ArtLab at Harvard

Save the date: September 19
We cannot wait to see you at
Photo:

Yesterday, had an opportunity to preview this new mural by Anna in Mellone Park, just behind the new studio building and the Boston Public Library in Lower Allston. The public celebration with the artist will be on August 3. Come by and meet . Thanks

and the SUPA System are teaming with neighbors for a shared sound and movement night. Bring vinyl to share, swap, and enjoy: Friday, July 26

is creating in the neighborhood and there will be a party later this summer to celebrate this new public artwork in Lower Allston. Thanks and

Thanks to everyone who came out for the final public program of the semester, an ArtsThursdays Open Studio featuring the work of Sa’dia Rehman and Joseph Zeal-Henry, ArtLab artists in residence. The open studio at was part of an evening of art in Allston’s Barry’s Corner neighborhood, co-hosted by our neighbors at Harvard Ceramics, Harvard Ed Portal, Artisans Asylum, and Zone 3. Photos: Mack Mckenzie /

SUPA System visual identity by

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SUPA System is a flexible structure that has no fixed dimensions and can be used in numerous ways. Set on hinges, the various walls of the structure can be opened and closed, allowing the shape to adapt to the space it is set within. Additionally, a semi-transparent gauze can be hung across the grid, transforming the structure into a screen for film projections.

“Sound is the starting point of aesthetics, and as designers we need to think more about infrastructures that support people’s abilities to come together, convene and find common ground.” Joseph

This project emerged from a collaboration with as part of the ArtLab Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University.

🙏🏽 for capturing the SUPA System launch and for making the visual identity 🔥

Congratulations! A post from Introducing SUPA System with Deborah Garcia with support from .rabbit.audio - the project is culmination of my at &

Built at a human-scale, SUPA System asks what music and sound can tell us about how we occupy spaces of power, and aims to inspire new ways of thinking about communal gathering spaces. A manifesto made physical, SUPA System cites far ranging influences to imagine how the vernacular of infrastructure could create new ways of living.

Taking inspiration from the aluminium frame of commercial billboards, the modular and open source structure riffs on a plurality of architectural traditions to create a flexible installation that repurposes commercial infrastructure to foster collaboration.

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Today, launches SUPA System, which asks what music and sound can tell us about how we occupy spaces of power, and aims to inspire new ways of thinking about communal gathering spaces. The project emerges from a collaboration with Deborah Garcia as part of the ArtLab Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University, and was commissioned by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts.

The aluminum frame evokes American billboards, and the blue coloring of the speakers references the extraction of the indigo plant from India and West Africa during the time of the slave trade. Other inspirations included structural and cultural elements from Trinidad, Jamaica, and South America. The walls can be opened and closed, allowing for a variety of different shapes, and a semi-transparent gauze can be hung (see third image) to create a screen for film projections.

Image 1: Malakhai Pearson; all other images: Joseph Zeal-Henry

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SUPA System

ArtLab and the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design are excited
to announce the Class of 2025 Loeb Fellows, including the Loeb/ ArtLab Fellow Shana M. griffin.
 
Shana M. griffin is a feminist activist, sociologist, abolitionist, artist, and geographer based in New Orleans. Her practice is research-based, activist-centered, and decolonial, centering the experiences of Black women most vulnerable to violence and social exclusion. She founded PUNCTUATE, a feminist initiative integrating critical research methods with activism and socially engaged art. She co-founded Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, the first community land trust in New Orleans.
 
The Loeb Fellowship continues to collaborate with the ArtLab by hosting one Loeb/ArtLab Fellow per year.
 
Bree Edwards, director of the ArtLab, a laboratory for research in the arts, says “I look forward to ways that the ArtLab’s creative community will engage with and learn from the cross-disciplinary practice of artist, activist, and scholar Shana M. griffin,” the fourth recipient of the Loeb/ArtLab Fellowship. Previous recipients are Jordan Weber ’22, Dario Calmese ’23, and Joseph Zeal Henry ’24.
 
Shana M. Griffin will have access to studio space at ArtLab and will engage with the ArtLab community through public programming over the year-long fellowship. 
 
“The most valuable and provocative aspect of the Loeb Fellowship is who we identify and embrace as the broad group of practitioners that shape our built and natural environment,” says Loeb Fellowship curator John Peterson. “From writers to activists, and architects to physicians, the incoming class of 2025 is a wonderful expression of our value in diversity.” Peterson is an architect, activist, and a Loeb Fellow in the class of 2006.
 
More information about Shana M. griffin and the Loeb/ ArtLab Fellowship is available on the ArtLab website; the link is in the bio.

Join us for the premiere of the SUPA_System - a sonic sculpture designed by Joseph Zeal-Henry (Loeb/ArtLab Fellow ’24) with Deborah Garcia.

May 16th, 5 - 7 pm: ArtsThursdays Open Studio at ArtLab with Joseph Zeal-Henry & Sa’dia Rehman

Free parking is available behind Teele Hall, located at 230 Western Avenue.
This opening is part of ArtsThursdays Allston, an evening of art and music throughout Allston’s Barry’s Corner neighborhood. Harvard Ceramics , Harvard Ed Portal , and Aeronaut Beer Garden will also host free public events. Link to event info in bio.

May 16 from 5 - 7 pm: Open Studio at with Sa’dia Rehman (ArtLab artist-in-residence).
Sa’dia Rehman’s recent work traces their family’s displacement from the Indus River in the late 1960s due to the building of a hydroelectric dam.
Rehman explores various recycled materials and fabrication techniques to replicate the structure and scale of a strange artifact they witnessed during a 2022 return to the Indus: a mosque on wheels.

Join us for an interactive evening of art, music, and food in Allston’s Barry’s Corner neighborhood. On May 16th, in addition to , Harvard Ceramics, Ed Portal, and Zone 3 will host free arts events from 5 to 7 p.m.
These events are part of ArtsThursdays, a university-wide free and public art event initiative.
The link for more info and to RSVP is in the bio.

Come by on May 16 from 5- 7 pm
ArtLab hosts an Open Studio to premiere the SUPA_System by Joseph Zeal-Henry (Loeb/ArtLab Fellow, 24 ) with Deborah Garcia and new works being developed by artist-in-residence Sa’dia Rehman .
 
This event is part of ArtsThursdays Allston, an evening of art, music, and food in Allston’s Barry’s Corner neighborhood. Harvard Ceramics, Harvard Ed Portal, ArtLab, and Zone 3 will each feature free public events starting at 5 p.m. For more info, please see the link in the bio or the ArtLab events page.
 
SUPA_System is a public artwork and cultural infrastructure designed by Joseph Zeal-Henry, curated by Bree Edwards for ArtLab , and commissioned by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA). It was made possible with the Johnson-Kulukundis Family President’s Fund for Arts at Harvard University. The Loeb Fellowship the Graduate School of Design provided additional support .

As the academic year comes to an end, artists are getting ready to share their work and here are some photos from this week at .

Joseph Zeal-Henry () Loeb/ ArtLab Fellow at

Kat Nakaji () project manager technical operations

Sa’dia Rehman () artist in residence

Samora Pinderhughes () with the 2024 Arts & Cultural Organization Management (ACOM) () from

Photos were taken by Mack McKenzie for

We are delighted to announce that Kristian Arnell Hardy ‘24 has been selected as the recipient of the Louise Donovan Award for Excellence in the Arts by the Office for the Arts. This prestigious award recognizes a Harvard student who has demonstrated exceptional work in the arts and has emerged as a leader in the undergraduate arts community.

Kristian (), a joint concentrator in African American Studies and Theater, Dance, and Media (), co-hosted the first season of the ArtLab podcast “Works in Progress” during her research fellowship at . Kristian is passionate about showcasing the complexities of Black womanhood/girlhood and has been actively involved with the Harvard Black Community & Student Theater (BlackCAST), the Office for the Arts (), and the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Kristian for this well-deserved recognition and look forward to witnessing the impact she will make in the arts as she continues to create inclusive, safe, and joyful spaces where everyone can express themselves authentically.

From last night’s powerful performance of The Healing Project with Samora Pinderhughes ()- piano & vocals 
Dani Murcia - vocals 
Nia Drummond - vocals 
Nio Levon - vocals 
Elliott Skinner - guitar & vocals 
Jehbreal Jackson - vocals 
Joshua Crumbly - bass 
Photo: Aram Bogosian () .music.department

A few free tickets are still available for Healing Project next Tuesday, April 30 at Harvard. 🔗 in bio.

We will move indoors tonight at 6 pm due to the weather. This indoor location overlooks the Campus Green and above the Cafe.

This week at , Clarence Hill, Assistant Professor at Northeastern teaching Art + Design, and her students met with Dr. Shriya Srinivasan, ArtLab faculty in residence and an assistant professor of bioengineering at Harvard University where she directs the Harvard Biohybrid Organs and Neuroprosthetics (BIONICS) lab.

Shriya (.srinivasan) is also an accomplished Bharathanatyam dancer and choreographer. Blending her scientific and artistic expertise, Dr. Srinivasan teaches workshops on dance biomechanics and is engaged in research at the interface between these disciplines.

At ArtLab, she has worked with collaborators to examine how haptic feedback interfaces can be implemented to enhance learning and experience dance performance.

This research was filmed at ArtLab earlier this year by PBS Nova for the upcoming program “Built Worlds,” a new series that features innovators in engineering.

Yesterday, ArtLab hosted a workshop with Valeria Luiselli’s English course called “Archival Fictions.” The course explores how fiction writers interact with official narratives and the archives that support them.

Valeria Luiselli ( ) and her students were joined in the ArtLab’s Mead Production Lab by her collaborator, Ricardo Giraldo, who is visiting from Mexico City.

Valeria Luiselli and Ricardo Giraldo () have returned to ArtLab to continue researching and developing “Echoes from the Borderlands.” It is a sound-based artwork documenting the history of violence against land and bodies in the US-Mexico borderlands. The artwork will premiere at Dia Art Foundation () later this year.

Valeria Luiselli is an acclaimed writer of both fiction and nonfiction. She was born in Mexico City and grew up in South Korea, South Africa, and India. She is a Harvard College Visiting Professor of Ethnicity, Indigeneity, and Migration in the Department of English. Her writing has been translated into over 30 languages, and she became a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.

Ricardo Giraldo is based in Mexico City and is the director of the Podcast Division of La Corriente del Golfo, Diego Luna, and Gael Garcia Bernal’s production company.

Additional collaborator on “Echoes from the Borderlands” Leonardo Heiblum is an award-winning composer, producer, and sound artist who has composed music for over 50 feature films. He collaborates regularly with Philip Glass, Patti Smith, and musicians from all over the world, mixing classical and indigenous instruments with field recordings.

Save the date ’s - We Gather in the Spring to Help in Our Healing / Waná Wétu Owíčhota on April 18. 🔗 and location in the bio and on the ArtLab events page.

Frank will premiere a new song that he has written to honor the complex ways that his own family’s Lakota history is intertwined with the history of Harvard University’s anthropological collections.

Frank Waln or Oyate Teca Obmani (“Walks with Young People”) is an award-winning Sicangu Lakota Hip Hop artist and music producer from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Frank uses his music to speak about social issues and injustices affecting the Native community and as a method for healing.

and friends with The Healing Project at Harvard on April 30. Info and tickets on website, link in bio.

Thank you to everyone who joined us at for the premiere screening of “Tethered,” a collaborative dance film created by director Tony-award-winning director-choreographer Raja Feather Kelly , with interdisciplinary cinematographer Sue Murad , and multidisciplinary dancers, choreographers Jessi Stegall and Ilya Vidrin .vidrin. Stegall and Vidrin were artists who were residents of ArtLab in 2020.
 
We also began recording Season 2 of the ArtLab’s podcast “Works in Progress” with Jessi Stegall and Ilya Vidrin while they were in the studio. We spoke about their project in 2020 and how their work and processes have evolved since then. You can listen to the podcast Season 1 via the link in the bio
 
Tethered was filmed at the ArtLab in 2023.
Photos by Mack McKenzie for

Tomorrow 6 pm — Tethered
A creative dance documentary considering our tethers to people, spaces, and ideas. 
 
Short film screening with Q&A to follow.
Harvard ArtLab - 140 N Harvard St, Boston
 
The event is free and open to everyone, but I would like to ask for an RSVP. The link is in the bio.
Tethered was filmed at in 2023
 
Direction:


 
Cinematography & Editing:

 
Performers:

 & .vidrin

Some favorite images from 's recent residency at , , and .arts.hum. They were developing a new work entitled “My Body is a Library.” This dance-based public artwork will explore how we create categories, unpack nomenclature, and uphold oral histories and traditions, and will be performed in libraries.

Samora Pinderhughes and Friends: The Healing Project on April 30, 2024, at Harvard. Tickets and info via link in bio.
Presented by , with support from Harvard University Committee on the Arts, Johnson-Kulukundis Family President’s Fund for Arts, and Harvard University Department of Music.

hosted an inspiring two-week residency with Liz Lerman, a choreographer, performer, writer, and educator. Together with her creative collaborators Adesola Akinleye, Will Bond, Elisa Garcia-Radcliffe, Paloma McGregor, Ruby Morales, Angelina Ramirez, Erin Donohue, Alex Nelson, and Sven Ortel, they worked on research and development for a new work entitled “My Body is a Library.” This dance-based public artwork will explore how we create categories, unpack nomenclature, and uphold oral histories and traditions, and will be performed in libraries.

ArtLab and Liz Lerman would like to thank everyone who joined us last night at for the work in progress with Lerman and her collaborators. They had a behind-the-scenes opportunity to learn about Lerman’s process for creating new works.

Thank you to Dean Robin Kelsey, Lori E. Gross, Associate Provost for Arts and Culture, Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA), and the Johnson-Kulukundis Family President’s Fund for Arts at Harvard University for supporting this residency and ArtsThursdays public event.

Thank you to the colleagues and collaborators at Harvard who participated in this research-based residency: David Atherton, Horace Ballard, Dan Byers, Bonnie Campbell, Jennifer Chu, Danielle Conti, Lizzy Cooper Davis, Bree Edwards, Anne-Marie Eze, Franziska Frey, Brooke Gilmore, Virginia Hunt, Tom Hyry, Lesliediana Jones, David Joselit, Ju Yon Kim, Eliz Kirk, Elena Kramer, David Levine, Valeria Luiselli, Sarah Martin, Melissa McCormick, Mack McKenzie, Ryan McKittrick, Mack McKenzie, Dayron Miles, Martha Minow, Gail Mukaihata, Kat Nakaji, Liz Phipps-Soeiro, Alli Ross, Matt Saunders, Kathleen Buchan Schoer, Sara St. Antoine, Molly Taylor-Poleskey, Brenda Tindal, Martha Whitehead, Candice Williams.
Photos: Harvard ArtLab, Mack McKenzie

Save the date: ArtLab and HUCA present Healing Project at Harvard. Information about the show and tickets via the link in the bio and on the website.