The DAH’s Newest Work of Art!

Please join us in welcoming Clara Jeanne Reed to the front desk in the DAH. Clara officially became our new Administrative Aide on November 21, 2022 but has been a member of our department, in various capacities, for awhile.

Clara Jeanne has been at NYU for the past 6 years, first as an undergraduate student, then a graduate student, and now a staff member.  Art is her entire life, whether that be studying it or making it, she is thrilled to be able to work in an environment where she is surrounded by it.  She is finishing up her MA at the Institute of Fine Arts.  In her scholarly pursuits she has focused on conceptual art pertaining to the female experience and narrative, but she also has a love for Hellenic studies and spent the last summer working on an archaeological dig in Samothrace, Greece.  She is also a working artist herself, and uses the medium of photography to explore the gendered history of power and desire.  She holds a BFA from Tisch School of the Arts and a BA from the DAH.  

She is originally from a small town in Idaho, but has lived in NYC for six years now.  In her free time you will most likely find Clara on the street running or on the stage performing.  She has run multiple marathons and performed in three off-broadway shows.  She currently lives in Brooklyn with her roommates and two crazy cats.  

New Staff Member!

Please join us in welcoming Amanda Molina, our new Undergraduate Program Administrator, to the DAH.

Prior to joining the DAH, Amanda worked at New York University’s Office of the Provost from 2018-2021. She performed administrative tasks for multiple vice provosts and coordinated several large events, including the NYU Women’s Leadership Forum. During her time there, she completed a master’s program in higher education at NYU Steinhardt.

Amanda has a keen interest in undergraduate student advising, which began during her former role as a course administrator at Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences. She has also volunteered in the past with New York Cares as a college preparation volunteer, where she mentored eight first generation high school seniors at a NYC public school throughout the college application process. As a first generation student herself, one of Amanda’s goals is to help demystify various university processes for current undergraduate students.

Amanda has a B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology from Cornell University and an M.A. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from New York University. She enjoys horror movies, visiting museums, and reading and lives in Brooklyn with her pet lizard, a blue-tongued skink named Blue.

New DAH Staff Member!

Please join us in welcoming Akeem Flavors, our new Visual Resources Administrator, to the DAH.

Prior to joining the DAH, Akeem worked at Duke Energy Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina from 2015-2021. He managed the corporate art, archival, and digital asset collections. During his time there he completed an archival practicum at Delta Airlines as part of the Georgia Archives Institute program, became a Certified Archivist (C.A.) and earned a certificate in full-stack web development from the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

Akeem’s interest in archives and collections management began during his graduate study at the University of Arizona, where he studied colonial Latin American art and the history of photography. During his time there he was also a curatorial assistant at the Tucson Museum of Art and held various support roles at the University of Arizona School of Art.

Akeem has a B.A. in Art History and Creative Photography from the University of Florida and an M.A. in Art History from the University of Arizona. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband and miniature dachshund, Milo.

Congratulations to the Excellent Geoffrey Tortora!

Join us in congratulating Geoff who won an Excellence Award for the 2020 academic year – no further explanation needed!

The Arts and Science Excellence Award is designed to recognize the outstanding contributions of the administrative, clerical and technical staff within Arts and Science.

Meet Ozana Plemenitash, our new administrative aide!

Introducing Ozana Plemenitash, our new DAH administrative aide. Stop by the reception area and say hello!

A New Jersey native, Ozana has spent most of her professional development between her home state and New York. She received a BA in 2016 from the Department of Art History and is thrilled to be back at her alma mater. Before returning to NYU, she held various managerial positions within the retail industry in Princeton, New Jersey. She has also worked and studied in France. She served as an English Teaching Assistant, through the TAPIF program, for high school and middle school students. While living in France she contributed content to two international online arts and culture publications, covering exhibitions and art fairs in Paris. Ozana enjoys travel, museum visits, endless amounts of coffee, yoga, bike rides, and floral everything. She is also fiercely passionate about sustainability and the environment and will advocate for the use of reusables at all times.

VOTE!

The NY State Democratic primary is on Thursday, September 13!

Geoff Tortora is Awarded a Violet!

 

Join us in congratulating our outstanding Administrative Aide, Geoffrey Tortora. Geoff was awarded a Violet  at a luncheon at the Torch Club last Friday, April 28. He is one of 12 awardees from across the university. Administrative and clerical staff were eligible to be nominated. The selection committee chose the recipients based on the following competencies and values:

• Integrity – Taking personal accountability to uphold ethical standards; building trusting relationships through honesty, openness, fairness, and candor; and living up to commitments
• Respect – Demonstrating a genuine appreciation for others, valuing diversity by treating everyone with high regard and consideration for their individual differences as well as maintaining the highest level of professionalism when working with others through challenging issues
• Customer Focus – Providing an excellent level of service to both internal and external customers, identifying and responding to current and future client needs
• Teamwork – Working effectively within and across departments; collaborating with others to achieve common goals; and listening and communicating in a way that respects and supports others
• Adaptability – Adjusting your own behavior to work efficiently and effectively in light of new information, changing situations, and/or different environments

Ayanna Wilson Wins a Violet!

Join us in congratulating our outstanding Administrative Aide, Ayanna Wilson. Ayanna was awarded a Violet  at a luncheon at the Torch Club today. She is one of 12 awardees from across the university. Administrative and clerical staff were eligible to be nominated. The selection committee chose the recipients based on the following competencies and values:

• Integrity – Taking personal accountability to uphold ethical standards; building trusting relationships through honesty, openness, fairness, and candor; and living up to commitments
• Respect – Demonstrating a genuine appreciation for others, valuing diversity by treating everyone with high regard and consideration for their individual differences as well as maintaining the highest level of professionalism when working with others through challenging issues
• Customer Focus – Providing an excellent level of service to both internal and external customers, identifying and responding to current and future client needs
• Teamwork – Working effectively within and across departments; collaborating with others to achieve common goals; and listening and communicating in a way that respects and supports others
• Adaptability – Adjusting your own behavior to work efficiently and effectively in light of new information, changing situations, and/or different environments

 

The DAH Welcomes Audrey Christensen-Tsai, Manager of Research Collections!

 

 

Please join us in welcoming Audrey to the DAH. We are thrilled to not only have a Manager of Research Collections again but to have one with the experience and positive outlook that Audrey brings.

Hailing from a small town in northwest Iowa, Audrey has lived in New York City for nearly 15 years. During the last year, she was a Program Officer for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs working with the non-profits that bring culture to the city’s five boroughs.  Prior to that she spent some time in far west Texas working in Marfa with a contemporary art space, Ballroom Marfa. She joined the staff of Exit Art in 2006 on an IMLS archive project to preserve the 30-year history of the alternative art space and transitioned into various archive and administrative rolls through the sunset of Exit Art in 2012, after which she helped NYU fund the processing of the Exit Art archive at Fales Library where the material is now available to researchers. From 2004-2006 she was the Digital Archivist at Pentagram Design and spent the early years of her career at the Museum of Modern Art Library. Audrey has a B.A. in Art from University of Northern Iowa and an M.S. in Information Science from Pratt Institute of Art. Audrey lives in Astoria, Queens with her husband.

 

Joshua Kwassman in Concert Tonight!

JOSHUA KWASSMAN AND BROTHER SPIRIT

 

Tonight at Subculture!

TUE – 10/14/14DOORS: 07:00 PM / SHOW: 08:00 PM

Give Joshua Kwassman your ears, and he will take you into his world. Prepare to be captivated, transported, and swept away on an ever-changing journey of musical heaven. Through organic and piece-meal borrowing of jazz, rock, classical, flamenco, and much more, Joshua melds sounds and styles through his critically-acclaimed and ASCAP award-winning music, taking listeners to dizzying heights of sonic splendor that are at once super-charged, and moments later heartbreakingly intimate. Channeling the true emotional unpredictability of the human experience, each piece of music twists and turns as memories are re-imagined, photos brought to life, and experiences reborn.

Following the release of his widely-praised first album, Songs of the Brother Spirit, Joshua and his versatile band Brother Spirit have performed for captivated audiences from coast to coast, garnering national attention and multiple ASCAP Composition awards with ‘In Light There Is Song’ and ‘The Nowhere Trail’. DOWNBEAT Magazine praised Joshua’s “mature musical identity’ and ‘raw emotionality [which] evokes a feeling of yearning for the security and sense of belonging that childhood represents.’

Brother Spirit recently recorded Heartwork, their upcoming album featuring Joshua’s latest 8-part work, delving into the human psyche and exploring our true motivations as complex human beings. The music functions as a palindromic story, carrying themes and ideas across multiple textures and changing moods to reflect growth, stumbling, and hope. The recording, due in Spring 2015, involves a diverse array of instruments including the bass-rivaling Contra-Alto Clarinet, cello, a 19th-century field drum and various percussion elements from parts of China.

Originally from Newington, Connecticut, Joshua was drawn to the piano at six years old. His passion and love for creating new music grew and developed when he moved to New York City to pursue Jazz performance and composition at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Although primarily studying the saxophone, Joshua turned back to the piano and began writing as  meditative relief. At the encouragement of musical peers, he began orchestrating his solo piano works for small groups. Continuing his studies at New York University, Joshua founded Brother Spirit as a cohesive unit designed to take the ego out of jazz. Each member took on equal responsibility for the success of the music, similar to a chamber ensemble. The result is a family of musicians whose “common spirit is nothing less than miraculous”, wrote Bill Ballard of the BRATTLEBORO REFORMER. “It was amazing to witness what a group of young and fiercely dedicated musicians can accomplish.”

Joshua has performed as a featured artist across North and South America, including the famed Lincoln Center in New York, Symphony Space, JazzPeru festival in Lima, Peru, Catalina’s in Hollywood, California, and much more. He resides in Brooklyn, New York, and is currently writing new works for solo piano.