The art of the real

Timothy Hall, one of the artists commissioned by HUCA, was part of Arboretum Experience, an A.R.T./Arboretum collaboration.

Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus & Community
The art of the real

Seven visiting artists leave their marks on campus

Nate Herpich

Harvard Correspondent

December 10, 2021 3 min read

This semester, the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA) welcomed students, faculty, and staff back to campus with six commissions from seven contemporary artists across various disciplines. The projects create unique opportunities to explore Harvard, in locations ranging from the Yard to the Arboretum to the ArtLab, through dance, visual art, music, and more.

“Over the last decade or so, we’ve transformed the role of the arts here at Harvard, and one of the ways that we’ve done that is through collaborative relationships with visiting artists,” said Robin Kelsey, HUCA co-chair and Harvard’s dean of arts and humanities. “This particular array of artists gives us a chance to demonstrate just how transformative these relationships can be. They are a remarkable group, with very distinctive practices and approaches. And what unites them is that they’re all deeply engaged with the issues of our time, with questions of justice, of the social fabric, and with how we revitalize our communities.”

Four of the artists who left their marks on Harvard’s campuses are Timothy Hall, who created audio plays, movement meditations, and pop-up performances at the Arboretum; Tomashi Jackson, whose vibrant banners depicting Civil Rights activists animated the Yard; Nailah Randall-Bellinger, who created “Initiation — In Love Solidarity,” a choreographic narrative exploring the reclamation of Black identity; and Jordan Weber, whose sculpture at the ArtLab memorializes the ongoing trauma Black and indigenous communities suffer, and includes an excerpt from Harvard graduate Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb.”

Timothy Hall is photographed at Arnold Arboretum.

Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Views of the installation of Tomashi Jackson’s banners at Widener Library, which are supported by HUCA. Mark Muniz of Harvard Campus Services installs more than 100 banners.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Visual artist Tomashi Jackson animates the Yard with vibrant banners that depict Civil Rights activists Ruth Batson and Pauli Murray. The project draws on material from the collections of Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America that detail their efforts.

Photos by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Film creator and choreographer Nailah Randall-Bellinger (from left), choreographer Christina Belinsky, and dancers Toni Singleton and Jenny Oliver at the Smith Center, where Randall-Bellinger’s film was screened.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Moderator Felice León (left), a multimedia journalist and 2021-22 Nieman Fellow, and Nailah Randall-Bellinger at the film screening and conversation at Smith Campus Center.

Photos by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Views of the installation of Jordan Weber’s work outside the ArtLab with the help of Cambridge Landscaping. Weber, an HUCA artist, is a Des Moines-based regenerative land sculptor and environmental activist who works at the intersection of social justice and environmental racism.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Views of Jordan Weber’s installation outside of the ArtLab. Jordan added bronze plaques to the stones that contain an excerpt from a poem by Harvard alumna Amanda Gorman ’20 that reads: “The loss we carry, a sea we must wade.”

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Details of Jordan Weber’s work outside of the ArtLab.

Photos by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

An overview of Jordan Weber’s outdoor work.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer