School of Visual Arts Acquires Chelsea Theater
February 27, 2008 | Levent OZLER
School of Visual Arts (SVA) has signed a 26-year lease for a 20,000 square-foot theater at 333 West 23rd Street, formerly known as the Chelsea West Cinemas. With separate auditoriums of 350 and 550 seats, the building is to be the site of lectures, film screenings and other public events as well as class meetings. Celebrated designer and SVA Acting Chairman Milton Glaser, who created the graphic and decorative programs for the restaurants in the World Trade Center and the graphic program of the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, will design both the interior and exterior. Film historian and longtime faculty member Gene Stavis has been appointed director. Stavis is the former American representative of Henri Langlois, the Oscar-winning creator of the Cinémathèque Francaise.
"SVA is, first and foremost, a place where creative people can come together and learn from one another. We want to be sure that we have adequate resources to do that well into the future," said SVA President David Rhodes.
SVA officials have increasingly sought to make strategic real estate acquisitions to match historic growth in all aspects of the College's operations. Provost Dr. Christopher Cyphers said, "This theater will play a significant role in our continuing ability to expand and diversify the curricula at SVA. It not only satisfies a longstanding need for a space to accommodate large gatherings of the SVA community, but will create opportunities to partner with other cultural institutions." In the past decade undergraduate enrollment has increased by nearly 25% and graduate enrollment by 45%. In the past five years, SVA introduced graduate programs in art criticism and writing; design criticism; and digital photography; and the BFA in visual and critical studies. Meanwhile, the growing popularity of public lectures by acclaimed artists, designers, scholars and critics has put pressure on current facilities resources.
SVA officials plan to open the theater this fall, with a formal public opening date to be announced. While the theater undergoes renovations this summer, officials will explore ways to enhance the College's ongoing series of public events. In addition to its own presentations, SVA hosts the long-running lecture series Artists Talks on Art and events of the Camera Club of New York and ASIFA-East, the east coast chapter of the International Animated Film Association.
The theater is the latest in a series of Chelsea real estate acquisition by the College. On February 12, 2008 officials signed a 14-year lease for a 54,000 square-foot space at 335 West 16th Street. SVA will take occupancy of the first four floors of the five-story building on June 1, and the remaining floor next year. The building will house the BFA Fine Arts Department, a multidisciplinary studio art program with an enrollment of more than 300 students. As artists' practices have become more diverse in recent years, the Department's space needs have grown to include state-of-the art recording, editing, projection and printmaking facilities and dedicated sculpture studios with computerized milling machines.
In the summer of 2006 SVA closed on the purchase of 132 and 136 West 21st Street. The College had previously leased space in the buildings for classrooms, art studios and administrative offices. The buildings' newest occupant is the MFA Design Criticism Department, the first graduate program in the U.S. dedicated to interpreting design in all its forms, which is now enrolling students for the fall.
School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and a clear direction of purpose.
SVA's campus extends from the Lower East Side and Gramercy to West Chelsea. The student body is comprised of approximately 3300 undergraduates and 400 graduates and 2,000 Continuing Education students. The College offers the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in advertising; animation; cartooning; computer art, computer animation and special effects; film and video; fine arts; graphic design; illustration; interior design; photography; and visual and critical studies; the degree of Master of Fine Arts in art criticism and writing; computer art; design; design criticism; fine arts; illustration as visual essay; photography, video and related media; and the degree of Master of Professional Studies in art therapy and digital photography; and to confer the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching in art education.
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