Statement of Kay Cummings
Associate Arts Professor, Department of Dance
Tisch School the Arts
New York University
Before the New York City Planning Commission
For the Public Hearing on the New York University Core Project
April 25, 2012
My name is Kay Cummings and I am an Associate Arts professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Department of Dance. Our Department and our school are healthy, growing places with great students who are talented, motivated and passionate about learning their craft and expressing their art. The sad thing is that we cannot give them what they need – not because we don’t want to – or even can’t afford to – but because we lack the space to teach them. Our school and our department need more space to grow, just like any growing family does and the plan which is being debated today, while not at all perfect, contains space for us to grow. It’s as simple as that. We are an island. We cannot expand horizontally; when our house is too small we must expand vertically on the land we have around us. No plan will be perfect, no plan will please everyone but this plan is trying to speak to the very real needs of an institution that serves our neighborhood and our city, culturally, economically and socially. It finds a way to speak to the needs of many current and future students as well as the needs which continue to make the Village a place that is vibrant and filled with the future.
