Buffington to Help Chart University-Level Arts
As part of a new initiative to support artistic and cultural activities at the University level, Sean T. Buffington ’91 has been appointed to the new position of Associate Provost and Director of Cultural Programs. His appointment was announced in May by President Lawrence H. Summers and Provost Steven E. Hyman. Formerly, Buffington was Assistant Provost and Deputy Chief of Staff.
Buffington graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Afro-American Studies and English and American Literature, and he studied West Indian Literature at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He earned a master’s degree in American culture from the University of Michigan in 1994. Since 1999, Buffington has worked in the Provost’s Office, as well as serving on the arts and culture subcommittee of the Allston Life Task Force.
In addition to his new role, Buffington acts as the Provost’s liaison to the American Repertory Theater, and is a member of the Art Museums’ Executive Planning Committee. He is also secretary of the board of trustees of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
In an email interview, Arts Spectrum asked Buffington about his new role, the current and future state of the arts at Harvard, and plans for arts facilities and programming as part of the University’s expansion into Allston.
What are the key aspects of your new position?
First and foremost, raising the profile of artistic and cultural resources and activities at Harvard. The depth and range of what we have to offer is extraordinary. But, surprisingly, it’s not very visible—and not only externally but often to this community as well. Even inside the arts community, we don’t do a terrific job of communicating with one another.
Beyond communication, though, we face some pretty serious challenges, especially in the area of facilities. Many of our arts-related buildings are too small or too old and decrepit or both. They need renovation, upgrading, and, to the degree we’re able, expansion. Working with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the institutions in need, I plan to spend a great deal of time and energy helping to realize these facilities projects. And then, there’s Allston!
What is the most recent thinking about the arts context in planning the Allston expansion?
There has been general agreement that artistic and cultural activities ought to be a part of the Allston development. More than that, I think there’s real commitment to this idea—that “arts and culture” will be critical to the success of the new campus. What’s unclear is what that means. I think that’s the task the University’s leadership has given the arts community: to define the artistic and cultural component of the new campus.
And while it’s urgent that we begin to plan for Allston, it’s essential that we undertake this process with a clear understanding of the broader context at Harvard. In short, we need a comprehensive plan for the arts and culture at Harvard—one that will keep Cambridge well in view at the same time that it sketches a vision for Allston.
What Harvard art trends do you currently find?
I guess I’m less interested in trends than I am in what art-making can mean in a university setting. Universities can provide space for reflection, for argument, for identifying and valuing what matters about artistic work, for articulating why artistic work matters at all. I worry that, increasingly, we hear much internecine debate among artists but little engagement with a broader community. I hope the university can provide the vehicle for this kind of engagement.
Who will you be working with primarily?
I have a special responsibility to and for the arts and cultural institutions that reside in the central administration—the Harvard Art Museums, the American Repertory Theater, Villa I Tatti, and the Nieman Foundation. But I see my challenge as broader: to foster and support artistic and cultural activity across the University. And to facilitate coordinated planning among our far-flung arts community. So I fully expect to work with a wide range of collaborators—student artists, curators, faculty, and administrators—from all facets of the
University.
Do you see Harvard evolving and broadening its role in contributing to arts innovation and research?
Absolutely. Universities are places for innovation and discovery as well as preservation and historicization. If it’s right for universities to advance knowledge and practice in the life sciences and engineering—a non-controversial assertion today—why shouldn’t they advance the state of the art in the arts? I would even ask, if not universities, then who or what?
Especially now, as government, in the US and abroad, gets out of the business of supporting innovation in the arts, universities are left as one of the few institutions that can support artists and encourage reflection on what they do. We have an obligation, now more than ever.
