Seminar 1: Arts in NYC

Course Description: The Arts in New York City is an interdisciplinary Honors seminar that invites students to make art, look, listen, and engage deeply with the city’s dynamic cultural landscape. Throughout the semester, students will encounter innovative visual artists, musicians, dancers, theater-makers, and performers whose work has shaped New York City and influenced culture beyond it. Particular attention will be given to artistic practices from the twentieth century to the present, representing a wide range of cultural traditions, identities, and perspectives.

Special attention will be given to artists and communities whose work challenges established cultural narratives and expands our understanding of identity, history, place, and belonging. Students will consider the arts not only as forms of creative expression, but also as powerful tools for documenting lived experience, building community, questioning social structures, and imagining new possibilities.

Through close observation, critical discussion, assigned readings and media, independent andcollaborative projects, and visits to museums, galleries, performance spaces, and other cultural venues, students will explore how art responds to—and helps transform—the social, political, and historical life of the city. Meeting twice weekly for seventy-five minutes, the seminar treats New York City as both a subject of study and an extended classroom. Students will develop the vocabulary, analytical skills, curiosity, and confidence necessary to participate thoughtfully in the cultural life of the city.