#  Welcome from the Chief Campus Curator 

 



##  Welcome from the Chief Campus Curator 

 

 

       ![Harvard Yard dorms](/sites/g/files/omnuum716/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2024-05/IMG_0587.jpeg?itok=gsuuqrEu) 

 

 



 

 



 

   ![Brenda Tindal, Chief Campus Curator](/sites/g/files/omnuum716/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2024-11/082823_Brenda_Tindal_150.png?itok=5y4yOeTp) 

 

With a vista that includes 11 million square feet of physical space and nearly 300 co-curricular buildings, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences campus is perhaps the most voluminous “text” one will explore during their time at Harvard. Its rich institutional history, architectural distinction, active social and intellectual life, and setting within a bustling city underscore the charm and iconicity of our school’s ecosystem.

To be sure, the FAS campus is more than a “cabinet of curiosity”—it is a dynamic academic enterprise and a depot for engagement with a global and diverse community of students, faculty, staff, researchers, alumnae, and visitors. For these reasons and more, our campus must reflect a commitment to inclusive excellence and to an overarching residential and visitor experience that inspires a sense of hospitality, discovery, and belonging.

The clarion call for Harvard’s FAS to rethink its visual culture and signage is, in part, an invitation to explore what is visible, what is unseen, and what is not yet legible within our shared spaces. As the inaugural chief campus curator, I am eager to lead and collaborate with our community and University partners as we work to reimagine the visual culture and vernacular spirit of the FAS.

Together, we will prioritize and enable didactic, innovative, practical, and community-driven strategies that aim to:

- Enliven the academic and visitor experience through dynamic curation and creative interventions in co-curricular, shared, digital, and public-facing FAS spaces
- Employ human-centered and universal design approaches that enhance orientation, wayfinding systems, accessibility, and intuitive navigation of the campus’ historic built environment
- Commission creative projects and leverage cross-institutional collections – art, material culture, ephemera, artifacts, and objects – to present a more multi disciplinary, diverse, and aspirational visual culture
- Deepen connections to Harvard’s vast history through inclusive storytelling, expanded tour programs, and historical interpretative signage that build upon and bring into sharper focus the campus’ extant memorial ecology

I hope you will join me and the FAS Visual Culture & Signage Advisory Committee as we embark upon this ambitious and mission-driven initiative. In the meantime, I invite you to explore the Report of the FAS Task Force on Visual Culture & Signage to learn more about our mission, guiding principles, and the recommendations that anchor our remit and scope of work.

Respectfully,

 ![Digital Signature of Brenda Tindal](/sites/g/files/omnuum716/files/2024-11/digital-signature_BT-1.jpg)

 

**Brenda Tindal**  
*Executive Director of the Office for Academic Culture and Community and Chief Campus Curator*



 



###    2022 Inaugural FAS Visual Culture & Signage Advisory Committee  expand\_more  

Jennifer Atkinson, *Director of Collections Management*  
  
Horace Ballard, *Theodore E. Stebbins Associate Curator for American Art*  
  
Ilisa Barbash, *Museum Curator of Visual Anthropology*  
  
Tania Bruguera, *Senior Lecturer on Performance and Media*  
  
Daniel Byers, *John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts*  
  
Alex Csiszar, *Professor of the History of Science*  
  
Anne-Marie Eze, *Associate Librarian for Collections and Programs, Houghton Library*  
  
Maryellen Fitzgibbon, *Senior Planner, FAS Physical Resources*  
  
Krzysztof Gajos, *Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science*  
  
Zachary Gingo, *Associate Dean for Physical Resources and Planning*  
  
Gonzalo Giribet, *Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology*  
  
Ginny Hunt, *University Archivist*  
  
Shigehisa Kuriyama, *Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History*  
  
Michele Lamont, *Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies*  
  
Melissa McCormick, *Professor of Japanese Art and Culture*  
  
Sandra Naddaff, *Senior Lecturer on Literature and Comparative Literature*  
  
Dorian Meyette, *Accessibility Consultant*  
  
Katherine O’Dair, *Dean of Students, Harvard College*  
  
Stephanie Paulsell, *Faculty Dean of Eliot House*  
  
Robert Reid-Pharr, *Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies*  
  
Jennifer Roberts, *Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities*  
  
Brenda Tindal, *Executive Director – Harvard Museums of Science and Culture*  
  
Jackie Yun, *Executive Director – GSAS Student Center*  
  
Alta Mauro, *Associate Dean of Students for Inclusion and Belonging*

#### Student Members

Mira Alpers, Harvard College

Khin Oo, Harvard College

Ash Johnson, Harvard College

Yazmin Crespo, Harvard University Graduate School Of Design

Vaishnavi Patil, Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Sudarshana Chanda, Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences