ON DISPLAY HARVARD

ON DISPLAY HARVARD is presented by the OFA Dance Program each year as part of ON DISPLAY GLOBAL, a worldwide movement installation and social justice initiative created by physically-integrated dance company Heidi Latsky Dance. ON DISPLAY GLOBAL annually commemorates the United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3rd.

The OFA Dance Program has been an ambassador of the work since 2018, presenting ON DISPLAY HARVARD at accessible locations across campus as well as virtually each year, building a community of partners and diverse performers to bring awareness of disability justice, art, and culture to Harvard's campus and beyond.

The work invites performers and audience members alike to consider societal "norms" about disability and celebrates difference as an affirmation of our humanity. Originally created to disrupt public space, audience members are invited to wander through the installation, viewing each performer in close proximity and inhabiting the performance space. Participants in the work create sculptural compositions of their own making and on their own terms, in real time.

The tenuous and complex relationship between viewer and viewed that exists in performative work also permeates everyday life with people who are perceived as different in some way and hence draw attention to themselves whether they want to or not.

In this installation, the performers have the power to choose what they do or do not reveal, giving them control over a personal journey that cannot help but be affected by an audience. The slowness of the installation invites reflection and introspection for all involved.

“The gaze is an integral part of the installation as an instrument of agency, and ODG plays with the tension between the viewer and the viewed, often blurring the roles of audience member and performer to challenge conventional notions of beauty." 
–Living Sculptures: Honouring International Day of Persons with Disabilities, by Josephine Minhinnett, Fjord Review, 2020

ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2026

ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2025 will return to the Harvard Art Museums' Calderwood Courtyard on Thursday, December 3, 12pm-1pm, on International Day of Persons with Disabilities. 

Performers– a mix of Harvard students and community members– will create sculptural compositions of their own making, on their own terms, and which evolve in real time. The installation allows performers and the public alike to explore what it means to see and be seen, in slowness and silence. 

Wearable Art

Led by Sarah Yee '28 and Helen Hou '28, Harvard undergraduate students in the art and technology student group Conflux, and MIT undergraduate students in MIT Infinite, will be creating unique wearable art pieces for the performers as an extension of the work. 

Call for Performing Participants 

Students and community members with (apparent or unapparent) disabilities or without disabilities are all invited to participate as performers of ON DISPLAY HARVARD. This is a volunteer community experience. No previous dance or performance experience required!

Participation entails attending a training session on Monday, November 16, 6:30-8:30pm, at Harvard Dance Center, and performing the work on Thursday, December 3, 12-1pm, at Harvard Art Museums.

Performers will follow a movement "score" created by choreographer Heidi Latsky. The score leads performers in creating sculptural movement compositions of their own making, on their own terms, and which evolve in real time. Designed for all bodies and abilities, the work involves stillness, slow movement, structured improvisation, and internal focus.

While it's meant to be durational lasting one hour, participants will be offered options for shortening the time they are performing, as needed. Total number of performers will be limited to 25 and prioritization will be given to Harvard students and affiliates.

Sign up to be a participant performer!
 

Partners

Organizational Partners: Harvard Art Museums and Heidi Latsky Dance

Student Group Partners: Conflux and MIT Infinite

Wearable Art Advisors: Rosa Weinberg and Heidi Latsky

Accessibility

Sighted guides and live in-person audio description will be offered for blind and visually impaired audiences; a pre-show offering for tactile access with description of wearable art will be offered at 11:30am. Harvard Art Museums is wheelchair and other mobility devices accessible from all entrances. If you have questions about accessibility, please contact dance@fas.harvard.edu or 617-496-0314. 

More about ON DISPLAY HARVARD 

Read the Harvard Gazette feature about ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2024 by Grace DuVal.

View a time-lapse video of ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2023. The video has no sound and includes open audio description.

Campus partners from 2018-2024 include Harvard Art Museums; Harvard Common Spaces; Harvard Libraries; Cambridge Common Voices; Harvard Undergraduate Disability Justice Club, design,able, Domain Mediums of the Master in Design Studies (MDes) at GSD, The MiND Project, and (snobs._).

ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2023 & 2024 was part of Beyond Access: A Celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities at Harvard, a project in partnership with (snobs._) and other students in the Graduate School of Design, and winner of a Culture Lab Innovation Fund (CLIF) grant through the Harvard Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging.