Advancing the role of the arts across Boston University
Simply put, our goal is to make art part of every Terrier’s time at BU.
Boston University Office for the Arts ensures that the arts are fundamental to every Terrier by developing, supporting, and celebrating University-wide programs that advance community-building through the arts, encourage interdisciplinary arts teaching and research, and highlights diverse artists and forms of artistry.
Meet the BU Office for the Arts Leadership Team
Elana Harris
Interim Managing Director, BU Office for the Arts
Elana Harris currently serves as the Interim Managing Director for the BU Office for the Arts. Elana oversees the BU Office for the Arts’ portfolio of programs and initiatives, including the BU Global Music Festival, the BU Arts Council, the Student Advisory Council for the Arts, artist residencies, student community/wellbeing programs, the BU First Year Passport to the Arts, and the Fall Arts Fair, as well as programming and research grants, student arts memberships and discounts, and other impactful initiatives. Before coming to Boston, Elana worked for the Sandy Spring Museum and the Maryland Federation of Art, the oldest continuously operated non-profit gallery in the state of Maryland.
Bithiah Holton
Administrative Coordinator, BU Office for the Arts
Bithiah Holton is a multidisciplinary artist and educator interested in the convergence of art, education, and identity. As the Administrative Coordinator for the BU Office for the Arts, Bithiah oversees the Sherman Gallery installations, prepares marketing materials, provides administrative support for events and meetings, and research support for development activities. They return to BU after diverse experiences at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center’s Pao Arts Center and Red Oak Program, and the Boston Public Schools in Roxbury as a visual arts teacher for K1-6th grade. As an artist, Bithiah often works in comics, illustration, printmaking, and ceramics.
Lissa Cramer
Director, Boston University Art Galleries
Lissa Cramer is the Director of the Boston University Art Galleries. She received her MS in Arts Administration from Boston University and a BA in Art History from the University of Kansas. She has previously worked for The Art Institute of Chicago, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO, and Tufts University Art Galleries in Medford, MA. Cramer has achieved success with multiple exhibitions and publications throughout her career, including Shahzia Sikander: Parallax, Yuan Yunsheng: Chinese Myth, Folklore & History, and Life Altering: Selections from a Kansas City Collection.
Juliet Floyd
Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy; Director, Boston University Center for the Humanities
Professor Floyd joined the faculty at Boston University from the City College of New York and C.U.N.Y. (1990-1994), where she served as Associate Director of the Ph.D. program at the Graduate Center (1993-4). She is especially known for her work on Wittgenstein’s philosophy of logic and mathematics (Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Mathematics, Cambridge Element 2021, Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Hardy’s Course of Pure Mathematics: A Non-Extensionalist Account of the Real Numbers (with Felix Mühlhölzer, Springer 2020).
Nick Vargas
Executive Director, Wheelock Family Theatre
Nick Vargas (he/him/his), is the Executive Director of Wheelock Family Theatre (WFT), greater Boston’s home for professional, intergenerational theatre. He leads the strategic vision for the organization, advancing its artistic, educational, and social justice mission. A director and educator, Nick has helmed numerous productions at WFT that reflect its commitment to storytelling that fosters creativity, empathy, and equity. He currently serves on the Board of TYA/USA and holds a BA in Theatre Education and Directing from Emerson College and an MBA in Social Impact with a concentration in Leadership and Organizational Transformation from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
Nicole Wendl
Executive Director, Boston University Tanglewood Institute
Nicole Wendl is the Executive Director of Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), bringing her rich background of private teaching, guest artist teaching, and public-school teaching to her work. In the role, she works closely with the BUTI faculty and senior staff to refine current programming and create new programming that embodies and exemplifies BUTI’s mission and values. This programming, and the standards BUTI holds itself to, benefits students’ growth as they take the next steps in their careers, whether in the field of music or any other. In addition to her role at BUTI, Nicole is an actively performing violinist and holds section positions in orchestras around the U.S.
Annette Frost
Director, Favorite Poem Project, Creative Writing Program, Boston University Arts & Sciences
Annette Frost is the director of the Favorite Poem Project at Boston University. Founded in 1998 by Robert Pinsky, the Favorite Poem Project put out an open call for people across the country to share their favorite poems. Eighteen thousand Americans—from ages 5 to 97, from every state, representing a range of occupations, kinds of education, and backgrounds—wrote to the project. From those thousands of letters and emails, the Favorite Poem Project created a series of short documentaries and anthologies. The project continues to create short films and educational resources. An alum of the BU MFA program in poetry, Frost’s poems can be found in such journals as Epiphany: The Writers Studio @ 30, Strange Horizons and Eunoia Review.
Moisès Fernández Via
Manager, Arts|Lab
Praised by Gramophone Magazine as an “artist of coruscating verve and charm,” Catalan pianist Moisès Fernández Via is an international concert artist exploring the intersection of creativity and wellness. Since 2012 he has led BU College of Fine Arts Arts|Lab – a space for artistic social innovation; providing hundreds of art interventions in collaboration between BU student-artists and the vibrant communities at Boston Medical Center, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, and Rosie’s Place. He is co-author of the book Music as Care: Artistry in the Hospital Environment, publish in 2021 by Routledge. A musician of inexhaustible creativity, he has collaborated with relevant figures of the international arts scene.
Stan Sclaroff
Dean, Boston University Arts & Sciences
Stan Sclaroff is the Dean of Arts & Sciences (CAS) at Boston University. He joined the Arts & Sciences faculty in 1995. He has served as the Chair of the Department of Computer Science (2007–2013), Associate Dean of the Faculty for Mathematical & Computational Sciences (2015–2018), and Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences (2018-2019). He was appointed Dean of Arts & Sciences in 2019.
He holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Arts & Sciences, and an affiliated faculty appointment in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. A globally respected scholar in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence, he is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the International Association for Pattern Recognition. He received his B.S. from Tufts University with majors in Computer Science and English, and he received his S.M. and Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab.
Mariette DiChristina
Dean, Boston University College of Communication
Mariette DiChristina is the dean of the College of Communication at Boston University and an internationally recognized science journalist. Before arriving in 2019, DiChristina was the editor-in-chief and executive vice president of Scientific American, as well as executive vice president, magazines, of the magazine’s publisher, Springer Nature. The first woman to head Scientific American since its founding in 1845, she led the editorial team to honors including the coveted National Magazine Award for General Excellence. In her Springer Nature role, she oversaw an editorial and publishing staff of more than 160 people across 10 countries.
Beyond her role as dean, DiChristina chairs the Steering Group for the “Top 10 Emerging Technologies” for the World Economic Forum and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Harvey Young
Dean, Boston University College of Fine Arts
Harvey Young is Dean of the College of Fine Arts (CFA) at Boston University, where he holds appointments as Professor of English, Theatre Arts, and African American & Black Diaspora Studies. He is the author/editor of ten books, most recently Theater and Human Flourishing (Oxford University Press, 2023) and has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, NPR, CBC Radio as well as within the pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune among other major news outlets.
Appointed in January 2018, Dean Young provides primary leadership for the College of Fine Arts, which includes BU School of Music, BU School of Theatre, BU School of Visual Arts, BU Tanglewood Institute, BU Art Galleries, BU Bands, and Wheelock Family Theatre. Dean Young currently chairs both the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts and the Arts Leaders Circle. A former Harvard and Stanford faculty fellow, Dean Young graduated with honors from Yale and holds a Ph.D. from Cornell. In 2021, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.
Experience the Arts at BU
From our annual fall arts fair and art installations across Terrier Town to community and well-being programming and visiting artist residencies, there is so much to see and do at BU Office for the Arts!