Melissa Smey, director of the Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre, just sent an email to everyone on the CUArts listserv announcing forthcoming changes to the Arts Initiative. The changes, made in response to the “Save the Arts Initiative” campaign, come just 2 days after Prezbo told a fireside chat audience that he was looking into […]

Tonight, GSSC passed a resolution and SGB issued a statement calling on the administration to “Save the Arts Initiative.” SGA, ESC, and CCSC have already passed similar resolutions (and ABC issued a similar statement), while over 1,200 students and alums have individually signed a similar petition. All of the resolutions, statements, and petitions call on […]

A petition calling on Columbia students to “save the arts initiative” has been signed over 1,000 times. Clearly, many people believe the Arts Initiative is trouble. But Melissa Smey—the current director of both Miller Theatre and the Arts Initiative—is, perhaps unsurprisingly, not one of them. She just sent us a statement highlighting the continuing accomplishments […]

Art aficionado Maren Killackey looks at CU Arts’ inefficiencies, its history and its future. At the risk of further belaboring an already belabored point, the decline of the Columbia University Arts Initiative is an unfortunate tale and has had unfortunate effects on all. From the Frick and Guggenheim dropping out of Passport to Columbia, to […]

It was announced today that Melissa Smey, Director of Miller Theatre, will be taking over leadership of Columbia’s Arts Initiative. In his university-wide e-mail, PrezBo praised Smey’s work in revamping Miller’s agenda — remember Sonic Youth? — which we chronicled in our profile of her in the November issue of The Blue & White. Bollinger, […]

Until the print edition arrives, read the November issue of The Blue and White on Bwog. Today, Sam Schube catches up with the director of Columbia’s Miller Theatre. Miller Theatre, although regarded as a premier forum for contemporary dance and music, has struggled to carry its citywide renown into its own backyard. Despite Miller’s on-campus […]

In case you missed the Saturday Times, or don’t read those ancient things your parents call “newspapers,” receiving an extensive profile was none other than the new director of Miller Theater, Melissa Smey.  Well, at least there’s an article partly about Ms. Smey, because much of the profile focuses on the legacy of the previous […]