HARVARD
ARTS
FESTIVAL
Welcome to Harvard Arts Festival, May 1-4, 2025! Formerly Harvard ARTS FIRST Festival, this annual campus-wide celebration produced by the Office for the Arts at Harvard showcases the expansive creativity and innovation of Harvard students, staff, alums, and faculty.
Enjoy the dynamic imagination and cultural expression at the heart of this festival by visiting many of the university’s iconic indoor and outdoor spaces transformed by art making and open for all to explore. Year after year, Arts Fest draws 5,000+ audience members who are entertained, delighted, and inspired by the many art forms on display on outdoor and indoor stages, in Harvard’s museums, galleries, and classrooms, and across the green spaces of Harvard Yard.
Much of the festival is also live streamed on HarvardArts on YouTube.
For details on the Arts Fest Performance Fair on Saturday, May 3, review event listings in the College Calendar Performance Fair channel.
The festival is open to all, family-friendly, and mostly free. (Some ticketed events charge for admission.) The Office for the Arts invites everyone to join us at Arts Fest.
Welcome to the arts at Harvard!
Events
Other Calendars
Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Ancient Beacons Long for Notice
Thu, May 1, 2025 6pm to 8pm
Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall
Peripheries: a Journal of Word, Image, and Sound Issue 7 Launch Party
Thu, May 1, 2025 6pm
TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz
Thu, May 1, 2025 7:30pm to 8:15pm
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on Facebook
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on Twitter
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on LinkedIn
9 to 5: The Musical
Thu, May 1, 2025 8pm
The Old Man and The Old Moon
Thu, May 1, 2025 8pm
Loeb Drama Center, Loeb Experimental Theater
Organ Recital: Music of Burkhard Mohr in celebration of his 70th birthday
Fri, May 2, 2025 12:15pm to 1pm
Memorial Church, Memorial Church Sanctuary
Adore Short Film Festival
Fri, May 2, 2025 4pm to 9:30pm
Boylston Hall, Fong Auditorium
TDM Spring Theater Production: Moose Tracks
Fri, May 2, 2025 7:30pm to 9pm
Radcliffe Choral Society's 125th Anniversary Concert
Fri, May 2, 2025 8pm
The Methropolitan (ThropArts Showcase)
Sat, May 3, 2025 10am to 2pm
Winthrop House, Junior Common Room; Enter through G or H entry
Music 189R Chamber Ensembles Performance: Students of the Parker Quartet
Sat, May 3, 2025 10:30am to 12:30pm
Memorial Church, Main Sanctuary
Canceled: Speed Bumps, And Other Things Jesus Wouldn't Have Wanted
Sat, May 3, 2025 2pm to 4:45pm
Hasty Pudding Institute, Third Floor Stage
A Latin American Baroque Festival
Sat, May 3, 2025 8pm
Memorial Church, Main Sanctuary
Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness
Sat, May 3, 2025 8pm
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on Facebook
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on Twitter
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on LinkedIn
Chamber Music Concert
Sun, May 4, 2025 3pm
Mather House, Senior Common Room
GSAS Student Orchestra Spring Concert: Cubanismo Sinfónico
Sun, May 4, 2025 3pm to 5pm
Harvard Arts Medal Ceremony: Davóne Tines ’09
Sun, May 4, 2025 4pm to 5:30pm
StorySlam: Leadership Transitions
Sun, May 4, 2025 6:30pm
Phillips Brooks House, Parlor Room
Disrupt the View: Arlene Shechet at the Harvard Art Museums
Wed, Jan 1, 2025
More dates & times available
Exhibition: Encounters in the Americas
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 9am to 5pm
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology
More dates & times available
From Stone to Silicone: Recasting Mesopotamian Monuments Exhibition
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 11am to 4pm
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
More dates & times available
Measuring Difference
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 11am to 4pm
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
More dates & times available
Mediterranean Marketplaces: Connecting the Ancient World Exhibition
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 11am to 4pm
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
More dates & times available
Recreating the Throne of Egyptian Queen Hetepheres Exhibition
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 11am to 4pm
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
More dates & times available
Colors of Tbilisi
Wed, Apr 2, 2025 8am to 7pm
Center for Government and International Studies North Knafel Building, Fischer Commons Gallery
More dates & times available
Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory
Wed, Apr 2, 2025 10am to 6pm
More dates & times available
Alia Farid: Talismans
Wed, Apr 2, 2025 12pm to 4:30pm
Byerly Hall, Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery
More dates & times available
Illuminate: Contextualizing Asian American Women’s Stories through the Archives
Mon, Apr 21, 2025 9am to 4:30pm
Schlesinger Library, Lia and William Poorvu Gallery
More dates & times available
The art of becoming: Narratives of Transformative Love
Tue, Apr 29, 2025 10am to 7pm
Harvard Ed Portal, Crossings Gallery
More dates & times available
Canceled: Arts Fest Public Art: ¿Como que hay piñatas en el campus de Harvard? (Like there are piñatas on the Harvard campus?)
Thu, May 1, 2025
Harvard Yard, Near Holworthy Hall
- Share Arts Fest Public Art: ¿Como que hay piñatas en el campus de Harvard? (Like there are piñatas on the Harvard campus?) on Facebook
- Share Arts Fest Public Art: ¿Como que hay piñatas en el campus de Harvard? (Like there are piñatas on the Harvard campus?) on Twitter
- Share Arts Fest Public Art: ¿Como que hay piñatas en el campus de Harvard? (Like there are piñatas on the Harvard campus?) on LinkedIn
Arts Fest Public Art: STRATA (There Are Always Tracks to Follow)
Thu, May 1, 2025
Harvard Yard, Near Matthews Hall
Arts Fest Public Art: Yard Grotesque
Thu, May 1, 2025
Harvard Yard, Outdoors near Holworthy Hall
Take & Give: Swap Boxes for Allston-Brighton by Brooke Scibelli
Thu, May 1, 2025
More dates & times available
Rooted in Culture
Thu, May 1, 2025 8am to 7pm
Center for Government and International Studies South, Concourse Level
Visit Harvard Museum of Natural History
Thu, May 1, 2025 9am to 5pm
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Visit the Peabody Museum
Thu, May 1, 2025 9am to 5pm
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Visit the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Thu, May 1, 2025 11am to 4pm
Science Center, 1st and 2nd floors
Visit the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
Thu, May 1, 2025 11am to 4pm
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
Eliot House Spring Photography Exhibition
Thu, May 1, 2025 12pm to 4pm
Eliot House, Junior Common Room
Public Art Film Screening: We Still Live Here - Âs Nutayuneân
Thu, May 1, 2025 8pm to 9pm
Harvard Yard, Outdoors near Matthews Hall
Gallery Talk: Activation of Moholy-Nagy’s Light Prop for an Electric Stage
Fri, May 2, 2025 12:30pm to 1pm
AFVS Open Studios
Fri, May 2, 2025 5pm to 7pm
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
AFVS Senior Thesis Exhibition: Woosah!
Fri, May 2, 2025 5pm to 7pm
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
More dates & times available
The Methropolitan (ThropArts Showcase)
Sat, May 3, 2025 10am to 2pm
Winthrop House, Junior Common Room; Enter through G or H entry
Unframed: A Queer Art Exhibition
Sat, May 3, 2025 12pm to 4pm
Memorial Hall, Cambridge Queen's Head Pub, Basement Level
Exhibition Tour: Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking
Sun, May 4, 2025 10:30am to 11:30am
The Little Living Room: An Invitation to Contradiction
Fri, May 2, 2025 3pm to 7:30pm
Canceled: CANCELED Public Art Workshop: Piñata-Making with Leslie Ponce-Diaz GSD '25
Sat, May 3, 2025 1pm to 5pm
Harvard Yard, Outside, near Holworthy Hall
Handsome Boys Pickin' Band
Sat, May 3, 2025 1pm to 1:20pm
Stream Available
Harvard College Steelpan Ensemble
Sat, May 3, 2025 1:30pm to 2pm
Stream Available
Audrey Sun '28 & Natalie Zhang '27
Sat, May 3, 2025 2:30pm to 2:50pm
Stream Available
Dylan Wu '26 & Harvey Lin '26
Sat, May 3, 2025 3pm to 3:20pm
Stream Available
Christian Chiu '25 & Eliot Hodges '25
Sat, May 3, 2025 3:20pm to 3:40pm
Stream Available
Brendon Lau '26 & Harvey Lin '26
Sat, May 3, 2025 4:30pm to 4:50pm
Stream Available
Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness
Sat, May 3, 2025 8pm
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on Facebook
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on Twitter
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on LinkedIn
Music 189R Chamber Ensembles Performance: Students of the Parker Quartet
Sat, May 3, 2025 10:30am to 12:30pm
Memorial Church, Main Sanctuary
TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz
Thu, May 1, 2025 7:30pm to 8:15pm
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on Facebook
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on Twitter
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on LinkedIn
Enoch Li '26 & Saman de Silva '26
Sat, May 3, 2025 2:30pm to 2:50pm
Harvard Art Museums, Calderwood Courtyard
Dylan Wu '26 & Harvey Lin '26
Sat, May 3, 2025 3pm to 3:20pm
Stream Available
Disrupt the View: Arlene Shechet at the Harvard Art Museums
Wed, Jan 1, 2025
More dates & times available
Exhibition: Encounters in the Americas
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 9am to 5pm
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology
More dates & times available
From Stone to Silicone: Recasting Mesopotamian Monuments Exhibition
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 11am to 4pm
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
More dates & times available
Measuring Difference
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 11am to 4pm
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
More dates & times available
Mediterranean Marketplaces: Connecting the Ancient World Exhibition
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 11am to 4pm
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
More dates & times available
Recreating the Throne of Egyptian Queen Hetepheres Exhibition
Thu, Jan 2, 2025 11am to 4pm
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
More dates & times available
Colors of Tbilisi
Wed, Apr 2, 2025 8am to 7pm
Center for Government and International Studies North Knafel Building, Fischer Commons Gallery
More dates & times available
Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory
Wed, Apr 2, 2025 10am to 6pm
More dates & times available
Alia Farid: Talismans
Wed, Apr 2, 2025 12pm to 4:30pm
Byerly Hall, Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery
More dates & times available
Illuminate: Contextualizing Asian American Women’s Stories through the Archives
Mon, Apr 21, 2025 9am to 4:30pm
Schlesinger Library, Lia and William Poorvu Gallery
More dates & times available
The art of becoming: Narratives of Transformative Love
Tue, Apr 29, 2025 10am to 7pm
Harvard Ed Portal, Crossings Gallery
More dates & times available
Canceled: Arts Fest Public Art: ¿Como que hay piñatas en el campus de Harvard? (Like there are piñatas on the Harvard campus?)
Thu, May 1, 2025
Harvard Yard, Near Holworthy Hall
- Share Arts Fest Public Art: ¿Como que hay piñatas en el campus de Harvard? (Like there are piñatas on the Harvard campus?) on Facebook
- Share Arts Fest Public Art: ¿Como que hay piñatas en el campus de Harvard? (Like there are piñatas on the Harvard campus?) on Twitter
- Share Arts Fest Public Art: ¿Como que hay piñatas en el campus de Harvard? (Like there are piñatas on the Harvard campus?) on LinkedIn
Arts Fest Public Art: STRATA (There Are Always Tracks to Follow)
Thu, May 1, 2025
Harvard Yard, Near Matthews Hall
Arts Fest Public Art: Yard Grotesque
Thu, May 1, 2025
Harvard Yard, Outdoors near Holworthy Hall
Take & Give: Swap Boxes for Allston-Brighton by Brooke Scibelli
Thu, May 1, 2025
More dates & times available
Rooted in Culture
Thu, May 1, 2025 8am to 7pm
Center for Government and International Studies South, Concourse Level
Visit Harvard Museum of Natural History
Thu, May 1, 2025 9am to 5pm
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Visit the Peabody Museum
Thu, May 1, 2025 9am to 5pm
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Visit the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Thu, May 1, 2025 11am to 4pm
Science Center, 1st and 2nd floors
Visit the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
Thu, May 1, 2025 11am to 4pm
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
Eliot House Spring Photography Exhibition
Thu, May 1, 2025 12pm to 4pm
Eliot House, Junior Common Room
Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Ancient Beacons Long for Notice
Thu, May 1, 2025 6pm to 8pm
Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall
Peripheries: a Journal of Word, Image, and Sound Issue 7 Launch Party
Thu, May 1, 2025 6pm
TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz
Thu, May 1, 2025 7:30pm to 8:15pm
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on Facebook
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on Twitter
- Share TDM Spring Dance Production: An Archetypal Exploration of Arthur Hall's Fat Tuesday & All That Jazz on LinkedIn
9 to 5: The Musical
Thu, May 1, 2025 8pm
Public Art Film Screening: We Still Live Here - Âs Nutayuneân
Thu, May 1, 2025 8pm to 9pm
Harvard Yard, Outdoors near Matthews Hall
The Old Man and The Old Moon
Thu, May 1, 2025 8pm
Loeb Drama Center, Loeb Experimental Theater
Organ Recital: Music of Burkhard Mohr in celebration of his 70th birthday
Fri, May 2, 2025 12:15pm to 1pm
Memorial Church, Memorial Church Sanctuary
Gallery Talk: Activation of Moholy-Nagy’s Light Prop for an Electric Stage
Fri, May 2, 2025 12:30pm to 1pm
The Little Living Room: An Invitation to Contradiction
Fri, May 2, 2025 3pm to 7:30pm
Adore Short Film Festival
Fri, May 2, 2025 4pm to 9:30pm
Boylston Hall, Fong Auditorium
AFVS Open Studios
Fri, May 2, 2025 5pm to 7pm
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
AFVS Senior Thesis Exhibition: Woosah!
Fri, May 2, 2025 5pm to 7pm
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
More dates & times available
TDM Spring Theater Production: Moose Tracks
Fri, May 2, 2025 7:30pm to 9pm
Radcliffe Choral Society's 125th Anniversary Concert
Fri, May 2, 2025 8pm
The Methropolitan (ThropArts Showcase)
Sat, May 3, 2025 10am to 2pm
Winthrop House, Junior Common Room; Enter through G or H entry
Music 189R Chamber Ensembles Performance: Students of the Parker Quartet
Sat, May 3, 2025 10:30am to 12:30pm
Memorial Church, Main Sanctuary
Unframed: A Queer Art Exhibition
Sat, May 3, 2025 12pm to 4pm
Memorial Hall, Cambridge Queen's Head Pub, Basement Level
Canceled: CANCELED Public Art Workshop: Piñata-Making with Leslie Ponce-Diaz GSD '25
Sat, May 3, 2025 1pm to 5pm
Harvard Yard, Outside, near Holworthy Hall
Canceled: Speed Bumps, And Other Things Jesus Wouldn't Have Wanted
Sat, May 3, 2025 2pm to 4:45pm
Hasty Pudding Institute, Third Floor Stage
A Latin American Baroque Festival
Sat, May 3, 2025 8pm
Memorial Church, Main Sanctuary
Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness
Sat, May 3, 2025 8pm
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on Facebook
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on Twitter
- Share Kuumba Singers' 55th Annual Professor Hubert Walters and Mr. Robert Winfrey Spring Concert: A Light in the Darkness on LinkedIn
Exhibition Tour: Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking
Sun, May 4, 2025 10:30am to 11:30am
Chamber Music Concert
Sun, May 4, 2025 3pm
Mather House, Senior Common Room
GSAS Student Orchestra Spring Concert: Cubanismo Sinfónico
Sun, May 4, 2025 3pm to 5pm
Harvard Arts Medal Ceremony: Davóne Tines ’09
Sun, May 4, 2025 4pm to 5:30pm
StorySlam: Leadership Transitions
Sun, May 4, 2025 6:30pm
Phillips Brooks House, Parlor Room