The Columbia University School of the Arts , also known simply as the School of the Arts or as SoA, is the division of the university that offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, and Writing. It also organizes the Columbia University Arts Initiative (CUArts) and the Columbia University Film Festival. Founded in 1965, the school is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.
Divisions
Film
The program offers degrees with concentrations in screenwriting, directing, and producing.
Theatre Arts
The program offers degrees in Theatre Arts with concentrations in acting, directing, playwriting, dramaturgy, stage management and theatre management and producing.
Visual Arts
In this division, students work in the fields of painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, digital media, drawing, performance and video art.
Writing
The program offers degrees in creative writing, with concentrations in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. One of its more notable features are "master classes", four-week courses for writers (as opposed to critical scholars) "designed to stimulate provocative discussions about literary craft and artistic choices". Master Class faculty have recently included Helen Vendler, Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead, James Wood, Richard Ford, Han Ong, Susan Choi, and Jonathan Ames. The writing division also employs prestigious writers as seminar and workshop instructors; these have recently included Gary Shteyngart, Nathan Englander, Myla Goldberg, Adam Haslett, Jessica Hagedorn, Phillip Lopate, Marie Howe, Eamon Grennan, Paul LaFarge, David Gates, Francisco Goldman, Darcy Frey, and David Ebershoff.
Future
As part of Columbia's expansion into the nearby neighborhood of Manhattanville, the School of the Arts will move from its current cramped quarters in Dodge Hall, on the Morningside Heights campus of the university, to a substantial new building, to be located on 125th Street, that will be one of the centrepieces of the new campus there. To be completed in the first phase of the expansion, the new building will be designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.
Notable alumni
- Albert Hall (1971) - actor
- Laurie Anderson (1972) - musician
- Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (1974) - poet
- Richard Corliss (1974) - film critic
- Katha Pollitt (1975) - feminist writer
- Richard Price (1976) - novelist and screenwriter
- Kathryn Bigelow (1979) - screenwriter and film director
- Peter Farrelly (1986) - director, with his brother Bobby Farrelly, of There's Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, Shallow Hal, Me, Myself and Irene and Stuck on You; author of Outside Providence
- Susan Minot (1986) - novelist and screenwriter
- Philip Gourevitch (1992) - writer and journalist
- Tan Dun (1993) - composer
- Meghan Daum (1996) - writer and journalist
- Lisa Cholodenko (1998) - screenwriter and film director
- Kiran Desai (1999) - winner of the Booker Prize for her novel The Inheritance of Loss
Notable faculty
- Richard Howard - Pulitzer Prize winning poet
- Tom Kalin - screenwriter, film director, and producer
- Gregory Mosher - Tony Award winning theatrical producer
- Mira Nair - director of Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala, and Vanity Fair
- Anne Bogart - theater director
See also the List of Columbia University people.