A new chapter for the arts at Columbia

The Lenfest Center for the Arts, opened in the spring of 2017, places the arts at the center of Columbia’s new Manhattanville campus. A sleek 60,000-square foot building designed by architect Renzo Piano on West 125th Street, the Center hosts public exhibitions, performances, screenings, symposia, readings, lectures, and other events. The school’s classrooms, rehearsal spaces, and administrative offices will remain in Dodge Hall and other locations.

“Our emphasis will be to make contemporary art available to the public through conversations and exhibits with artists and thinkers working in and across multiple forms. For the first time, all the different disciplines will be working together in one building," said Carol Becker, Dean of School of the Arts since 2007. "We can invite everyone in the adjoining neighborhoods and the Columbia community—undergraduates, graduates, all the schools together—to experience what we’ve been doing for decades.”

“Up until now, the School of the Arts has never been able to show the city what we do, and we’ve never been able to show everyone on campus what we do,” said Becker. Learn more.