60th Anniversary

The School of the Arts Celebrates 60 Years!

2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the School of the Arts. Established by the Trustees of Columbia University in 1965, we remain more dedicated than ever to being a formidable center of art-making and art-education. At Columbia, artists working across all disciplines have the unique opportunity to study and create in a vibrant community, learning alongside one another in one of the world’s greatest cultural capitals: New York City.

This year, we are celebrating the work of incredible artists and scholars from our past and present, across every medium imaginable. From welcoming back illustrious alumni like Joan Jonas ’65 to share reflections on her creative practice and extraordinary career; to seeing our artists shine on global stages, like Jocelyn Bioh ’08 at the Tony Awards and Lin King ’22 at the National Book Awards; to our yearly film festival that has launched filmmakers like Saim Sadiq ’19 to success at Cannes, Venice, and beyond, we will be celebrating this exceptional past as we build our great future.

Please be part of this year of tribute, as we honor and support the work of our talented students, faculty, and alumni, and imagine possibilities for the future. Their stories and artwork are changing the world for the better—as they have for the last 60 years—and will continue to do so in the years to come.

Alumni Weekend: October 3-4, 2025

Check out some photos from the weekend below!

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Recent Alum News

Awake and Sing!, Clifford Odets's landmark 1935 play about the struggles and aspirations of a Depression-era Jewish family in the Bronx, will return to Broadway next winter for the first time in two decades—and will mark the Broadway debut of director Tyne Rafaeli '14.

The Sensualist: Adventures in Pure Pleasure is the New York Times bestselling author and Professor Gary Shteyngart's first collection of essays—despite having appeared in Best American Essays nine times.

How is the internet like water? Yehwan Song '26 addresses this question in her solo exhibition—an installation of her kinetic sculpture The Other Internet—on view this summer at Subtitled NYC, an artist-run project space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Alumni Spotlight

An interview series dedicated our alumni community and their journeys as artists and creators

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