Spring 2025
Columbia University School of the Arts Presents...
Karen Finley, Only in Darkness Can You See the Magnificence of the Fox Heart Moon, 2024. Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 9 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
“Please join us — during the 60th anniversary year of the School of the Arts — for a season of readings, screenings, conversations, and more with these and other extraordinary artists.”
–Sarah Cole, Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts and Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Schedule of Events
Thursday, February 6, 6:30 pm
The School of the Arts welcomes back illustrious graduate Joan Jonas ’65, who will share reflections on her recent work, creative practice, and extraordinary career. Introduced by Sarah Cole, Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts. Response by Adama Delphine Fawundu ’18, Visual Arts.
Thursday, February 13, 6:30 pm
Legacy Russell — acclaimed author of GLITCH FEMINISM: A Manifesto, and Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Kitchen — presents her BLACK MEME video essay and book about “Black imagery that recasts our understanding of visual culture and technology.” Response by C Riley Snorton, English and Comparative Literature and the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender.
Thursday, February 20, 6:30 pm
Professor of the Arts and Dean Emerita Carol Becker discusses her new memoir about the complexity of a father/daughter relationship that will “resonate with anyone whose family has come undone when a member refuses to adhere to conventional expectations, whether around gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, politics, or culture” with Gideon Lester, Artistic Director of the Fisher Center at Bard College.
One-Night Only Performance!
Thursday, February 27, 7:00 pm
Celebrated visual and performance artist Karen Finley looks back at New York City upended by the COVID-19 pandemic in a moving, one-night only performance that “pierces the heart” with “rawness that feels like a jolt,” according to the New York Times. Performed to mark the five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic and the launch of Finley’s titular new book of poetry.
Thursday, March 6, 7:30 pm
Miller Theatre presents an immersion into the work of composer, performer, installation artist, and Chair of the Visual Arts Program, Miya Masaoka. Featuring a world-premiere commission for longtime Miller Theatre collaborators International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) alongside three recent works.
Tickets starting at $20. Columbia University student tickets are just $10. (Valid CUID required; maximum 2 tickets per ID.)
Thursday, March 13, 6:30 pm
Photographer Diana Matar traversed the United States for ten years, documenting locations where citizens were shot or tasered by law enforcement officers, to ask: “What does it mean to live in a land where the people responsible for protecting its citizens can so often be involved in their deaths?” Introduced by Professor of the Arts and Dean Emerita Carol Becker. Responses by Lisa Sutcliffe, Curator in the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Kendall Thomas, Columbia Law School.
On View: Thursday, April 3–Wednesday, April 23
Opening reception: Thursday, April 3, 5–7 pm
The LeRoy Neiman Gallery presents an immersive exhibition centered on the evolving nature of artistic creation by School of the Arts graduate Alejandro Contreras ’22 that highlights the energy and unpredictability of his process. Filled with in-progress works, at various stages, the overflowing gallery will become an extension of his studio to reflect the intensity of experimentation.
Thursday, April 17, 6:30 pm
Hundreds of royal artifacts were looted from the African kingdom of Dahomey by French colonial troops during the invasion of 1892. This powerful documentary by Mati Diop follows twenty-six of these objects as they are repatriated from Paris to their homeland — now located within the Republic of Benin.
Movies make small things big and big things small. Join us for screenings of Stuart Little, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret World of Arrietty, Fantastic Voyage, Osmosis Jones, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid with live musical accompaniment. Creative writing and other art-making workshops for kids and families led by faculty and students of Columbia Artist/Teachers (CA/T).