Putting Down Roots

Once a self-professed vagabond. Myra Mayman has rarely stayed in any one job for more than a year. In fact, before coming to Harvard 10 years ago as the first director of the Office for the Arts. Mayman--only seven years out of Bryn Mawr College--had held seven different jobs in almost as many cities. As she explains it: "I had no specific career plan in mind."

But Harvard has proved to be the exception to Mayman's lifestyle, and after 10 years, she can still be found in her small one-room office in Agassiz House, working on broadening the Harvard community's access to the arts. And while the chicly clad Mayman readily admits that she may not want to stay at Harvard permanently, she gives no hints of her imminent departure. She promises, moreover, to ensure that her charge will thrive "as long as students come to Harvard interested in the arts."

That means the office is here to stay and grow in what has evolved over the years as its double-barrelled role of putting students in touch with leading artists and pushing them to do creative projects With student and faculty participation with the office increasing yearly. Mayman and her staff of three are consistently put to the task of dreaming up imaginative ways to do this.

Perhaps the most well known program she has devised is the Learning From Performers series, in which prominent artists spend a few days at Harvard leading seminars or giving lectures about their careers. But the office has also sponsored longer-term projects, such as the Artists in Residence program, as well as performing the all-vital role of funding various student art-related projects like original plays and dances. And this year, Mayman and her staff are arranging a year long "festival to the arts," in honor of the office's 10th anniversary (See accompanying article).

"Each year is more interesting than before [in bringing] a whole new set of problems to solve," Mayman says

The extent of the office's programs, in fact, is remarkable given its meager beginnings--especially in a place where the arts had not always been strongly supported. Ten years ago, when Mayman arrived at Agassiz, she had no idea of the direction of the newly designed Office of the Arts. When she originally met with Presidents Bok and Horner, for instance, she recalls that they told her "they had a cumbersome job offer"--to initiate an undefined and novel arts project.

Mayman was actually given to jobs. Horner wanted her to run Radcliffe's long-existing extracurricular arts program, which included the Agassiz Theater, a pottery studio, a dance program, a painting studio in Currier House, and a print workshop. Bok was less specific, encouraging her to design programs to get students actively involved in the arts, rather than just teaching history or theory, which were already covered in the curriculum. Translated into practice, this commission gave Mayman essentially a free hand in developing the office.

The office's approach to boosting the arts since then has always been to encourage learning from others, and Mayman is especially leery about trying to control students' artistic directions. After a program or student project has been funded, for example, her office backs off and does not try to influence them. "What we can provide on a permanent basis--what students can't provide for themselves--is bringing artists here to teach." Mayman says, explaining her priorities.

Radcliffe's Horner, a strong supporter of Mayman's operation, cites the office's Artists in Residence program as an example of its ability to enhance student's access to the arts. The office allows artists to use Radcliffe facilities in exchange for providing opportunities for students to participate or observe. Consequently, students can get a glimpse of the struggles and decision making involved with creating an artistic work. Horner says. Just last spring, for instance, the Musical Theater Lab rehearsed a production on the second floor of Agassiz and in turn allowed students to view their final product.

Perhaps the most popular Office of the Art's project is the Learning from Performers program. During the past few years, the Office has brought such artists as Robert Redford, Pulitzer-prize winning playwright. Marsha Norman and Norman Lear to Harvard. Attracting artists is haphazard--depending on "who happens to know who," according to Mayman.

It doesn't hurt that the program has a board of prestigious outside advisors that includes Leonard Bernstein '39 and Joseph Papp which helps recommend different artists. Mayman stresses that the Office usually acts in response to requests from students in bringing guests to Harvard.

Mayman herself is no stranger to the arts. A 1966 graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Mayman says she has studied the piano for 13 years, and taken painting, drawing and dance lessons. After college, Mayman's various activities included: working as an associate director of admissions at Mt. Holyoke College: acting director of admissions at her alma mater: and living in Puerto Rico and England for a year a piece For two years Mayman worked for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, one year coordinating the BSO's 90th anniversary and another fundraising as the assistant director

Her fundraising experience has come in handy at the Office of the Arts, where, during the past few years. Mayman has canvassed the country in search of money to create a permanent endowment for the office. Last year Mayman says she visited 20 different Harvard clubs, bringing different students to perform "I wanted to bring a number of alumni up to date so that students interested in the arts are not left to their own." Mayman says. She adds that she stressed to the alums that continuing interest in the arts is "a very natural part of an educated person's experience"--whether at Harvard or in the real world.

The Office's operating budget is supplied by both Harvard and Radcliffe, who each fund their own activities and plan to contribute part of their current fund raising drives to the Office. Mayman does not complain about any dearth of money though, saying. "The facilities here are extraordinary as is the level of talent, so that even with modest sums of money a lot can be accomplished." And she is quick to give credit to Bok and Horner for giving solid financial backing to the project.

Looking back on her 10 years here. Mayman waxes reflective about the institutional inertia she feels she had to battle to build up her programs. "A number of faculty members were against the University supporting the practice of arts, while many in the arts thought the office was bureaucratic padding," she says. But with such developments as the coming of the American Repertory Theatre and giving of drama courses for credit. Mayman says much of the initial opposition has been defused.

She insists anyway that the resistance has never affected her work. As she says simply. "I have had a job to do and I do it."

"A number of faculty members were against the University supporting the practice of arts, while many in the arts thought the office was bureaucratic padding."

--Myra Mayman