Arts and Culture in NYC
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area is designed for students with a passion for exploring the arts and humanities while living in the rich cultural landscape of New York City. This flexible Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from practitioners from Columbia’s renowned School of the Arts, making it ideal for students who are completing courses in preparation for graduate studies in the arts and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program.
Visiting students enroll in two courses that may be completed in either one or two six-week sessions, selecting from a variety of curated courses. Students who complete two courses in their Focus Area will receive a Certification of Participation and a Columbia University transcript.
In this nimble program, Columbia’s theory-meets-practice model pairs coursework with specialized, exclusive co-curriculars.
Co-curricular activities may include:
- SoHo gallery crawls
- Visits to The Africa Center
- Visits to El Museo del Barrio
- Visits to Asia Society Museum
- Shakespeare in the Park performances
- Other exclusive-to-cohort outings
Visiting students study alongside matriculated students at Columbia University and have the same access to top faculty in the arts and humanities at Columbia’s School of Arts & Sciences academic departments. Students can also take advantage of on-campus housing. This holistic program provides students a unique experiential learning experience, offering the chance to study in the only Ivy League university in New York City while connecting with a cohort of like-minded peers.
Program Features
Learn more about the Focus Areas for Visiting StudentsCourses
Art History and Archaeology
- AHIS2314S 001 Masters of the Baroque
- AHIS2427W 001 Twentieth-Century Architecture
- AHIS3010S 001-002 Evaluating Authenticity
- AHIS3409S 001 Architecture of New York’s Leisure Industry
- AHIS3426S 001-002 Jackson Pollock
- AHIS3427W 001 Making Medieval New York
- AHIS3441S 001-002 New York City and the History of Museums
- AHIS3442S 001 American Art in a Global Context: 1750-1914
- AHIS3443S 001 Impressionism in New York
English and Comparative Literature
- ENGL3233S 001 Shakespeare
- ENGL3273S 001 Walt Whitman and New York
- ENGL3915S 001 The Art of the Essay
- ENGL3395S 001 The Athlete in the American Imagination
- ENGL3399S 001 Home to Harlem: Literature and Culture of the Harlem Renaissance
- ENGL4526S 001 Comics: Reading the Medium
- ENGL4930S 001 Made in America: Mafia in Cinema
History
- HIST3535S 001 History of the City of New York
Film
- FILM3001S 001 Intro Study and Theory of Film
- FILM3022S 001 Flying Above the Towers: NY and the Superhero in Times of American Crisis
- FILM3023S 001 Comparative Study: Cinema and Video Games
- FILM3815S 001 Developing the Low Budget Film
- FILM3833S 001 Producing the Low Budget Film
- FILM4030S 001-002 TV Writing: Intro to Pilot
- FILM4037S 001 Screenwriting 1: Intro
Theatre
- THEA4215S 001 The New York Theatre Event
Visual Arts
- VIAR1001S 001 Basic Drawing
- VIAR1701S 001-003 Intro to Darkroom Photography
- VIAR1702R 001 Intro to Digital Photography
- VIAR3210S 001 Painting I
- VIAR3411S 001-002 Printmaking: Silkscreen
Writing
- WRIT1001S 001-002 Fiction Workshop
- WRIT1101S 001-002 Nonfiction Workshop
- WRIT1201S 001-002 Poetry Workshop
- WRIT3215W 001 Writing About Art
- WRIT4313S 001 Writing Children’s Books
- WRIT4320W 001 Travel Writing
- WRIT4323S 001 Writing the YA Novel
- WRIT4810S 001 How to Write Funny