NYU is doubling down on its reputation as a prominent arts school with its new Arts & Impact Initiative, which will work to integrate artistic and sociological scholarship and serve as a thematic foundation for university-led programming and events.
The initiative, announced in a universitywide email on Tuesday, was inspired by listening sessions President Linda Mills held in fall 2023. In a statement to WSN, Peter Holm, associate vice president and senior advisor to the president for strategy and planning, told WSN that NYU’s prominent art culture distinguishes it from other research universities.
“Our community is hungry for more interdisciplinary and cross-unit approaches to our work,” Holm said. “Our community cares deeply about making a difference both in the lives of individual people and in society writ large. Arts & Impact brings those themes together.”
Led by the Office of the Provost, the initiative will pair an artistic medium with a new social issue each year. The inaugural theme, “Remix the Future,” centers on music as a form of social advocacy and community building across history.
“Music felt like the right place to start because it’s a language everyone understands,” said Alex Clothier, assistant director of universitywide initiatives.
The programming of “Remix The Future” includes the Bob Dylan Center’s traveling exhibition “How Many Roads: Bob Dylan and His Changing Times, 1961-1964,” which is currently on display at the Gallatin Galleries until Oct. 15. Drawing from Dylan’s life and the start of his music career in Greenwich Village, the exhibition emphasizes the musician’s political activity and influence using archival footage and photographs.
In an interview with WSN, Mark Davidson, librarian and collections manager at the Bob Dylan Center and exhibition curator, said he hopes students are inspired by Dylan’s unconventional path to success.
“I wanted the average NYU student to come in and experience what was happening in their backyards,” said Davidson. “To know that Dylan, a college dropout from Minnesota, had come to the very places where they’re now living and working, and fell in with a creative community that was directly responsible for his meteoric rise.”
BEAT-SCD, a research collaboration between singer-songwriter Adekunle Gold and the School of Global Public Health for the initiative, explores how musical storytelling can contribute to reduced stigma surrounding sickle cell disease, a condition that disproportionately affects Africans.
Emmanuel Peprah, an associate professor of global and environmental health, said that “bringing a human dimension” to the research would advance policy and advocacy in favor of the issue.
The Arts & Impact Initiative also announced the launch of its own rotating Artists-in-Residence program, the first of which being Noel Paul Stookey from the iconic folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. Formed in the ’60s, the trio’s projects amplified folk’s potential as a political force, leading them to perform at the 1963 March on Washington. Stookey also co-founded Music to Life, a nonprofit that offers mentorship for musicians interested in careers in activism. In October, he is set to host a masterclass with NYU’s music students and participate in events “Words & Music” and “History Rhymes.”
Other upcoming events include a conversation on Oct. 9 between Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall Sir Clive Gillinson and Nabeel Abboud-Ashkar, Executive Director of Polyphony Education, a classical music organization that aims to promote cultural exchange and dialogue between Arab and Jewish communities.
“Whether it’s an exhibit, panel discussion, performance, or some other creative work, we want the programming to be forward-thinking, invite participation across multiple schools, and engage a range of partners, such as external guest artists and outside organizations,” said Elise Cappella, vice provost for universitywide initiatives and graduate education.
The Arts & Impact Initiative is the latest of the Office of the Provost’s Interdisciplinary Initiatives, which promote collaboration across schools and fields of work to address NYU’s most academically strong areas. Other projects include NYU’s Urban Initiative, which focuses on research surrounding issues like transportation and urban planning, its Inequality + Opportunity Initiative, which supports grants and scholarship to reduce socioeconomic inequality and the All-University Climate Change Initiative, which bolsters research and partnerships to tackle the ongoing climate crisis.
“We hope that Arts & Impact will inspire students and faculty in all types of fields to engage with the arts in new ways, crossing over disciplinary and school lines to connect, create, and reimagine,” Cappella said. “And we hope that it highlights in yet one more way to the broader world what a special place NYU is.”
To learn more about the Arts & Impact Initiative and its upcoming programs, visit its website.
Contact Dani Biondi at [email protected].
