Russell: Let me also ask Jen to talk a little bit about how houses have stepped up or can step up in providing space for artists, since that’s something Jeremy touched on.
Jen Mergel: It’s beginning, it’s very possible, and it really can happen. In the position that I’m in now as a resident arts tutor in Adams House, I’ve seen how Houses can address this crunch for the immediate present and the short term until the long-term monorail plans set in. [laughter] It comes down to communication, coordination and flexibility. This year, there was established a network of tutors that began programs of interhouse figure drawing and interhouse exhibitions. It’s an effort that’s just beginning but I think is going to become essential in next few years. Students need to know, “Okay, I live in Adams House, but I need a space available to me that’s bigger than in my House,” and their tutor would be able to refer them to a perfect space over in Mather because they have that connection with other people who run those spaces or who at least give them references to them. I do not underestimate undergraduates’ ability to aggressively, very savvily find solutions to their problems when they feel very strongly about the programs that they want to run. But there is some support that can be given—even if it’s just a student knowing they can connect to somebody else. We are very fortunate in Adams House to have a space that is dedicated to visual arts. We also have a theater. Not every House has that, and not every House will have that. But I think it is important for House masters to listen to the tutors and the student body that says, “We would really like this storage space converted into a dance rehearsal space this term,” and to be flexible about that.
One student very eloquently put her explanation of this aggressive arts explosion: “Well, there are just all Type A personalities here at Harvard, and nobody doesn’t want to run the program; everybody wants to have their own program and make it the best that they possibly can as a student here.” I think that may be true. But I think it will take some flexibility and understanding of what’s available right now, and people communicating very clearly about taking turns with spaces. So it’s mostly in programming instead of in construction that I think we’ll be able to get through this.
Russell: Before we turn to more long-term questions of space—any other thoughts on what we ought to do in the short term to address the space needs?
Illingworth: I’d build on what Jack said about cooperation, which I think is very important—not just for those of us who work in different administrative parts of Harvard, but for students to talk about how to share space and how to use what we have. I do think there is still more that we can do with spaces that we have not yet used and spaces that maybe people are holding a little close to themselves. Maybe we can come to a more cooperative way. People can share better.
Our physical resources people are working very hard on the dance issue, and looking at a bunch of spaces that are currently here. As I see it, you’ve either got to convert some large space or you’ve got to build something. I don’t think there’s anything that’s here that we’ve overlooked. We’ve looked at everything in Cambridge. Just as crucial is the practice room situation.
Megan: We have a harp player whose harp is stored in the janitor’s closet in the basement of the Memorial Hall complex.
Illingworth: Rehearsal space is a problem. We’ve also got to be thinking about more 24-hour usage as well. Maybe some of the space can be used more efficiently. The music department is an academic department that’s facing a huge shortage of space right now. We can’t bring in professors if they don’t have a place to go.
Reff: What we do have are the man hours. Jen, you talked about communication, and figuring out a time schedule that is in some way universal. Space is not only a physical concept; especially at Harvard, space is a people construct in terms of what time and what energy are people devoting and how are they doing it and trying to coordinate it, so that it’s collaborative. It’s working to have some sort of undergraduate arts community.
Orchard: I’d like to amplify that, too, because I think that the aesthetic trends are also demonstrating a desire for more collaboration among the forms. I’m finding that younger generations are really less interested in traditional forms and more interested in hybrid forms, where music and dance and theater and visual arts collide in interesting ways. To have an environment in which all of these groups are isolated from one another would be unfortunate. I often talk about an ideal space that could function as a dance space, as a theater space, as a space for installations, as a soundstage. I once saw a production in Budapest a few years ago of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which the audience was seated on 500 individually hung swings, and the hemp that was used to hang the swings became the farce of Shakespeare’s play, and that was on night one; and all those swings were bussed up to the grid. The next night, there was a very realistic play, it took place in an operating room; the following day, it was used by a modern dance company.
Russell: Let’s say Dean Illingworth gets his wish after this meeting; someone comes up to you with a check for $23 million and we don’t have constraints. What are the advanatages and disadvantages of consolidating all the arts and putting them in one building?
Illingworth: I think that we always need to do both. I would like to see a big place built where the arts could come together. But I don’t think we’d ever want to give up our decentralized system either, where student creativity can still take a space and use it for something that hasn’t been used before. So I see a performing arts center to be an add-on. There’s no other place to put that other big space but Allston, as far as I can see. But I don’t see the decentralized nature ever going away.
Megan: I would second everything you said. There’s something so exciting about artists working together. We need for Harvard to create that kind of enivronment for artists, student artists. But I also love what you said about the sort of distinct culture that is Harvard. I never want Harvard students to think, “Gee, I can’t do theater in that little corner over there,” because some of the interesting stuff happens in those little corners.