Lenfest Center for the Arts Provides New Spaces for Upper Manhattan to Engage in Arts
Just months ago Columbia University School of the Arts’s Lenfest Center for the Arts opened its doors as a dynamic new hub for cultural and civic exchange in Upper Manhattan. Featuring four flexible venues and a public plaza, this state-of-the-art facility offers unprecedented opportunities for the presentation and generation of contemporary art across disciplines.
The Lenfest Center acts as the public arm for the School and its programming on the new campus, complementing the existing public programming at Miller Theatre on the Morningside campus. From readings and installations to performances, screenings, and symposia, the vibrant array of activity at the Lenfest Center aims to strengthen local partnerships while highlighting contemporary scholarship, global perspectives, and compelling voices of our time. “Complex Issues”—one of many public events at the School of the Arts—explores difference, visibility, and representation through recent work, inviting conversations on racial, ethnic, gender, economic, sexual, religious, and cultural complexity, and how they are articulated across discipline and genre today. In early 2018, the School will be hosting the first annual Dr. Saul and Dorothy Kit Film Noir Festival. The film festival will be one of many events making use of the Katharina Otto-Bernstein Screening Room to showcase films, documentaries, and exhibitions.
At the Lenfest, greater visibility, doubled space, enhanced programming, and additional staff will propel the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery to a much more active role in the community. This past spring, the Wallach opened with the annual MFA Thesis show, followed by Uptown, a triennial survey of contemporary work by artists from northern Manhattan featuring collaborative projects with institutions across Harlem. On exhibition until December 18, Living in America: Frank Lloyd Wright, Harlem, and Modern Housing aims to tell a story of segregation, inequality, and aspiration. Exhibits planned for 2018 include Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet to Matisse and Beyond. Inspired by a dissertation for the Department of Art History and Archaeology, it will be the first exhibition to examine the evolving depiction of the black female model, with major works from institutions across the United States and Europe. Later, Arthur Mitchell: Harlem’s Ballet Trailblazer will explore the life and accomplishments of the New York City Ballet’s first African American principal dancer. Mitchell, who founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem, donated his archives to Columbia’s Rare Book & Manucript Library in 2015.
The Wallach is enhancing its existing public programming with free educational offerings for people of all ages by building upon long-term and ongoing affiliations with K–12 schools, community hubs, and senior centers surrounding our new campus. Most importantly, the Wallach Gallery is free and open to the public year-round, with extended hours: Wednesday–Friday, 12–8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 12–6 p.m.
