Harvard University, founded 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1986. Six presidents of the United States—including John Quincy Adams, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Barack Obama graduated from Harvard. Harvard’s faculty has included more than 30 Pulitzer Prize winners and 30 Nobel Laureates.

Harvard has also made its mark in Hollywood. Although no commercial filming is permitted on campus, many hit films, such as Love Story (1970), The Firm (1993), Good Will Hunting (1997), Legally Blonde (2001), Prozac Nation (2001), and The Social Network (2010), are all set at Harvard.

Off-campus, students can explore Cambridge and Boston, which offer aspiring filmmakers an enormous variety of locations for shooting their films. They may want to capture the romantic image of the Harvard Crew rowing down the Charles River, or the site of Paul Revere’s historic ride, or the bustling market of Fanueil Hall. Nearby Walden Pond will inspire visiting filmmakers, actors, and animators, as it inspired Thoreau more than 150 years ago.

Students in NYFA’s Harvard program can enjoy the activities and events being held in and around Harvard Yard during the summer, as well as the surrounding Cambridge and Boston areas. During their time in NYFA’s workshops at Harvard, students can explore lectures, concerts, and readings on-campus to contribute to their experience.

Off-campus, students will experience the beautiful New England summer weather and can visit local attractions such as Cambridge’s many restaurants, cafés, bookstores, ice cream shops, and pizza parlors. Theatrical productions are held in Cambridge throughout the summer, and students can also visit the American Repertory Theatre (ART) and The Brattle in Harvard Square for the latest independent, international, and repertory cinema. There is also an enormous variety of museums in the area, from Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum to the Ware Collection of Glass Flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

During the workshops, students can also enjoy excursions to Boston, which is located a short twenty-minute train ride away. Boston is a modern, metropolitan city with attractions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Public Garden, Fenway Park, John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum & Library, Beacon Hill, and Quincy Market.