Civic Engagement

The OFA believes that the arts are a powerful tool for the public good—a way for Harvard students to help build the world they want to live in. Civic Engagement programs highlight how the arts intersect with public policy, democracy-building, philanthropy, education, and community leadership, offering students perspectives on how creative work can contribute to civic life.

Community-Centered Art-Making Practices

The OFA brings professional guest artists to campus whose creative work and process is community-based. This form of artmaking is participatory and centers people as the material or medium of the artmaking itself, centering the local community as core to the artistic process. Past projects include the Era Footwork Collective.

Art for Social Change

The OFA supports artists and student groups who are working at the intersections between art, community, and social justice. In partnership with the Philips Brooks House, the OFA supports and amplifies the work of student orgs such as Harmony, City Step as well as the Harvard Choruses’ Cambridge Common Voices, which use artmaking as a way to elevate and support inclusivity, community building, and public health.

Culture in Action Speaker Series

Through the Culture in Action Speaker Series in collaboration with the Kennedy School, students encounter artists, cultural leaders, and policymakers whose work connects creative practice with social change, cultural policy, and community engagement.

Past speakers have included Maria Rosario Jackson (National Endowment for the Arts), Deborah Rutter (formerly Kennedy Center), Genna Styles (Americans for the Arts), Rich Wenning (BeFoundation), Afa Dworkin (Sphinx Organization), Catherine Morris (The Boston Foundation), and Giles Li (Barr Foundation).