TO:                Tisch School Community

FROM:           Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell

DATE:            April 20, 2009

RE:                News from the Tisch School of the Arts


Dear TSOA Community:

I am pleased to share with you some wonderful news from the Tisch School of the Arts.


JOHN CANEMAKER RECEIVES DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AWARD
Congratulations to John Canemaker!  John, who has been teaching at Tisch for 29 years, has been selected by the All-University Selection Committee to receive NYU’s 2009 Distinguished Teaching Award.  This award is made annually to honor faculty members who have contributed significantly to the intellectual life of the University by demonstrating excellence in teaching and through their commitment to the student population.

John is one of the world’s foremost animation artists and scholars, whose contributions to the medium have been widely celebrated.  Among his many honors, John received an Academy Award for Best Animated Short (The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation) and a Winsor McCay Award from the International Animated Film Society—one of the highest individual honors in the animation industry. He is the author of ten acclaimed books on the history of animation, and his short films are held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.  An alumnus and tenured professor, John has served as the director of the animation program at the Kanbar Institute of Film & TV for more than twenty years. John, on behalf of the entire Tisch School of the Arts, congratulations again.  You are an invaluable member of the Tisch family, and I can think of no one more worthy of this honor. 


DORY SMITH-WILSON RECEIVES DISTINGUISHED ADMINISTRATOR AWARD
Dory Smith-Wilson—our associate director for financial aid services, but perhaps better known as the “diva of financial aid”—has been recognized for her significant service to NYU and to Tisch with the Distinguished Administrator Award.  This award recognizes the outstanding achievements and dedicated service of our administrators.

Dory has been with NYU for more than 28 years and with the Tisch School for 21 of those years. During this time, we have all come to count on Dory and her amazing expertise in the arcane matters of financial aid to keep our students sane, supported, and enrolled.  Her passionate commitment to our students is on display every year, from open house to graduation. With humor, patience, and very hard work, she educates and assists our families through the stressful experience of financing an NYU education.  In doing so, she has touched the lives of many, many students.  For her commitment and indispensability, we salute Dory and congratulate her on this exciting honor.


RICHARD SCHECHNER RECEIVES MULTIPLE HONORS
Richard Schechner, University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies, has been presented with two distinctions—Poland’s Outstanding Service Medal for Contributions to Polish Culture and an Honorary Degree from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. 

The Outstanding Service Medal, awarded on behalf of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, was presented by Monika Fabjańska, director of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.  Schechner was honored, in part, for his enduring commitment to the work of Jerzy Grotowski. As one of the first scholars to translate and publish Jerzy Grotowski in the United States, Richard has been responsible for introducing generations of students to his work, as well as other Polish theatre artists.

On the recommendation of the Honorary Awards Committee and approved by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, President of the Academy, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts will be honoring Schechner with an award of Doctorate, honoris causa, on June 25th. Congratulations, Richard!


ROBERT STAM GIVES LECTURE AT PRINCETON
University Professor Robert Stam of the Cinema Studies Department is currently a Fellow at Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University.  On April 17th, he gave a presentation at Princeton entitled “Transmutations of a Trope: The Figure of the Radical Indian.” 


MARY SCHMIDT CAMPBELL RECEIVES HONORARY DEGREE
Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from her alma mater Swarthmore College in recognition of her significant contributions to art and education.  The degree will be bestowed on Dean Campbell at Swarthmore’s Commencement on May 31st by University President Alfred H. Bloom.


ALUMNI RECEIVE GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIPS
Congratulations to our alumni who have been named as 2009 Guggenheim Fellows!

Suzanne Carbonneau '90 (Ph.D., Performance Studies), Professor of Performance and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Arts, George Mason University: Humanities / Dance Studies.

Danae Elon '95 (BFA, F&TV), Filmmaker, Brooklyn, New York: Film.

Julia Loktev '00 (MFA, Film), Filmmaker, Brooklyn, New York: Film.

Anne Washburn '99 (MFA, DDW), Playwright, Brooklyn, New York: Playwriting.


SAVE THE DATE!

Tisch Gala 2009

Date:              Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Location:      Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, NY

We are pleased to announce the year’s Big Apple honorees are:

Brian Grazer (Dean’s Council, Parent) & Ron Howard (Former Parent), Director/Producer Team and Founders of Imagine Entertainment; Marcia Gay Harden ’88 (Grad Acting), Actress; Diana King, Trustee and President, The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation; and Sheila Nevins, President of Documentary and Family Programming for HBO and Cinemax.

Contact Sharon Peterson, Assistant Director of Development, at 212.992.9337 or sharon.peterson@nyu.edu with any questions you may have pertaining to the gala.