Department of Art

• Overview
• Professional Placements
• Course Offerings
• Course Descriptions

AAP NYC is a dynamic site from which to explore contemporary art and visual culture, and to create art that is responsive to urban issues and life. New York City is a vast and diverse laboratory with extraordinary museums and galleries, countless studios of artists and designers, dynamic public art, and cultural sites and organizations that offer exceptional opportunities for students to learn first-hand about the production and presentation of art. Scheduled annually, the spring semester is a collaboratively developed and conceptually linked plan of study with studio, theory, and history courses, plus a two-day per week internship. All utilize the remarkable resources and opportunities of the city and faculty members include practicing artists, theorists, critics, and curators.

The spring semester is planned for art majors in their sophomore year, but students at other levels may also participate. In addition to the chance to study at AAP NYC, art students can enroll in the art department’s Rome junior-year semester. All undergraduate art majors are encouraged to participate in both of these unique opportunities.

See pictures of AAP NYC artwork and exhibitions on the AAP NYC Flickr page.

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Undergraduate art students may opt for a 16-hour-per-week professional placement (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) at one of many prestigious New York City art institutions, in addition to their course work. The placements give students the opportunity to experience the day-to-day operations of a dynamic and professional arts organization, gallery, or artist studio, while learning new skills and building work experience.

Please see the AAP NYC list of organizations with established internship programs. It is recommended that undergraduate art students seeking internship placement should plan for a lighter than normal credit load while in New York City.

AAP NYC Art Professional Placements:

Artnet Auctions

Christie's Auction House

Ann Craven Studio

Dave LaChapelle Studio

Dieu Donne Papermill

Drawing Center

El Museo del Barrio

Electronic Arts Intermix

Gagosian Gallery

Guggenheim Museum

International Print Center of New York

International Studio and Curatorial Program

Leo Villareal Studio

Lower East Side Print Shop

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mia Pearlman Studio

Mixed Greens

MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center

Momenta Art

New Museum

Pace Gallery

Pace Prints

Participant Inc.

Rubin Museum

SculptureCenter

James Siena Studio

Smack Mellon

Whitney Museum

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The focus of these courses may vary from year to year. The linked descriptions below are from the spring 2012 semester:

• ART 3003 New York City Studio
• ART 3103 New York City Seminar
• ART 3805 Art / Architecture History in NYC
• ART 3903 NYC Professional Practice 

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This interdisciplinary course is thematically and topically organized. Through a series of research-based assignments and independent and collaborative arts projects, students actively engage the city as a site of open investigation and critical engagement. The thematically-based studio encourages and allows students to work with a range of media. Students are encouraged to participate not as painters, print makers, or sculptors, but as artists who pursue and use a range of materials and methodologies as part of a creative process. Students work in the AAP NYC space, as well as other sites in New York City.

ART 3103 New York City Seminar

(4 credits)
This seminar involves readings, discussion, writing, trips to museums and galleries, artist studios, other field trips, and presentations by leading critics and scholars who present and examine issues of contemporary art in one of the world-class art centers. The seminar is developed to conceptually connect to the studio and art/architecture history course in which students are enrolled.

Counts as a theory and criticism course for B.F.A. students.

ART 3805 interdisciplinary perspectives on metropolitan studies

(4 credits)

This course introduces students to the key concepts in art and urbanism in the 19th–21st centuries, ranging from politics to social changes, technology to representation, as major factors and issues that have been influencing in the past and still continue to shape a contemporary Metropolis. Focusing on representation of the city in different media and multidisciplinary approach to urban theory, with New York as a case study, the class will be structured around several field trips, weekly lectures followed by film excerpts screenings, individual student presentations, and discussions of the assigned readings.

Counts as modern art history course for B.F.A. students.

ART 3903 NYC Professional practice
(4 credits)

This class will include image presentations, selected readings, discussions, field trips, and visiting lectures. The guest visitors may include a selection of: artist(s), gallery director, nonprofit director or curator, museum curator, art critic, art lawyer, art fabricator, grant spokesperson, and others. Throughout the course, students will be engaging in various forms of statement writing as well as presentations on their work. Student's work may be discussed as it is relative to the presentations, and writing assignments. This course requires a separate internship component and will serve as a platform for discussion of the internship experience.

Counts as in/out college elective for B.F.A. students.

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