ArtsPlus is the Answer

The sheer variety of student arts performances is one of Harvard’s greatest assets. From the Harvard Ballet Company’s semiannual shows to the countless a capella concerts, we attend an institution rife with artistic outlets. Enthusiasm for the plays, musicals and concerts attended by students, however, is always somewhat dimmed by ticket sticker shock.

It’s not that Harvard students are ungrateful or that they don’t want to invest in their liberal arts education; rather, it’s that many tend to think Harvard’s $19 billion endowment should do more to subsidize the cost of student tickets. But, of course, that’s a slippery slope. Start by funding the arts, and you might soon find students demanding to do away with the extremely reasonable fees for ordering transcripts from the registrar. Two-dollar copies, anyone?

So though Harvard’s tight purse strings might be blamed for the gradual thinning of theatregoers’ wallets, it doesn’t look like the administration will be doling out more money to groups anytime soon.There are, however, many steps that grant-giving organizations and the Undergraduate Council should take to distribute more equitable funding that can in turn help defray ticket costs. Some improvements have already been made. The Council’s new online common grant application is a great boon for arts groups. It allows these groups to apply for grants from multiple organizations—such as the Ann Radcliffe Trust and the Office for the Arts (OFA)—with just one application.

As I learned from Stephanie Troisi, however, a program associate at the OFA, many grant-giving organizations still don’t talk to each other about which groups have received their grants, despite the new conveniently central and streamlined process. “It just hasn’t happened because we all have different purposes, but that doesn’t mean it won’t in the future,” she said.

The current situation inevitably means that some arts performances will enjoy funding windfalls—receiving multiple grants from many organizations—while others starve for lack of funds. Because they can’t see which arts groups have received which grants, organizations using the council’s common application can’t ensure that Harvard’s funding is distributed with at least relative equity among the many arts performances.

So, why not pool the funds of these grant-giving organizations along with whatever the Council can contribute and distribute them evenly among Harvard students? Essentially, it would create a BoardPlus for the arts where students could spend this money freely at the Harvard Box Office on approved performances. This new system could then base funding on the size of the audience. Even $20 in “ArtsPlus” would go a long way towards encouraging all Harvard students to attend student performances. Moreover, tying arts funding to attendance would achieve one of the common goals of all grant-giving organizations: that it primarily benefits undergraduates. It would also simplify the grant application process for all parties involved. Best of all, this system would mitigate the arbitrary and unequal funding of arts performances by providing a base amount of funding to every one.

While we wait for Harvard’s brimming endowment to slowly trickle down, the very least the college owes us is a cheaper a capella concert. I’m tired of paying seven dollars per ticket while the Fallen Angels put on a show down the hall for free. ArtsPlus will place funding discretion for arts performances where it belongs: in the hands of the students.

Alex Slack, a Crimson editorial editor, is a history concentrator in Leverett House.