Art can take a million different forms. It can be a spoken word poem, a urinal turned sideways, or a guitar riff. Despite access to the illustrious Harvard art history professors, one would be hard-pressed to get a definitive answer on not just what constitutes “good” art, but what constitutes “art” at all.
The personal and subjective aspects of the creation process are unfortunately somewhat lost during comp, a long application process to gain admission to Harvard’s myriad of art clubs. The comp process forces individuals to constantly compare their art to others in order to earn a coveted spot in a production, arts magazine, or dance troupe.
In the midst of Harvard’s exclusive art culture, the Black Arts Collective (BAC) is forging a collaborative space in which Black artists, regardless of experience, can create and reflect on their personal and creative identities.
The Black Arts Collective was created in 2022 by three freshmen who were disillusioned with the Harvard art scene. Jetta Strayhorn ’25, one of the co-founders and current visionary members of the BAC, reflects on the night the BAC was born: “They were all playing music and really digging deep into realizing we’re all talented in different ways… The Black students here are so artistic, but so many of them don’t get to explore it because of either their major or really competitive, discouraging art spaces.” The BAC then emerged as a space in which Black artists could collaborate and showcase their talents.
According to co-directors of the BAC, other Harvard art spaces prevent students from fully exploring the connections between identity and art—either through a crude reductionist attitude towards identity and art production or by ignoring the relationship altogether. Shayhorn feels that she and other students are frequently blanketly categorized as “Black artists,” when “Blackness is such a broad identity.”
On the other hand, the BAC directors feel that Harvard often falls into the opposite trap—attempting to separate the art from the artist and their identity. As Marley Dias ’26, a co-director, pointed out, “We exist within those multitudes [of race, gender, and sexuality] at all times.” Shayhorn reflected that, as a result, all Black artists at Harvard have questioned whether they are focusing too much on their identity when presenting their work—an incredibly discouraging line of thinking. In response, the BAC seeks to, not necessarily emphasize race, but to see and recognize people for how they want to be recognized. In BAC meetings, members delve into how identity shapes and is reflected in art, rather than simplifying or dismissing the connections.
The BAC has now grown into a collective of 15 leading visionary members who direct the club’s events and around 20 members who participate in makerspaces and the creation of capstone projects. The BAC holds an incredibly diverse array of talent, with passions ranging from theater to filmmaking to painting. As Strayhorn puts it, it would be easier to ask what we don’t have than what we do have.
Not only does the BAC have an incredible range in the types of artists, but all levels of expertise are welcome. This variety is apparent even just among some of the co-directors of the program—Shayhorn, who is majoring in AFVS and hopes to go to graduate school for art, Dias, who is a published author, and Helena Hudlin ’27, who began creating art for the first time at Harvard. As Strayhorn said, “We have poet laureates and also people who are putting pen to paper for the first time… The emphasis is not on skill but on passion.”
Distinctions between mediums are likewise blurred in the BAC, where students will more likely be asked not what type of artists they are, but if they have, more broadly, “any tinglings of creative energy.” Co-director Keeley Gorman ’26 has seen her friends “find new passions” through the makerspaces of the Black Arts Collective—small gatherings focused on the exploration of a specific medium. In these spaces, students can “break apart from other more suffocating areas of Harvard…and be in a space where they are allowed to explore and not be judged or discouraged.”
The co-directors emphasize, however, that the welcoming nature of the BAC does not mean that the work it produces is any less important or impressive than any other clubs. Rather, the belief that exclusion breeds valuable art is a fallacy the BAC believes plagues the Harvard art scene. As Hudlin put it, “Just because a space is accessible, doesn’t mean that it isn’t that it is not powerful or beneficial.”
Part of the culture of inclusion of different levels and mediums within the BAC is a result of this club being both an affinity group and an art space. “Being Black in the world is an inherently creative act, and it has historically been, so honing in on that creative power of processing and community building isn’t relegated to discipline,” said Alyssa Gaines ’26, visionary board member and Youth Poet Laureate.
Moreover, the co-directors feel that, for the Black community, art has been a historically reliable way in which to express themselves. Dias wants Harvard students to know, “We always have an avenue to make our voices heard, and that [art] is always going to be that place.”
At BAC, the culture of inclusion of mediums and experience is a direct result of it being a Black affinity space—this art culture is key to using art to process personal experiences and to viewing art as a civic responsibility. Thus, the BAC, as Gaines puts it, engages in “art as a production versus art as a process.” Through this approach, the BAC encourages not only Black artists, but Black artistry.
The BAC will be displaying an interactive mural on climate change at the Arts First Festival, which runs April 24th to 26th, through which all Harvard students can reflect on the connection between art and civic duty, art and process.
Kate Kadyan ’26 (katekadyan@college.harvard.edu) does not consider herself an artist but felt “tinglings of creative energy” after talking to BAC members.