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!

Upcoming Events

Recent Alum News

Burlington, Vermont's premiere performing arts center, the Flynn, is partnering with the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize to publish new 10-minute plays and monologues on the state of American democracy by past winners of the prize—the oldest and largest playwriting prize honoring women+ writing for the English-speaking theatre. The civic initiative will conclude with a marathon live performance of the resulting work—Women+ on the Edge of Democracy—at the Flynn this October.

Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Adama Delphine Fawundu '18 is featured in a new exhibition, Never The Same River, at the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York City.

On July 23, 2026, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) announced the recipients of their 2026 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program, and among them were five alums and a former faculty member of the School of the Arts. 

Alumni Spotlight

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

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