Will Butler takes Kennedy School lessons to Arcade Fire
This is one in a series of profiles showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates. It took Will Butler a few years to find the time, but where to continue his education was never in question. “Part of why I’m at a policy school and not an art school is because I care about context, and the context of the humanity enriches the art,” said Butler, a multi-instrumentalist in the indie rock band Arcade Fire who graduates from Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) midcareer master’s program in public administration. “I don’t think historicizing art has to cheapen it. I think you can be of two minds [on] things.” Butler first applied to HKS in 2012 but band commitments intervened. After deferring a second acceptance, he began his studies in fall 2016 and found it valuable to be in an academic environment during and after the election. “It’s nice to be in a space hearing how government works, and...