New York City: the place where over a hundred
different languages are spoken daily and the undisputed capital
of the arts. What better city in the world for college students
to come to in order to study Liberal Arts?
That is to say, language and its allied fields, such as literature
and linguistics, film, theatre, radio, journalism, television and
video as well as the fine arts that include music and dance, painting,
drawing, photography, sculpture, architecture, and design.
New York City boasts over a dozen private universities in addition
to branches of the State University of New York and the 21 - campus
City University of New York. International students are invited
to apply to all of these schools. Indeed, the student populations
of these campuses reflect the international quality of life in the
City at large.
If you are interested in the Fine Arts, you will find programs
in which you can study art history, as well as painting, drawing,
photography, and sculpture, often with professional artists and
designers whose work is acknowledged here around the world. Not
only will you be able to create your own works in a studio space,
but you will have as your resource and inspiration the art housed
in the dozens of museums and galleries that have made New York the
art centre of the world.
If it is the world of stage drama or cinema that interests you,
you can find academic programs that offer courses in acting, screen-writing,
stage directing, film directing, cinematography, animated film,
set design, and video production. Get "hands-on" experience
with a camera or stage crew while studying with teachers who are
also professional actors, writers and directors. The resources in
New York City for drama and film students are legion: the dozens
of theatres on and off Broadway, and also the retrospective showing
and film archives at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and
the Museum of the Moving Image.
Journalism students will find courses in news reporting and writing,
news editing, newspaper production, and broadcast journalism. Those
interested in other aspects of television will find courses in media
systems and telecommunications. As a resource they will find many
television studios to visit as well the Museum of Broadcasting.
Students of music and dance will likewise find themselves with
a wide variety of opportunities. The City’s colleges and universities
offer courses in music history, ethnomusicology, music theory, harmony,
and counterpoint, music therapy, techniques of conventional composition
as well as composition for jazz and electronic music, musical performance
art and conducting, computer techniques for music research.
Students of dance can find courses in: ballet, jazz, modern dance,
dance therapy, theatre-dance, improvisation and choreography. New
York, of course, is home to highly acclaimed dance companies from
the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre Alvin Ailey
Dance Company to the dozens of small companies that perform here
throughout the year.
New York is also the ideal place for students interested in Ethnic
Studies. Colleges and universities here offer programs that explore
the languages and cultures of peoples who have settled in New York
and made it their home while synthesizing the traditions of their
lands of origin with those of American society. Here one finds programs
in: African-American Studies, a field that surveys the history and
culture of African, Afro-American, and Afro-Caribbean peoples, Irish
Studies in which you can learn Irish as well as examine the social,
religious, and political factors that have made this ethnic group
an important one in New York from the colonial period to the present,
in Italian-American Studies which draws on the fields of history,
literature, art, music, sociology, and political science to give
a holistic view of Italian-Americans, in Jewish Studies where you
can gain an understanding of the history, politics, folklore, languages
and literature of the Jewish people.
Finally it should be said that a year of living fully in New York
City is the ultimate experience of the Liberal Arts. With so many
concerts, plays, films, art exhibitions, and ethnic festivals to
enjoy, it is difficult not to be immersed in the languages and arts
of the world.
The Author: Maxine P. Fisher, Queens College, New York
This article first appeared in Studying Abroad (WW5)
