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The Columbia University School of the Arts , also known simply as the School of the Arts or as SoA, is the division of the university that offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, and Writing. It also organizes the Columbia University Arts Initiative (CUArts) and the Columbia University Film Festival. Founded in 1965, the school is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

Contents 1 Divisions 1.1 Film 1.2 Theatre Arts 1.3 Visual Arts 1.4 Writing 2 Future 3 Notable alumni 4 Notable faculty 5 See also 6 External links

The program offers degrees with concentrations in screenwriting, directing, and producing.

The program offers degrees in Theatre Arts with concentrations in acting, directing, playwriting, dramaturgy, stage management and theatre management and producing.

In this division, students work in the fields of painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, digital media, drawing, performance and video art.

The program offers degrees in creative writing, with concentrations in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. One of its more notable features are "master classes", four-week courses for writers (as opposed to critical scholars) "designed to stimulate provocative discussions about literary craft and artistic choices". Master Class faculty have recently included Helen Vendler, Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead, James Wood, Richard Ford, Han Ong, Susan Choi, and Jonathan Ames. The writing division also employs prestigious writers as seminar and workshop instructors; these have recently included Gary Shteyngart, Nathan Englander, Myla Goldberg, Adam Haslett, Jessica Hagedorn, Phillip Lopate, Marie Howe, Eamon Grennan, Paul LaFarge, David Gates, Francisco Goldman, Darcy Frey, and David Ebershoff.

As part of Columbia's expansion into the nearby neighborhood of Manhattanville, the School of the Arts will move from its current cramped quarters in Dodge Hall, on the Morningside Heights campus of the university, to a substantial new building, to be located on 125th Street, that will be one of the centrepieces of the new campus there. To be completed in the first phase of the expansion, the new building will be designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.

• Laurie Anderson (1972) - musician
• Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (1974) - poet
• Kathryn Bigelow (1979) - screenwriter and film director
• Lisa Cholodenko (1998) - screenwriter and film director
• Richard Corliss (1974) - film critic
• Kiran Desai (1999) - winner of the Booker Prize for her novel The Inheritance of Loss
• Tan Dun (1993) - composer
• Meghan Daum (1996) - writer and journalist
• Peter Farrelly (1986) - director, with his brother Bobby Farrelly, of There's Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, Shallow Hal, Me, Myself and Irene and Stuck on You; author of Outside Providence
• Philip Gourevitch (1992) - writer and journalist
• Albert Hall (1971) - actor
• Tama Janowitz (1986) - writer
• Susan Minot (1983) - novelist and screenwriter
• Rick Moody (1986) - novelist
• Katha Pollitt (1975) - feminist writer
• Richard Price (1976) - novelist and screenwriter
• James Rebhorn (1972) - actor
• Dana Schutz (2002) - painter
• Banks Violette (2000) - sculptor
• Jesse Ball (2004) - writer

• Kristin Linklater - renowned vocal instructor
• Anne Bogart - theater director
• Richard Howard - Pulitzer Prize winning poet
• Tom Kalin - screenwriter, film director, and producer
• Gregory Mosher - Tony Award winning theatrical producer
• Mira Nair - director of Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala, and Vanity Fair
• Andrei Şerban - theater director

See also the List of Columbia University people.

• Columbia University

• School of the Arts homepage
• CUArts