Rockwell’s position as an overseer makes him a key figure in discussing the role and the future of the arts at Harvard.

This is a crucial moment for reconsidering the role of arts, he says, and the still-young administration of University President Lawrence H. Summers could substantially change how the arts function at Harvard.

Rockwell says he questions why the arts at Harvard have remained at the periphery of undergraduate life.

“Harvard has always been a place where the arts took a secondary position to academic work, practiced privately,” he says.

Prospective students who want to concentrate in theater choose other schools over Harvard, Rockwell says. And so he’s challenged Harvard’s attitude towards the arts for years. In an article in the Fall 2002 issue of Arts Spectrum he asked, “Why should the performing arts be optional when other areas are deemed integral?”

But Rockwell says he’s careful to consider how incorporating the arts into Harvard’s undergraduate curriculum might change the character of art production and its quality. He worries that increasing the arts component of the curriculum might steer students away from meaningful and exciting extracurricular activities. And there are practical difficulties in changing the curriculum—like recruiting world-class professionals to serve on the faculty.

“There is an argument to be made that the kind of person who is attracted to be a teacher of arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts is not going to be the best in his field. If [arts education] is excessively curricular, undergraduates may end up being taught by second-raters,” he says.

Still, Rockwell says that he does not know what direction arts education at Harvard should take. His goal, he says, “is to make the artistic experience for everyone at Harvard as interesting and smart as possible.”

And he says he’ll continue to beat his drum for the arts.

In the meantime, Rockwell says he looks forward to Arts First, which he executive produces. He says that the chance to hop from one stimulating event to another on a beautiful May weekend is “just plain fun.”