Works in Progress

Visible through the windows of the ArtLab, the construction site for the American Repertory Theater’s new Goel Center for Creativity and Performance bustles with activity. This new home for the A.R.T. promises to accommodate public gatherings and community activities alongside the typical slate of theatrical works, weaving itself into a thriving arts community in Allston. 

In Season 3, episode 4 of “Works in Progress,” ArtLab direct...

Works in Progress Season 3 Ep 3– Episode: Every Child is an Artist with Dr. Louisa Penfold

In this episode of Works in Progress, ArtLab Director Bree Edwards talks with Dr. Louisa Penfold, Faculty Co-Chair of Arts and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and faculty resident at the ArtLab during 2022 and 2025.

Dr. Penfold is the project director of Project Zero’s Art/Play, an NEA-funded study exploring how modern and ...

Season 3, Episode 2: Building the ArtLab
In this episode, we speak with Robin Kelsey, Shirley Carter Burden Professor of Photography in the Department of History of Art & Architecture and the former Dean of Arts and Humanities, and Lori E. Gross, Associate Provost for the Arts, about the history and making of the Harvard ArtLab.

Robin and Lori share insights into the building’s development and design, reflecting on the balan...

In this very special episode of “Works in Progress,” we’re revisiting some highlights from the podcast. As part of the Summer Humanities and Arts Research Program, research fellow Ria Cuéllar-Koh curated and narrated this episode. With clips from all three seasons of “Works in Progress,” Episode 1 explains how the ArtLab came to be and what opportunities it affords to artistic researchers. We cover the different forms artistic rese...

In this final episode of season two of Works in Progress, movement-based researchers Ilya Vidrin and Jessi Stegall join ArtLab Director Bree Edwards to discuss their dance-based collaborations at the ArtLab. Both are dancers and educators with graduate degrees from Harvard specializing in neuroscience and ethics. Ilya and Jessi make the invisible visible through their studies of the ethics of physical interaction.
 
During...

Frank Waln: Hip-Hop, Heritage, and Healing

In this episode of Works in Progress, Lakota music artist, public speaker, and educator Frank Waln joins ArtLab director Bree Edwards to explore the medicinal power of music in constructing futures from the rubble of colonial violence. Drawing on his formative relationship with sound, Frank traces the lineage of hip-hop to experiences of displacement and resilience among communities of colo...

The music in the introduction and conclusion of this episode comes from the concert on April 30, 2024, at Harvard University, led by artist and composer Samora Pinderhughes and The Healing Project. It includes Dani Murcia, Nia Drummond, and Jebreal Jackson on vocals, Elliott Skinner on guitar and vocals, and Joshua Crumbly on bass. The performance features an introduction by Vijay Iyer, the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Profe...

Equitable Architectures: Joseph Zeal Henry on Sound, Space, and Power

In this episode, Joseph Zeal Henry—2024 Loeb/ArtLab Fellow—joins ArtLab Director Bree Edwards to discuss equity and politics in the built environment. During his year-long residency at Harvard, Joseph worked at the intersection of public service and art, pursuing what he calls “new cultural architectures.”

In collaboration with the Harvard University Committee on t...

Matt Saunders, Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies; Jennifer Roberts, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities, and American and Contemporary Art and; Kristian Hardy & Erik Zou, Harvard Undergraduate Fellows, Summer Humanities and Arts Research Program (SHARP).

Diving into “artistic research,” we discuss what it means to Harvard professors and students. In today’s case study, we catch a glimpse into how artists ...

Season 1, Episode 4 — Ayodele Casel and Torya Beard

Talking about tap—and so much more—we’re joined in the studio by Ayodele Casel, award-winning tap dancer, actor, and choreographer of the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, and her longtime collaborator and creative partner, Torya Beard, director and arts leader.

Ayodele and Torya first came to the ArtLab in 2019 as artists-in-residence and have since served as advisors to its continue...

Season 1, Episode 3 — Claire Chase and Li Harris
Join us in the studio with MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and Harvard Music Professor Claire Chase, and her longtime collaborator Lisa (Li) E. Harris.

In this episode, ArtLab Director Bree Edwards and co-host Kristian Hardy, a Harvard College sophomore, explore how Chase and Harris are reshaping the landscape of music and performance through experimental composition and collaboration.

P...

Season 1, Episode 2 — Dr. Merritt Moore

One of the ArtLab’s inaugural Artists-in-Residence, Dr. Merritt Moore bridges two seemingly distant worlds—physics and ballet—into a singular, visionary career.

A Harvard graduate in physics with a PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford, Merritt has been recognized on Forbes “30 Under 30” and featured in Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls alongside pioneers like Ada Lovela...

Season 1, Episode 1 — Jordan Weber with John Peterson

Artist Jordan Weber joins us in the ArtLab studio to discuss race, identity, and the intersections of design, environment, and art-making within historically white spaces.

Weber’s sculpture Perennial Philosophies, recently comissioend by ArtLab and the Harvard University Committee on the Arts has recently been  installed outside the ArtLab. This public sculpture combines slick bla...

Art is a journey, but very rarely do we get to witness the creative evolution. Imagine the conversations that could be explored if we truly understood the artistic process and appreciated the research and experimentation that each artwork entailed?

Works in Progress, a production of the ArtLab at Harvard University, is taking on this challenge.

Start listening to Works in Progress in early 2022 wherever you list...