NYU Tisch School of the Arts Commencement ’18
May 18, 2018
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Graduates watch as the processional begins.
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The New York University Pipes and Drums walk past during the opening processional.
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A bearer walks the Tisch banner down the aisle. The flag fell off its pole, but, to the cheers of the audience, the bearer kept going by holding onto the top of it.
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Faculty wave to the graduating class.
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“Grace” performed by the Second Avenue Dance Company.
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Dean Allison Green congratulates students.
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Two graduates embrace after the ceremony.
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Graduates congregate outside the Radio City Music Hall.
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A girl places a lei around a graduate’s neck.
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Balloons wait to be unloaded for the next graduation ceremony.
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The iconic Radio City Music Hall was flooded by graduates of the Tisch School of the Arts this morning for the school’s annual Tisch Salute — a goodbye celebration for the Class of 2018. A spirited event full of live student performances and inspiring speeches, Tisch faculty said farewell to its newest crop of graduating students, and hello to a group of budding, professionally trained artists raring to take the entertainment industry by storm.
With over 6,000 audience members in total — of which over 1,400 were students — the Tisch graduating class of 2018 comprises one of NYU’s largest groups of graduates from one school.
Notable speakers at the ceremony included Allyson Green, the dean of Tisch, Ruth E. Carter, a distinguished costume designer most known for her work with Spike Lee along with the recent Marvel blockbuster Black Panther and Andrew Hamilton, president of NYU. Both featured speakers, Green and Carter, urged the graduating class to look toward their futures with an optimistic lens, and to create with the intention of spreading love and mindfulness.
“Art is seen as an expression of truth,” Carter said. “In your pursuit of truth, be fearless about becoming artists. As T’Challa said, ‘let’s build bridges, not barriers.’ You are the new generation that can build those bridges, who can make the scales tip fairly for everyone.”
Throughout the ceremony, many graduating students also had the opportunity to perform — singers from the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and dancers from the Second Avenue Dance Company, topped off by a Broadway-musical-inspired performance by graduating student, Shaina Taub, with a choir.
As NYU bids farewell to its newest graduating class from Tisch, only time will tell just how these rising artists will make their mark on the world of art. This year’s graduates join a global network of over 30,000 Tisch alumni, many of whom have gone on to win Oscars, Emmys and Tonys, just to name a few. With the school’s illustrious legacy of robust training and the sharp honing of one’s craft, it seems more likely than not that the Class of 2018 will see similar successes in the industries shaped by prior graduates.
Armed with years of training and now, a formal undergraduate degree in the arts, Tisch’s graduating class of 2018 marks yet another milestone of one of the most highly ranked arts programs in the world.
Email Thomas Chou at [email protected].
