News
Over the course of three evenings in October 2019, nearly 10,000 people came to the Lenfest Center for the Arts to experience WATERLICHT, a site-specific, large-scale light installation, by the brilliant artist and designer Daan Roosegaarde. Translated from Dutch as "water light," this immersive, public art event illuminated the power and poetry of water, while raising awareness of rising global sea levels. We checked in with Roosegaarde's studio in Rotterdam.
Tune in here to watch the School of the Arts Celebration of Graduates!
Dear School of the Arts Admitted Students,
In this time of unparalleled anxiety and threat, it’s heartening to be able to write to you about the strength and resilience of the community you are about to join.
Balk, a 2019 thesis film directed and co-written by alumnus Gabriel Wilson ’19, co-written by alumnus Ben Gottlieb ’19 and produced by alumna Jennifer Kaiser ’19, has been nominated for a College Television Award. Winners can expect a $3,000 cash prize and will be announced at the 40th edition of the event on May 30. The film had its premiere at last year’s Columbia University Film Festival.
Professor and Directing Concentration head, Tom Kalin will receive the Pride Award at this year’s Ashland Independent Film Festival in Oregon. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the festival will be held entirely online from May 22 to June 14.
Associate Professor Susan Bernofsky and alumna Alexandra Kleeman ’12 are two of this year’s recipients of the Berlin Prize, awarded by the American Academy in Berlin.
Winners were announced online last week for the renowned Tribeca Film Festival that was canceled due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Two Columbia films received recognition.
A new book by adjunct assistant professor Kate Zambreno, Drifts, will be released on May 19 by Riverhead Books.
Diversity in Film is a bi-weekly series covering underrepresented groups in Film.
Alumnus Matthew Gellman ’18 has been named one of Adroit Journal’s 2020 Djanikian Scholars in poetry.
If I Had Your Face, a novel by alumna Frances Cha ’11, was published last month by Ballantine Books of Random House. The book has been on multiple must-read lists.
During her Spring 2019 visit to the School of the Arts, internationally acclaimed visual artist Ann Hamilton presented CHORUS, her stirring new work for New York City straphangers. Installed in the Cortlandt Street Station — destroyed on 9/11 and reopened in 2018 — the large-scale public work weaves text from the Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in marble on the walls of the repaired transit space. We asked Hamilton what she is working on and thinking about now.
Recent alumnus Daniel Pearce ’18 was recently named a 2020-2021 Steinbeck Fellow by San José State University.
Becoming, a film following Michelle Obama by director Nadia Hallgren, was released on Netflix last week.
The Alumni Spotlight is a place to hear from the School of the Arts alumni community about their journeys as artists and creators.