Tisch Special Programs

Students in the Tisch School of the Arts program How Arts Creates the World: Dublin are collaborating with students from the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the National College of Art and Design to create community-based arts projects, including:

Meghan Griffin is working with a student from the DIT to create an exchange via Skype between six 9 to 12 year olds in the Aisling Group and Meghan's former secondary school in New York.

Casey Graig is teaming up with a partner from DIT to plan an event with the Larkin Community Group in which unemployed women between the ages of 20 and 40 years become walking tour guides bringing visitors on an unusual tour of their area.

Catherine Clark, also working with a student from DIT, is finding her own community group in the culturally diverse and mostly Muslim and Jewish area of Clanbrassil Street.

Kristine Stolakis and a student from the National College of Art and Design are working in the BINI group with around six teenagers from Nigeria to create a photographic journey of self representation, questioning the stereotypical representation of immigrants.

More community news to come from Dublin!

How Arts Creates the World: Dublin is a spring Tisch School of the Arts study abroad program offered to all NYU and visiting students. Students explore Ireland's rich artistic legacy and culture through various interdisciplinary art resources. The community-based arts project is part of the final research assignment. For more information, visit How Arts Creates the World: Dublin.

Eden Jeffries, studying with Tisch School of the Arts in South Africa this semester, feels a "sense of home..."

The cultures, the faces, the foods, the languages, are many. In appearance, the diversity in this city makes it easily mistakable for Los Angeles and at times even New York. Although I’m across the globe I feel a sense of home, but at times I have to wonder, where I would fit into this “rainbow nation”. Truly it is a rainbow. Its colors remain distinct, but I am finding that in many respects the lines do blur, mostly through a common love for democracy. Even more, a common love for the arts and for celebration. One of the most exciting parts of my experience so far is the observation, exploration, and dissection of race relations. You’ll find some racial experiences and dynamics so familiar, but in conjunction with some very eye opening and intriguing ones. An advantage of being with a group of NYU students that have varied interests (academically, artistically, culturally, and musically) and intentions in coming here is that the people we meet, the places we socialize at, the perspectives arisen, the obstacles faced, and the encounters we have are so multidimensional and heterogeneous. This past weekend we went out quite a bit to celebrate my birthday. Moving from venue to venue each night we experienced different demographics, different music, different classes, and it made me and I’m the sure the rest of us, hyperaware of how this incredible heartbreaking yet moving history that we are soaking up in the Arts & Culture class, by going to the apartheid museum, and in the books we read, has manifested itself in the culture and lives of the young people but also how in this same group of people it is evolving and being reconstructed. We found same groups of people we saw at one club dancing to Indie dance and electronic music, at another club dancing with us to Hip-Hop and DJ mash-ups. Recently, went to a party at one club in which myself, and two other girls in the NYU group were three of about six black people in the whole venue. Later we went to a party only a few blocks away and nearly the entire place was filled with black Africans “jamming” to reggae and house music. Our definitions of what South Africa is and what it means to be African continues to be challenged week by week and it’s important that we keep embracing these challenges.

Eden Jeffries

Thanks Eden for sharing your thoughts on South Africa!

New York University Tisch School of the Arts offers three spring programs in South Africa: Arts and Culture in Post-Apartheid South Africa, Video and Documentary Production, and Performance Theatre-Making and Collaborative Theatre.

Award-winning director and Tisch School of the Arts alumnus Ang Lee will chair the international jury at the Venice International Film Festival this September. Lee will be responsible for awarding the Golden Lion and other official prizes.

Ang Lee, '84 and '01, is a two-time Golden Lion winner, in 2005 for "Brokeback Mountain" and in 2007 for "Lust, Caution." The 66th Annual Venice International Film Festival takes place September 2 - 12, 2009.

Amy Meche, a student studying with Tisch School of the Arts in Dublin this semester, shares her weekend in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.

Photo courtesy of Amy Meche

Crossing the Border

Awakening in the morning perhaps earlier than many of us were accustomed to, we boarded a bus and traveled for two and a half hours to cross an international border. As a city, Belfast differs from Dublin in a variety of ways. Although I expected to encounter a number of these variations, I was struck by how strongly I felt their presence within the city’s borders, even though our group spent only a day’s time there. Belfast boasts a number of visual features that add to its distinction.

Students studying with Tisch School of the Arts in South Africa this semester are really getting a taste of the culture. Salome Asega takes us to Soweto, where the foods are not your average palate pleasers...

So what do President Bill Clinton, Denzel Washington, and the seven members of the South Africa study abroad program have in common? We’ve all been to Gramadoelas Exotic African Restaurant in the Market Theatre. Specializing in traditional South African cooking techniques, Gramadoelas is place where one can try the most unique dishes. We found this to be true early on in the meal when we ordered Mopani Worms and...

Sarah Ryndak, our Student Services Coordinator, has been diligently keeping up with our students studying in Havana, Cuba. As you may know, communication in and out of Cuba can be quite challenging—phone calls are plagued by delays in signal, internet speed is not what most of us are accustomed to—so having the students send us blog entries directly is all but impossible. Through her many phone calls, Sarah has learned that as soon as the reception desk in Cuba picks up the phone and says, "hola," she has to cut them off or risk being hung up on by a person who is not aware of the 3-second delay as she is.

Here are some of our students' comments, tips, and insider information that only one living and breathing everything Havana could provide, courtesy of Sarah:

Frank Lopez, Documentary Video, says the projects have been really rewarding and he’s been working on a short documentary about Cuban musicians, visiting their homes and going to jam sessions.

Another Documentary student, Gisella Bustillos, says they have been filming intensively every day and that the program is an amazing experience. She's also glad that she brought her own laptop and recommends that future students do the same.

Kathleen Ching is a Photography student and has been mingling more and more with the Cubans. She says her Spanish is getting better (all of our students enroll in a Spanish class and take a placement test at the beginning of the semester). Kathleen reports that the food is not too bad but misses the food at home and has been dreaming of cupcakes.

Tamara Davidson, one of our Directed Research students, is studying Afro-Cuban music and is being mentored by the rumba singer, Alfred Saien who she says is fabulous.

Rom Meredith, another Photography student, says that the classes are very hands-on and are focused on experiencing Cuban culture rather than merely studying it.

Thanks to all of our students in Havana, and Sarah here in New York!

Tisch School of the Arts Department of Photography and Imaging will offer a noncredit certificate in Photography and Human Rights this summer. The certificate, offered in collaboration with the Magnum Foundation, is for the intermediate and advanced student looking to sharpen his or her documentary and media skills in the context of human rights.

Photo by Susan Meiselas, Magnum Photos

The award-winning Web site Pixel Press will be available for students to publish their work when it is successfully completed. Internships with photographers or human rights organizations will also be available. This summer's NYU faculty includes Catherine Fallon, Mark Jenkinson, Elizabeth Kilroy, Peter Lucas, and Fred Ritchin, along with Magnum photographers Susan Meiselas and Gilles Peress.

For more information, visit Summer Photography Certificate.

For this blog entry, Bennett Jackson, a student in our Johannesburg program, shares his reviews of South African Music. Bennett knew a little about the genre prior to departing for Johannesburg, but is continuing to develop his artistic and cultural knowledge, as you will read below:

South African Music Guide

A beginner’s guide…by a beginner.

If your knowledge of South African music ends after Paul Simon’s Graceland and the obligatory Kwaito banger in your itunes library, listen up. My knowledge of South African music before my arrival was a bit more comprehensive than that, but not by much, and one of the things I was most excited about in coming here was all the music I was sure to encounter. Below I will talk about a couple of items I have encountered so far, but firstly, I would like to recommend a couple of things as a basic intro to South African music. The artists Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba are two of the most important artists in the history of popular music for political, cultural and musical reasons alike. Masekela is a trumpeter and Makeba is a vocalist. Ladysmith Black Mambazo is possibly the most popular current musical export of South Africa, based on their perfection of the beautiful South African form of acapella harmony singing and synchronized dancing called isicathamiya. Until his recent death, Lucky Dube was one of the world’s greatest reggae singers, and South Africa’s premier reggae star. ‘Best Of’ compilations can be recommended for each of those artists. So now, my picks out of some of the music I’ve picked up here so far.

Thanks to student Paul Leopold in South Africa!

Studying television production with Tisch School of the Arts is an exciting opportunity. Studying television production with the BBC in London through Tisch can only mean one thing: a rare and incomparable opportunity.

Hannah Schleuder tells Tisch what the BBC program has brought to her academic and professional career.

Hannah edits with Ian at the BBC.

The Tisch London Program BBC course has exceeded my expectations on all fronts. The practical hands-on learning we have done at actual training sites combined with the integrity for television programming that our instructors have all displayed have made this study experience incomparable. I feel more comfortable calling my seven classmates “colleagues” as we perform directing, camera work, research, and scriptwriting weekly alongside professionals in the industry. Our training at BBC sites could be viewed as an abridged version of the two to three-year program that most young English professionals compete aggressively for. Acknowledging that this circumstance is extremely rare seems to have given us even more of a meaningful responsibility toward it.

Students studying in London with Tisch School of the Arts this spring were treated to a snow day. Here's one student's tale of the day:

Perhaps my favorite day in London started with snow. London hasn’t seen any real snow in over a decade so when five inches fell over night the city went crazy. On my way to class I saw kids having snowball fights all over the city and grown men building snowmen with their bare hands. When I got to class, school was cancelled due to the transit system failures so my friends and I decided to make the most of the day, regardless of the unplowed roads and the biting cold, and explore London.

We went for a walk through the pristine white blankets of snow in St. James’s Park, just down the road from Buckingham Palace and opposite the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) where the London Program is based. After watching the Changing of the Horse Guards (the mounted soldiers who form the Queen’s bodyguard), we walked down toward the Houses of Parliament and had an epic snowball fight of our own. We warmed up with lunch in a cozy pub just across the street from Big Ben and then took a lovely stroll over to Westminster Abbey and attended Evensong, a late afternoon church service featuring a boys’ choir singing ancient hymns. It represents a unique English choral tradition.

As I sat in that beautiful church, where so many Kings and Queens were both crowned and so many are buried, I reflected on my perfect English snow-day.

Philip ROSSI - RADA program.

Thanks Philip!

See what else London has to offer.

Far away places were close to home this semester.

Students studying with Tisch School of the Arts in Dublin this semester traveled to Africa, Belgium, France, Germany, and Morocco for spring break. Some students made it back just in time to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day in Dublin.

Here are some highlights shared by our students:

This is in the “backstage” area at the parade—one of the marching
groups is warming up, and we aren't the only ones watching... These
were just two of what must have been at least a dozen groups waiting
to start the parade. For about two hours it was all tuning and drums
and bells alternating with music blasting from the floats floating by.