Visual Culture
Visual Culture
Whether in a physical or online environment, visual culture can foster a sense of pride and belonging within a community. On a university campus like the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), it shapes the experiences of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and visitors by honoring the past and signaling the ideals and values deemed important to the academic community in the present.
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Answering the Call from the FAS Task Force on Visual Culture & Signage
In the fall of 2020, Dean Claudine Gay announced the formation of the FAS Task Force on Visual Culture & Signage to lead efforts to foster a more inclusive visual culture across the FAS. The Task Force was charged with conducting in-depth research to develop a set of principles and informed guidelines for how to evolve the visual culture and imagery across the FAS. After conducting a comprehensive survey of the current FAS visual landscape, the Task Force delivered a final report identifying opportunities and making recommendations for immediate intervention, as well as providing a detailed description of best practices and resources available to all FAS units wanting to advance the visual culture in their local space.
The FAS Task Force on Visual Culture & Signage was fortunate to work alongside other teams on campus grappling constructively with Harvard’s past, including the University’s Committee to Articulate Principles on Renaming and the Presidential Initiative on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery. Based on conversations among the leaders and other members of these entities, the Task Force anticipates synergistic results to emerge from these related efforts.
Our visual culture and signage should:
The FAS is dedicated to the experience of teaching and learning, and our visual culture and signage should play a larger role in that mission. Visual culture serves as a powerful medium for conveying our institution’s values and mission to campus visitors and online audiences. The way we memorialize individuals, events, and moments in our institutional history aligns with our core values, which include a dedication to veritas, diversity and inclusion, intellectual and social transformation, and the pursuit of a just and open society. Through the visual elements present on our campus, we reaffirm our mission and values not only for the Harvard community but also for the broader world. Each image, sculpture, plaque, and sign shape the perception of who we are and who we aspire to become.
Harvard’s history is dynamic—in fact, few institutions of higher education can boast as rich a history of transformation and change. Therefore, our approach to Harvard’s history, as expressed in visual culture, should be equally dynamic.
Many people, actions, and events from the history of the FAS are worthy of admiration. We can bring forth some of the many untold stories that may inspire a renewed commitment to the pursuit of inclusion and belonging and its fostering of academic excellence. A dynamic visual culture would aim to be circulatory rather than static, future-focused as well as traditionalist.
Even as we value Harvard’s past, we must also account for the lived experience of the Harvard community in the present. We must make the spaces, pathways, representations, and signage that help shape the lives of students, faculty, and staff more welcoming of our community in the marvelous fullness of its range.
Harvard aspires to be a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible institution of learning. That aspiration ought to encompass signage, visual interfaces, and physical environments that improve access for people with disabilities. It ought to encompass visual and signage strategies that make the campus legible to our community. A dynamic, curatorial, circulatory approach to visual culture and signage will be most effective if it endeavors to balance three temporal imperatives: valuing history and tradition, addressing present-day experience, and charting a path to better futures.
Ultimately, we believe broad and transparent engagement would enable the FAS to benefit more fully from the diverse perspectives in our community, including the perspectives of our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) colleagues; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ) colleagues; and our colleagues with disabilities.
We have a remarkable opportunity to showcase our strengths in the arts, leveraging our extensive museum collections, the untapped potential within our departments and programs, our collaborative endeavors with contemporary artists, and the creative talents of our students. All these elements contribute to our excellence in the arts and can play a pivotal role in expressing our institutional values more comprehensively.
Adopting a curatorial approach to our visual culture would promote the circulation of existing artworks, encourage the creation of new pieces, and inspire innovative transformations of existing spaces. As we move forward, it is essential to consider the distinct uses of various spaces, such as residential housing, classrooms, offices, and public areas, and to design appropriate visual culture and signage for each context. This approach should also balance considerations such as architecture, public art, interior and exterior design, wayfinding, student privacy, and security.
Goals and Initiatives
Change can be unsettling, especially in institutions with deep-rooted traditions. It’s important to recognize that Harvard, with its 385-year history, has consistently demonstrated its ability to balance continuity and transformation. Over the course of its long history, Harvard has adapted to significant historical changes by reinventing various aspects—such as its curriculum, administrative structure, appointment and tenure procedures, undergraduate residences, and admissions process. Evolving our campus visual culture and signage continues this tradition by placing our past into more intentional engagement with the imperatives of our academic community today and our future-facing aspirations.
Renewal of Priority Spaces
A “priority opportunity” space may be defined as any high-impact FAS space that could become a model space through investment, attention, and intervention. There is an opportunity for the visual culture of these spaces to be refreshed in a way that rebalances the historical narrative, bringing overlooked individuals and histories that deserve recognition to the forefront. As a first step toward cultivating a dynamic visual culture, the FAS commits to refreshing the visual culture in the following spaces:
Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Student Center in Lehman Hall
Faculty Room in University Hall
Annenberg Hall in Memorial Hall
Long-Term Curation of FAS Spaces
We are creating and disseminating new protocols for community-inclusive decision-making about changes to visual culture and signage in local buildings, units, centers, and departmental public spaces. We are analyzing, consolidating, updating, and refining inventories of FAS visual culture, and we are collaborating with partners across the University and the FAS to enhance care and maintenance protocols for art objects that are loaned out and circulated within the FAS community.
Juxtaposing the old and historic with the new and contemporary has the potential to enliven spaces and open up meaningful dialogue through the introduction of experimental, contemporary, and temporary works. Moreover, taking advantage of temporary visual interventions or installations to mark a moment or celebrate a season can create a more inclusive visual environment—with lasting effect.
Wayfinding and Signage
Part of our mission is to implement a new signage program that orients everyone walking through our campus and clearly announces the departments, centers, and other uses within each building to ensure that members of the University community can easily locate offices, colleagues, and activities of interest to them. The wayfinding system of the FAS should be generous and show that the institution cares that students and other community members can easily make their way around different parts of campus and have the visual cues they need to move with confidence. Wayfinding can make someone feel that they belong in a space and are empowered to navigate it.
Campus Tours and Public Programming
From the daily bustle around the Yard to the sound of tour guides reciting familiar stories, campus tours are arguably the most prominent non-architectural, non-landscape feature of our campus that colors the experience of our institution. They communicate to visitors and community members alike which stories are worth telling and whose contributions are valued. An expanded campus tour program—accessed both via smartphone and through physical plaques on campus—will leverage the latest technology to provide users with access to text, audio, and video content about each history or person profiled. In concert with the creation of new tours to highlight underrecognized histories, we will develop a strategy and program of historical signage and markers in FAS outdoor spaces. In particular, the FAS will engage with the Cambridge Historical Commission in a review of all language on plaques on or adjacent to campus with an eye toward telling more equitable and complete stories of the past. This could be done through a class on public history that enlists students, in conversation with Cambridge’s public historians, to help rewrite the plaques.
There is a significant opportunity for the FAS to create a dynamic program of public art in its outdoor spaces. A few new permanent works of art could punctuate and unify the campus geography while also linking students of different generations through common points of reference. A new program that focuses on temporary public art commissions could engage a wide range of artists and bring more dynamism to our campus. Pursuing a program of temporary public art would also enable the FAS to embrace a future that places less emphasis on acquisition and ownership and more on supporting living artists and engaging them in dialogue with the campus community. Students and faculty, as well as outside artists, could all contribute to this program. The process of commissioning living artists to create new work, or bringing existing work to campus, would ideally include extensive community input and outreach. These conversations could center on issues of civic and public space, monuments, architecture and design, and the role of artists in civil society. Contemporary artwork would demonstrate an engagement with contemporary values to counterbalance—and engage—the histories that our built environment embodies.
Working Together: Renewing Visual Culture at the Local Level
Renewing our visual campus culture will require the collective effort of the FAS community, and we are excited to partner with our colleagues across all units to effectively implement this work at the local level. If you have ideas for your work area, please review the following guidelines and reach out to campuscurator@fas.harvard.edu to get started.
Units should consult with local users (students, faculty, staff, and researchers) to determine which spaces containing visual culture and signage may warrant special attention. Units may wish to prioritize high-profile spaces that attract many users and visitors or spaces that students and staff use to relax and socialize. In the face of limited resources, the leaders of FAS units should look to make the greatest difference possible under the circumstances.
To make good decisions about visual culture and signage, leaders of FAS units should become familiar with the history and evolution of their units.
Having identified a priority space, units should ascertain who has authority to approve changes to the visual culture of that space. This is particularly important in the case of common or shared spaces. Neighboring units may need to work together if pursuing a project in a shared space.
Units should also take the initial step of identifying all key stakeholders with respect to the space in question, including visitors and returning alumni, as well as local users. Articulating stakeholders will help ensure the inclusion of multiple viewpoints in the process and broaden consolation around proposed changes.
Groups assigned responsibility for proposing or implementing changes should be inclusive, with broad and diverse representation from the local community of users, including faculty, staff, researchers, and students. Representation on decision-making groups should reflect multiple perspectives, and ways should be found to consider and respect the interests of non-local users, including visitors and returning alumni.
Leaders should work with the members of their local units (including faculty, researchers, staff, and students) to clarify what they hope to achieve by renewing the visual culture in their local spaces. The more clearly FAS units can define specific goals for their visual renewal projects, the easier it will be to attain them. When articulating goals, units should consider the guiding principles set out by the Task Force and relate them to their local aspirations. They may wish to acquaint themselves with spaces on campus that have successfully updated their visual culture and signage and to use them as touchstones for their own efforts.
As needed, decision-makers should avail themselves of relevant FAS expertise, presumably through a newly created FAS Committee on Visual Culture & Signage, part of whose remit should include responding to questions arising from local units and directing them to appropriate resources.
Visual culture and signage worthy of the FAS requires investment. The creation of model spaces requires executive vision and support, financial resources, and staffing. Identifying and mobilizing the available resources, including funds, time, and knowledge, will be critical to success.
Individuals or groups interested in refreshing their spaces might consider utilizing pieces from Harvard’s museums’ collections for display, but units seeking to use these services should be aware of the considerations related to the proper care and transportation of the objects, the allocation of staff time and resources, and the constraints imposed by available space. Changes to the visual culture and signage of our spaces can also be subject to a host of legal constraints, including stipulations of donors, subsequent legal agreements, historical commissions, and local ordinances. Leaders of FAS units seeking to make such changes will need to learn about any such constraints that may pertain to their spaces.
FAS unit leaders are advised to follow a problem-solving process, considering specific issues, aligning solutions with unit goals, and factoring in available resources and constraints. They should also consider various aspects of visual representation, including historical context, placement, and lighting, and can seek guidance from the Committee on Visual Culture & Signage. Additionally, they should explore new art forms and technology to enhance local visual culture and amplify the narratives of FAS contributors.
Once options have been considered and weighed, a specific recommendation should be put forward to the community for feedback. This second round of engagement is crucial to ensure that the plan is truly responsive to the aspirations and needs surfacing in the initial outreach. The feedback may lead to an additional round of planning.
At an institution like ours, full of brilliant and independent thinkers, it is often challenging to arrive at consensus. Consensus, however, need not be the goal. What is most important is that the process and final proposal should strive to reflect multiple voices and a spirit of inclusion. With a commitment to the idea that change does not mean erasure and that history is dynamic and not static, units have a great opportunity to reshape the FAS in a way that cares for all constituent persons and places.
After proceeding with thoughtful input, units should move with all due speed to implement their respective plans. Units should identify opportunities through communications and events to spotlight the changes and celebrate the renewed space.
An important element of a dynamic and circulatory approach to visual culture is regular review and revision. Unit leaders may wish to incorporate periodic review of the visual culture in their spaces. This will help units understand what was and was not successful about different interventions or changes in their visual culture, enabling continuous learning across our campus. Each space and community will have unique needs and aspirations, but together we can amass an array of relevant and robust practices.