Columbia Community Newsletter Fall 2016.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THECOLUMBIANEWSLETTER news for our neighbors FALL 2016 MANHATTANVILLE By GCA Staff tk continued on page 4 Top row: Eric Kandel is codirector of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, which will be housed on the new Manhattanville campus; the Jerome L. Greene Science Center and the Lenfest Center for the Arts will open in Fall 2016; at the Zuckerman Institute, public school children learn about the human brain. Middle row: Workers hoist the final beam atop the Greene Science Center; Sheila Anderson, Eric K. Washington, and Martha Diaz are participants in the Columbia Community Scholars Program, one of many community benefits associated with the new campus; Carol Becker, dean of the Columbia School of the Arts.Bottom row: Deborah Cullen is director and chief curator of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery; students from the School of the Arts participate in a public exhibition of their thesis projects (photo by Joel Jares); the Manhattanville campus from the 125th Street subway platform. he first two buildings of Columbia University’s new Manhattanville campus the Columbia University Medical Center to the Greene Science Center. Each summer, the have risen from the ground. The Jerome L. Greene Science Center and the Zuckerman Institute hosts the Brain Research Apprenticeships in New York at Columbia Lenfest Center for the Arts will not only provide new space for teaching and (BRAINYAC), a program that helps New York City high school students broaden their research; they will also create new opportunities for the University to expand scientific knowledge, hone research skills, and learn about possible biomedical careers see( Tthe scope of its partnerships in the surrounding community. related story, page 4). The students receive a $1,000 stipend and present their research at the Named for former Columbia Trustee H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest, a well-known supporter end of the summer to faculty and family members. of both the arts and Columbia’s community partnerships, the Lenfest Center will house The many Columbia-sponsored community programs that preceded the rise of the new the School of the Arts and Columbia’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, both buildings continue to flourish, including the recently renamed Roger Lehecka Double currently housed on the University’s Morningside campus. The gallery’s director and chief Discovery Center (see related item, page 2); Columbia Community Impact, which oversees curator, Deborah Cullen, says that the move to Manhattanville will mean new partnerships more than 72 programs focused on youth, adult education, wellness, and emergency relief with local K–12 schools, community hubs, and senior centers. “Our new home, with its services; and Columbia Community Service, which awards grant money to more than 50 enhanced programming opportunities, will propel the Wallach Art Gallery to a much not-for-profit organizations each year. more active role,” says Cullen, who has already convened a working group of uptown stakeholders interested in community-oriented arts collaborations. “This is an incredible For an extensive listing of current community services related to the Manhattanville opportunity for both the campus and the uptown communities.” campus, please see page 6. Also making its home on the Manhattanville campus will be the Mortimer B. For more on Columbia’s Manhattanville campus, please visit: http://manhattanville. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, which will move from its current location at columbia.edu/. 2 | FALL 2016 THE COLUMBIA NEWSLETTER: NEWS FOR OUR NEIGHBORS www.neighbors.columbia.edu Lin-Manuel Miranda In the Know Receives Columbia DOUBLE DISCOVERY CENTER ARTHUR MITCHELL AMONG Libraries’ Kennedy Prize, RENAMED IN HONOR OF COLUMBIA’S 2016 HONORARY COFOUNDER ROGER LEHECKA DEGREE RECIPIENTS Views Hamilton Archive The Double Discovery By Columbia News Center (DDC), a Dance pioneer Arthur Columbia College Mitchell was awarded program that pre- an honorary Doctor pares low-income and of Humane Letters first-generation middle degree at Columbia and high school stu- University’s 2016 dents in New York City Commencement cere- for college, was renamed mony. A self-described in honor of its cofound- “political activist er Roger Lehecka through dance,” (CC’67, GSAS’74), Mitchell has been a thanks to a $2 million seminal figure in the gift from an anony- dance world for more mous donor. The gift will fund the renovation of DDC’s than half a century. After becoming the first African tutoring and office space; endow the DDC’s Freedom and American principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, Citizenship Program; and provide additional resources he cofounded the Dance Theatre of Harlem to give young for science, technology, engineering, and math education. people in Harlem the opportunity to transform their lives Each year, 90 percent of the high school seniors who par- through exposure to the arts. As a dancer, educator, chore- ticipate in Double Discovery graduate on time and enter ographer, and artistic director, he has carved out a place for Hamilton composer and writer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, views part of college in the fall, a figure which greatly surpasses city, African American dancers in classical ballet and changed Columbia’s Alexander Hamilton archive, including drafts of the founding the face of dance in America. In 2015, he donated his father’s iconic Federalist Papers and the 1774 registry showing his state, and national outcomes for low-income, first-genera- enrollment in King’s College. tion minority students. archives to Columbia. “We’re so excited to honor one of our founders and in-Manuel Miranda, the composer, lyricist, writer, greatest champions this way,” said Joseph Ayala CC’94, PBS NEWSHOUR’S GWEN IFILL RECEIVES CU JOURNALISM SCHOOL and star of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, executive director of DDC. “And we’re even more excit- visited campus to receive the Edward M. Kennedy ed to take on the challenge to match this unprecedented HONOR L Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. Miranda gift over the next five years in order to secure Double Columbia also viewed an extraordinary collection of Alexander Discovery’s future for the next 50.” University’s Graduate Hamilton artifacts from Columbia’s Rare Book and School of Journalism Manuscript Library, including letters and personal items he COLUMBIA PROFESSORS WIN NATIONAL has announced that shared with his wife, Eliza, some of which figure Gwen Ifill is the prominently in the award-winning show. BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS recipient of the 2016 In a moving tribute, Edward M. Kennedy Jr. choked Paul Beatty and Margo John Chancellor up as he said he missed his father, saying, “I know how Jefferson, both pro- Award for Excellence much he would have loved this year’s winner.” The elder fessors in the School in Journalism. Ifill is Kennedy kept a copy of the Federalist Papers, two-thirds of of the Arts Writing coanchor and managing which Hamilton wrote, by his bedside. Each summer the Program, were among editor of PBS NewsHour late senator took his children and many nieces and nephews the winners of the 2015 and moderator and on bus trips to historic places around the country. Speaking National Book Critics managing editor of directly to Miranda, Kennedy said, “You made history come Circle Awards. Beatty Washington Week with Gwen Ifill. Selected by a nine-mem- alive. What my father tried to teach me, you have done won the fiction prize for ber committee, Ifill receives the 2016 award with a for all of us.” his novel, The Sellout, $50,000 honorarium. She is the first African American to “I am so overcome by this incredible honor,” said a vis- a satire about race in receive the award in its 21-year history. ibly emotional Miranda. “I have been told that Act II of America, which has “Gwen Ifill’s career embodies the best of our profession Hamilton is unfairly sad. I was a mess even before I walked also been short-listed and the spirit of the John Chancellor Award: her unflinch- in here [after] getting to see those primary documents.” for the Man Booker ing pursuit of the truth, healthy skepticism of those in His classmate from Hunter High School, MSNBC International Prize. Jefferson won in the autobiography power, and her commitment to fairness,” said Dean Steve host Chris Hayes, introduced Miranda, saying he real- category for her memoir, Negroland. Jefferson is a Pulitzer Coll, a member of the Chancellor jury. ized his friend was a genius when he was 13 and Miranda Prize–winning cultural critic; her reviews and essays have wrote a 20-minute musical, which Hayes directed, called appeared in New York Magazine, Grand Street, Vogue, and Nightmare in D Major. Hayes perhaps best captured the Harper’s, among other publications. Beatty is the author of tone of the celebration. “The fundamental principle of three previous novels and two books of poetry and is the democracy is that every single person is capable of the editor of Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor. greatness of self-determination . and so if America’s civic The National Book Critics Circle Awards are given annu- religion is democracy, Hamilton has become its most ecstatic ally to honor outstanding writing and to foster a national mass.” conversation about reading, criticism, and literature. Charles Manley The Columbia Newsletter 309 Low Library 535 W. 116th St., MC 4319 New York, NY 10027 The Columbia Newsletter is published by the Office of Government and Community Affairs. Maxine Griffith Executive Vice President for Government and Community Affairs and Special Adviser for Campus Planning Karen Jewett Vice President for Government and Community Affairs Editorial Coordinator: Kevin Brannon To receive a copy of The Columbia Newsletter, contact the Office of Government and Community Affairs at 212-854-5915 or send an email to [email protected].