it, I'll get it." And she finally laid off. So I went upstairs to my room and called my sister and asked "What's health insurance?" I mean, I thought it was the one that when you die the money gets left behind you. So I was like, "I don't need that shit!"

DM: Life insurance!

JA: I don't know the first thing about surviving. Paying rent. Which is my own stupid fault. I have trouble tying my shoes some days, too. But it is definetly a concern. You see people go off and live very comfortably for the rest of their lives. And though it's boring, you respect that.

JG: I was in San Fransisco this summer, and was connected with a lot with people who were in the film scene there, people who went to theater, plays, were happily involved in the local music scene...But there was also a huge group of Harvard and Ivy people, either graduates or summer joblings, who were miserable. I think that's my point: happy vs. miserable.

DM: What were they doing?

JG: Consulting, I-banking, start-ups, 120 hours a week, until 3a.m. on Friday nights...blah, blah blah.

SH: It's also hard...getting a job in the arts here because it's a lot about connections, in terms of if you are going to get a job in the art world that will support you. And panels about actors' resumes aren't as helpful as just meeting people who say, "I think you're very talented, let's do this thing..."

DM: Or just going to L.A. You just have to physically be there.

SH: Right. You go there, and live on someone's futon, and then one day you get a job, and someone lives on your futon.

DM: Exactly.

SH: And I'm bad at math. So what else am I going to do?

[JG: Are your dumplings veggie? I'm assuming mine are veggie. But they just don't have the texture of veggie. I'm a little scared...They seem like pork. I asked for veggie.

THC: Oh wait! These are veggie.

JG: Those are veggie?

SH: So I just killed a pig?

JG: No, actually, they killed the pig. You're just finishing it off.

THC: We asked for veggie too.

JG: We both asked for veggie?

JA: I don't think any of them are veggie.

JG: I opened these up, they taste good...

JA: Are you a vegetarian?

SH: Well, yes, when I'm not eating pork dumplings.]

THC: There seems to be a general trend in the U.S. of the dumbing-down of the arts. Do you see this trend at Harvard?

JG: I think so, a bit. I'm thinking specifically of the theater scene here-please don't be offended Jim-big, showy musicals that attract lots of peppy performers and the audiences came in droves. But there's not really an insurgent, underground experimental theater scene-people don't seem impelled to push the envelope.

JA: I think that's absolutely true, and I think that big splashy musicals do attract larger audiences. Look at Jesus Christ Superstar last year-

DM: Which was fabulous, by the way-

JA: -it was very orange, and very loud, and I'm not sure you can say much else about it. But one thing you can say about it is that it filled the house every single night. It was great. It was great to perform in because people came to see you-whether they liked the show or not is a different issue, but people came. The rugby team, for the love of God, came to see it.

JG: Really? They live across the hall from me.

JA: Nice. Party in their room. But at the same time, as someone who's partly in charge of the requisite big splashy musical of the semester, I feel like there are some people trying to do some things with that, though. It's not just big and splashy-because I think big and splashy can be extremely boring-but ultimately people come away from it not thinking about anything. And also, in terms of an underground theater scene, that's where I'm more nervous.

JG: I think the tradition of experimental theater is being continued now by the visiting artists. I was in King Kong my freshman year, and that was the big experimental production for the year, and Agamemnon is here now with some visiting graduates from Harvard and Northwestern, and that's continuing the experimental tradition. But no students seem to be starting their own groups.

THC: Do you all feel like you missed something by not going to a pre-professional arts school, such as Julliard?

DM: Well, we have a VES department, and if you want to learn film, you have to take a VES class, which you won't get into. Unless you're a VES concentrator. Or you beg. Or they like your looks...whatever they're judging on these days. My friend just applied for a class and submitted a video tape of some previous work, which should help, and didn't get in. So he went to the professor and said "So, how'd you like my video tape?" And the professor "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to watch it." But isn't that part of the process, trying to find talent?

JG: Unfortunetly, the big thing about the VES department -I'm a film concentrator-is that it's one of the few honors concentrations at Harvard. And because they call themselves that they have the ability to only have a small number of faculty, really devote classes to a small number of students and be very specific in their training. And unfortunetly, Harvard does not supply the rest of the community with a significant outlet. That's the problem. It' s not necessarily the VES department not taking students outside their concentration-they would if they could.

DM: We have the HRTV, which people go, Oh, HRTV, which provides professional quality digital cameras and sound equipment, steady-cam juniors, professional editing equipment, everything you want to go out and do it, and no one does it. Maybe it's HRTV's fault, but the point is that kids aren't going out and using it.

JA: Well, also, if I were to go pick up something from the HRTV to use it, I wouldn't know how to use it except to press play or record. You need the kind of training you can get over in VES. I think the biggest problem is that there's a huge demand for these courses and Harvard doesn't give you enough funding. If there was enough funding, you could have enough professors to teach enough courses. Introductory film should be just like Introductory English, where as many people as want to can take it.

DM: Music is the same way. You have this electronic music studio, which only ten people each year can use. There are all these resources, but they are all so limited.

SH: Like Jim was saying, people could benefit from more theater training. There are what, four or five acting classes? Which have 20 people in them each, and everyone has applied for them. It's difficult.

DM: But the thing that always gets me about VES is that not only do they refuse to provide equipment for people, but-

SH: That they're not providing it snottily?

JG: I'm not snotty!

DM: No, but at the end of the year, when they finally make these films, they don't invite anybody! You never hear about the films, and then you have to know somebody to get a ticket...it's as if they're saying "We're not going to let you make films, and we're not even going to let you see the films other people have made."

JG: I hear so many people talk about the VES department and those exact things all the time, and I wish it were different. But personally I don't think it's just the VES department. I don't hear about a lot of events at Harvard. I feel like I miss speakers every week just because I didn't know they were here.

[JG: What is this? Crispy beef?

JA: Crispy Chicken.

DM: They get everything wrong!

JG: Is this orange beef?

JA: It's okay.

SH: Fait Accompli.

DM: This might be your General Tsao's chicken.

JA: That's not General Tsao's chicken. That's Crispy Chicken.

DM: It's monkey's brains.

JA: Ooohhh.

JG: Is this the General Tsao's Chicken? Is this chicken?