This first seminar of four seminars introduces Macaulay students to the arts in New York City and the Cultural Passport, which provides free or discounted access to the cultural riches of New York City. During the semester students attend theatrical, operatic, and musical performances, exhibitions of visual art, and other highlights of the current cultural season. In addition to experiencing these art forms as an audience, students are encouraged to examine performances and exhibitions from the multiple perspectives of scholarship, creativity, and production. The seminar begins with an arts-related event for all students at the beginning of the semester. Visits to exhibits, performances, and artist encounters continue throughout the semester, on the campuses and at Macaulay central. The seminar’s culminating activity is the annual, collaborative, photographic “Snapshot of New York,” a student-curated multi-media exhibit of “a day in the life of New York City” through the eyes of the Macaulay freshmen.

This course is interdisciplinary; students are introduced to at least three artistic disciplines from the visual arts and performing arts and learn to apply the critical discourse and methods of these disciplines in evaluating their responses to different art forms.  Students further investigate relationships across art forms and analyze similarities and differences in the critical approaches employed by different disciplines. Students will write about and reflect on the work they see as well as create their own original work that reflects their views of the current cultural moment in New York City.