The Artist Within

As a member of the leadership teams for the Art Appreciation Society and the Entertainment and Media Club, it’s easy to speculate my love of the arts. Film, theatre, music, visual arts, you name it and I have an opinion about it. Maybe not so apparent is my interest in the arts, not just as a spectator, but also as a participant – or better yet, an artist. I am a classically trained pianist, an amateur photographer and have dabbled in a number of artistic mediums like acting and painting. What may be surprising to the rest of you is that I’m not the only artist among us. If you were to take a closer look at your classmates, you’d realize that underneath the intellectually and professionally accomplished exteriors, are exceptionally talented artists as well.

This realization became all the more apparent last fall when I submitted my photography for consideration in the first ever HBS Student Art Show.

The show, the first of its kind at HBS, showcased the artistic talents of students and partners in a 3-day exhibit in Spangler. When the call for artists went out, I thought to myself “no sweat, how tough could it be to get my photographs into a business school art show?” Soon thereafter, I presented my work to the show organizers who received an enormous response to their call for art and were evaluating a large number of pieces, for acceptance into the show. The organizers were very knowledgeable and savvy about art and asked me many questions about my photographs, which provided me clues into the high caliber of show they sought to produce.

A few weeks later, the exhibit opened with great pomp and show including wine, hors d’oeuvres and a performance by the men of “Heard on the Street.” As my friends and I walked through the Williams Room to view the art on exhibit, our jaws literally dropped! “Why were all these people keeping their talents a secret? And why are these people in business school in the first place? They should be in art school,” I thought to myself! As with everything at HBS, excellence pervades our community, not just academically, but also artistically.

And now it’s my turn to run the show, so to speak. With my experience of having participated in last year’s show, I’m certain that this year’s show will be an even greater success. The Art Appreciation Society is ready to kick-off its call for artists. Whether you’re a student or a partner, if you’ve got art to share then we want to see it!

Submissions for the HBS Student Art Show will be accepted from Tuesday, October 14th through Thursday, October 16th. The HBS Student Art Show opens Monday, October 27th in the Meredith Room of Spangler and will run through Thursday October 30th. Please contact Shibani Joshi (sjoshi@mba2004.hbs.edu) by October 9th if you are interested in showcasing your work.