Arts Medal to Honor Iconic Actor Tommy Lee Jones '69

www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu
Spring 2012
ArtsSpectrum
INSIDE
Celebrating 20 Years
of ARTS FIRST
Arts Medal
to Honor
Iconic Actor
Tommy Lee
Jones ‘69
“It’s no mean calling to bring fun into the afternoons of large numbers of people. That too is part of my
job, and I’m happy to serve when called on.”
No one would ever accuse the maker of that statement, Tommy Lee Jones ’69, of being anything less than
pragmatic and straightforward: an actor’s actor—and occasional director—he is revered for his deadpan portrayals
of law enforcement/military officers and other authority figures.
Harvard will pay tribute to Jones and his iconic artistry when he receives the Harvard Arts Medal on Thursday,
April 26, the kick-off event for the 2012 ARTS FIRST festival. The medal is given annually to an alumnus/a or faculty
member who has achieved distinction in the arts and who has made a special contribution to the good of the arts.
Jones has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of
federal marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller The Fugitive. Other memorable roles include the villain Two-Face
in Batman Forever, terrorist William Strannix in Under Siege, Agent K in the Men in Black films, former Texas Ranger
Woodrow F. Call in Lonesome Dove and Ed Tom Bell in No Country for Old Men. Jones has also portrayed real-life
figures such as businessman Howard Hughes, executed murderer Gary Gilmore, Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn in Coal
Miner’s Daughter and baseball great Ty Cobb.
Fellow Harvard-educated thespian John Lithgow ’67, who appeared with Jones in several theater productions
when both were undergraduates, will serve as host and moderator of the Arts Medal ceremony, which will include
a conversation with the honoree (illustrated with clips from his films) followed by the awarding of the medal by
Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust. The event takes place at 3 pm at Sanders Theatre; admission is free
but tickets are required, available through the Harvard Box Office beginning Tuesday, April 17: 617.496.2222,
www.boxoffice.harvard.edu.

Public Art
Insert your vision here
Transform your vision, whim, passion, or manifesto into a visual object,
environmental intervention, sound piece, or interactive encounter for
Harvard’s ARTS FIRST festival. Public art workshops, led by sculptor Nancy
Selvage, will provide the collaborative foundation to turn concepts into
expressive energy. Attend an initial brainstorming session—with pizza
served—on Tuesday, February 7, at 6 pm at Office for the Arts’ main office,
74 Mt. Auburn St. Undergraduate and graduate students welcome.
Selvage, former director of the OFA Ceramics Program, has created public
art for the City of Cambridge, the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, and the
North Carolina Zoo. A member of Boston Sculptors, she exhibits internationally.
Her work can be seen at www.nancyselvage.com.
For more information, contact the artist at nancyselvage@gmail.com or visit
www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/visualarts/course.php.
Dance
Theater
Musicals, dance concert, festival fill schedule
After the Hasty Pudding Theatricals finishes a month-long run on March 4 of
its 164th production—this year called There Will be Flood—and packs up
for New York and Bermuda, Farkas Hall (the former New College Theatre)
plays host to the OFA Dance Program’s annual spring concert March 23-31
(see other side for more information). Other undergraduate spring shows in
the Holyoke St. venue include Legally Blonde, The Musical by Laurence
O’Keefe ‘91, Nell Benjamin ‘93 and Heather Hach and Bitch: A Play about
Antigone by Andy Boyd ‘14.
In the Farkas Hall Studio, the Fourth Annual Student Playwrights’ Festival
is in residence April 16-22, and The Graveyard Book, an adaptation of Neil
Gaiman’s novel conceived by Elizabeth Mak ‘12, will be presented April 28-29.
In Radcliffe Yard’s Agassiz Theatre, the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention
and Response presents its annual production of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina
Monologues February 11-18; the South Asian Association presents the
annual showcase of music and dance, Ghungroo, February 19-March 4; the
Gilbert and Sullivan Players present Princess Ida March 12-April 1; and the
African Students Association presents Africa Night April 2-8. From April 9-22,
the 2012 Freshman Musical will be in residence.
For more information, visit www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/cal and filter listings
by choosing “Theater.” For tickets, visit www.boxoffice.harvard.edu or call
617.496.2222 (TTY 617.495.1642).
Music
Concerts give zing to spring
Highlights of the over 100 musical performances presented on campus this
spring at various venues include the following concerts, all taking place in
Sanders Theatre at 8 pm, unless otherwise noted.
Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra (HBCO; Phoebe Carrai, conductor)
joins the Harvard University Choir (Ed Jones, conductor) for its spring
Cantata Concert, “Music of Bach,” on March 4 in The Memorial Church.
For ARTS FIRST, HBCO goes back to Bach with the Brandenburg
Concertos 3-5 on April 28, and the University Choir performs a program
to be announced on April 29, both at the church.
New course focuses on Forsythe
Christopher Roman
Dominik Mentzos
Harvard Radcliffe Collegium Musicum (HRCM; Andrew G. Clark,
conductor) presents the “40th Anniversary Concert,” which includes
Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, on February 18; HRCM teams with Harvard Glee
Club, Radcliffe Choral Society and professional orchestra and soloists for
Mozart’s Requiem on March 2. Harvard Radcliffe Chorus (Kevin C. Leong,
conductor) performs Schubert’s Mass in A-flat on April 20.
Kuumba Singers of Harvard College presents the 42nd Annual Archie C.
Epps Spring Concert on April 21.
The OFA Dance Program springs into new territory with FAS’ launch of Dance
Director Jill Johnson’s credit course “Master Work – The Choreographic
Process of William Forsythe.” The course focuses on Forsythe’s work “One
Flat Thing, reproduced,” and will include a visit by Goethe Award-winning
Christopher Roman, the Dance Program’s spring artist-in-residence. Johnson
and Roman will each produce world premieres for a series of performances
at the end of March. Other special events include a community master class
with Israeli choreographer and Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company,
Ohad Naharin, and Boston Ballet Dance Talks, featuring contemporary ballet
performance and discussion.
For more information about these and other Dance Program events, call
617.495.8683 or visit www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/dance.
Harvard Wind Ensemble (Mark Olson, conductor), part of the Harvard
University Bands (Tom Everett, director), performs “The Music of Vincent
Persichetti” on March 3 and “Miles Ahead: Music Associated with Miles
Davis” on April 21, both at Lowell Hall. Harvard Jazz Bands (Tom Everett and
Mark Olson, conductors) and guest artists are also featured in “Blue Note:
Then and Now” on April 14.
Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra (Federico Cortese, conductor) performs works
by Falla, Debussy and Ravel in an ARTS FIRST concert on April 28.
For more information on the spring season—including concerts by the
Harvard Pops Orchestra, Mozart Society Orchestra and Bach Society
Orchestra—visit www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu and click on “Performing Arts,”
then “Music.”

74 Mt. Auburn Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
T 617.495.8676
F 617.495.8690
www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu
Arts Spectrum welcomes your questions
and comments: spectrum@fas.harvard.edu
ArtsSpectrum
Editor: Thomas Lee | Managing Editor: Gary Duehr
Associate Editor: Emily Vides | Design: Stoltze Design
Office for the Arts at Harvard
The OFA supports student engagement in the arts and integrates the arts
into University life. Through its programs and services, the OFA teaches and
mentors, fosters student art making, connects students to accomplished
artists, commissions new work, and partners with local, national, and
international constituencies.
Harvard Arts Resource Council
The Advisory Committee to the Office for the Arts at Harvard
Carlton Cuse ’81, Co-Chair
Robert Kraft ’76, Co-Chair
Neal Baer ’79 GSE, ’82 GSA, ’96 HMS
Paul Buttenwieser ’60, ’64 HMS, ’00 KSG
Sandy Climan ‘77, ‘79 HBS, ‘79 SPH
Barry Cohen, ’74, ’77 HBS, ’77 HLS
Lucy Fisher ‘71
Lauren Greenfield ’87, ’88 GSA
Charles Hirschhorn ‘79
Thomas B. McGrath ’76, ’80 HBS
Stanford Makishi ‘87
Jeffrey Melvoin ‘75
Andrea Miller-Keller ‘63
Keri Putnam ‘87
Mia Riverton ‘99
Sylvia Scheuer
David Scudder ‘57
Thomas Viertel ‘63
Irene Weigel ‘70
Edward Zwick ‘74
FAS Council on the Arts
Diana Sorensen, Chair
James F. Rothenberg Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures
and of Comparative Literature; Dean of Arts and Humanities
Federico Cortese
Conductor, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra; Senior Lecturer on Music
S. Allen Counter
Director of the Harvard Foundation, Professor of Neurology
Deborah Foster
Senior Lecturer on Folklore and Mythology
Jorie Graham
Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory
Jill Johnson
Dance Director, Office for the Arts Dance Program; Senior Lecturer,
Department of Music
Ruth Stella Lingford
Professor of the Practice of Animation; Director of Undergraduate Studies,
Visual and Environmental Studies
Cathleen McCormick
Director of Programs, Office for the Arts at Harvard
Jack Megan
Director, Office for the Arts at Harvard
Diane Paulus
Artistic Director, American Repertory Theater; Professor of the Practice
of Theater
Olaf Post
Preceptor in Music
Elaine Scarry
Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value;
Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows
Marcus Stern
Associate Director of the American Repertory Theater and the A.R.T./MXAT
Institute for Advanced Theatre Training; Lecturer on Dramatic Arts

www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu
Spring 2012
Happy 20th Birthday,
ARTS FIRST!
Twenty years ago, actor John Lithgow ’67 came up with an
idea. It sprung from his own experience of Harvard while an
undergraduate, and his memory of the “wild variety of creative
ferment,” as he calls it in his autobiography, Drama: An Actors
Education (Harper Collins, 2011).
His idea was to create something akin to an Edinburgh
Festival at Harvard University. It would occur over four days
each spring, celebrating the rich variety of student talent in the
performing and visual arts. Twenty years later, ARTS FIRST
has evolved into one of the largest college arts festivals in the
United States. Every year, more than 2,000 actors, dancers,
musicians, visual artists and art makers of all stripes present
close to 200 theatrical and dance productions, concerts, and
exhibitions, attended by thousands of art lovers from Greater
Boston. It is the culmination of a cycle of creation that begins in
the fall and builds to an explosive crescendo each spring.
As Lithgow observes in his book:
By now it is impossible to imagine a year at Harvard without it. During its four-day span,
hundreds of students act, dance, sing, play music, exhibit their art, and show their films.
Thousands more watch. Every theater and concert hall on the campus is pressed into
service. Twenty-odd buildings are converted to performance spaces. Harvard Yard is flung
open to the public and nearly everything is free.
The schedule for the 2012 festival, which runs from Thursday to Sunday, April 26 through 29,
will be released in late winter. Highlights include:
This extraordinary film and dance piece, created by David Michalek, features Harvard’s
Jill Johnson, Director of the OFA Dance Program.
Rhetoric, Jorie Graham. The focal point is the premiere of a multimedia student
presentation comprised of poetic fragments from the work of revered poets and alumni.
from intimate dramas at the Adams House Pool Theater to the premiere of a new opera on
the Loeb Drama Center Mainstage based on the life of poet Hart Crane.
So come celebrate the “creative ferment” of this extraordinary arts community! See the ARTS
FIRST Guide and online listings for event schedules at www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/arts.
For volunteer opportunities and other information, contact Associate Project Manager Gary
Duehr, arts@fas.harvard.edu, 617.495.8699.
Clockwise from top: ARTS FIRST parade (2003); Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble (2007,
Kris Snibbe); public art installation in Harvard Yard (2003); Harvard University Band (2009);
Asian American Dance Troupe (2002); 1997 Harvard Arts Medal recipient, singer/songwriter
Bonnie Raitt ‘72, with Master of the Arts at Harvard, actor John Lithgow ‘67 (1997).
Joe Lovano
www...
To learn more about OFA programs and services,
and for up-to-date info about events and other
arts opportunities at Harvard, go to:
www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu
Blue Note Groove, Part Two
Harvard swings with “Blue Note Records, Then and Now,” the year-long salute to the
label’s extraordinary legacy sponsored by the OFA Jazz Program and Harvard Jazz Bands
that includes film screenings and a Jazz Bands concert with special guest artists.
Wednesday, April 11, at 6:30 pm: Blue Note: a Story of Modern Jazz (1997), documentary
written and directed by Julian Benedikt; Thursday, April 12, time TBA: ‘Round Midnight
(1986), directed by Bertrand Tavernier. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square.
“Blue Note Records, Then and Now,” concert featuring the Harvard Jazz Bands
(Tom Everett and Mark Olson, conductors) with special guest saxophonist/composer
Joe Lovano, and others to be anounced. Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St. Tickets $15;
$8 students and seniors, available through the Harvard Box Office, 617.496.2222
(TTY 617.495.1642), www.boxoffice.harvard.edu.
Forsythe Fosters New Works
Head of The Forsythe Company since 2005, the innovative choreographer
William Forsythe is the focus of a credit course taught this term by OFA
Dance Program Director Jill Johnson, “Music 103r: Master Work: The
Choreographic Process of William Forsythe.” A comprehensive, transdisciplinary
study of Forsythe’s work “One Flat Thing, reproduced” will
inform the creation of a new collaborative piece to be premiered at an
evening of original dance works, which also includes work by Dance
Program Artist-in-Residence Christopher Roman created during the
recent Wintersession dance intensive.
Friday-Saturday, March 23-24, 30-31 at 8 pm, Farkas Hall. Tickets $15;
$10 students and seniors, available through the Harvard Box Office,
617.496.2222 (TTY 617.495.1642), www.boxoffice.harvard.edu.
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Read our Harvard Arts Beat blog:
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JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
Grants Available for Student Arts Projects
Office for the Arts project grants are awarded twice annually for
undergraduate arts projects in a range of artistic disciplines. These
grants are intended to seed a rich and varied student-arts landscape
in the College and to fund student artistic growth through artmaking.
Funding for 2013 ARTS FIRST festival projects is also available.
The deadline for fall 2012 projects is Wednesday, April 18.
For more information, visit www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/support/grants.
ArtsSpectrum Spring 2012 www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu