| Purchase College, State University of New York | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Think Wide Open |
| Endowment | $39.2 million[1] |
| President | Thomas Schwarz |
| Provost | Barbara B. Dixon[2] |
| Academic staff | 300[3] |
| Students | 4,000 |
| Location | Purchase, NY, United States |
| Campus | Suburban, 500 acres (2 km²)[4] |
| Colors | Athletic: Blue and Orange; Traditional: Heliotrope and Puce[5] |
| Mascot | Panther |
| Website | www.purchase.edu |
Purchase College, State University of New York, is a public four-year college located in Purchase, New York, United States. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system.[6] Founded by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1967 as the cultural gem of the SUNY system, Purchase College offers a unique education that combines programs in the liberal arts with conservatory programs in the arts in ways that emphasize inquiry, mastery of skills, and creativity.[7] It is dedicated to creating opportunities for transformative learning and training in a community where disciplines connect, intersect, and enhance one another. Purchase College is included in the Princeton Review's Best 371 Colleges[8] (2010) and Top 100: Best Value Colleges (2009).
Purchase College confers the following degrees: Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BS), Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Bachelor of Music (MusB), Master of Arts (MA), Master of Fine Arts (MFA), and Master of Music (MM).[9] As a requirement for the BA and BS degree, students undertake a senior project in which they devote two semesters to an in-depth, original, and creative study under the close supervision of a faculty mentor. Similarly, the BFA and MusB studies culminate in a senior exhibition, film, or recital. The graduate degree programs culminate in a master's thesis and, for the MFA and MM, an exhibition, recital, or related presentation.
Purchase College also emphasizes the importance of studying abroad.[10] Students can choose from the college's summer programs in France, Italy, Spain, and Turkey, as well as hundreds of programs offered through the SUNY system. Other high-impact educational opportunities offered by Purchase College include learning communities,[11] service learning, and internships,[12] which provide a practical connection between academic studies and potential career paths.
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Purchase College, with its proximity to New York City and the variety of arts programs offered to its students, has a large amount of cultural and counter-cultural activities. The Purchase Student Government Association is the college's student-elected board of executives whom, with their coordination with the student body, contribute many facets of campus life.
Purchase College is home to many other services, clubs and organizations for its students, including but not limited to:
The College holds several key events:
The Performing Arts Center, a four-theatre complex at Purchase College, is the major professional, nonprofit arts presenter in the Southeastern New York-Southwestern Connecticut region, and the largest program in the SUNY system. The Center's performance spaces include the 1400-seat Concert Hall with hydraulic lifts for orchestra; the 600-seat Recital Hall with rear-screen projection bay; the 700-seat PepsiCo Theatre with Hanamichi wraparound platforms along both sides of the house; and the Repertory Theatre, a "black box" with completely flexible stage and seating configurations. Each theatre is specifically designed for the optimum presentation of a different type of performance, enabling the presentation of any kind of event at The Center.
The Performing Arts Center presents a broad range of performances that engage, challenge, and educate as well as entertain - offering music, dance, theatre, comedy and cinema to audiences from Westchester and the surrounding communities. Music presenting features world-class orchestras and leading artists of our time as well as emerging artists. As the major regional presenter of dance, programs have included only-area appearances of several important traditional, contemporary, and folkloric companies. The Center has been the scene in recent years of performances by artists such as Lang Lang, Patti LuPone, Pilobolus, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance, Elvis Costello, Mark Morris Dance Group, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and comedian George Carlin. The Performing Arts center is also home to the Westchester Philharmonic and the Conservatory of Theatre Arts’ Purchase Repertory Theatre.
The Center’s on-going initiatives also encompass artist partnerships, residency activities, and commissions; creating opportunities for students to participate in the artistic process; increasing educational opportunities in the arts for k-12 students and multigenerational learners; and revitalizing efforts in the community to make the arts more accessible to broad and diverse audiences.
The Neuberger Museum of Art, the tenth largest university museum in the nation, houses a permanent collection of more than 7,000 works of art[14] and features a full schedule of exhibitions, lectures, films, and intermedia events. The museum presents more than a dozen exhibitions each year in addition to ongoing exhibitions from the permanent collections. The Neuberger Museum of Art offers insights into 20th-century masters, midcareer and emerging artists, as well as exposure to the country's only permanent exhibition of African art.[15]
The site chosen for the campus was a 500 acre (2 km²) estate, Strathglass Farm, in the middle of Westchester County, 40 minutes from Manhattan by car and about an hour by public transportation. It was originally the property of Thomas Thomas, an American Revolutionary war soldier,[16] whose family and slave cemetery remains on the campus between the south ends of the Humanities and Visual Arts buildings. To transform the former farm into a college for thousands of students, SUNY engaged some of the most prominent American architects to design the campus (Paul Rudolph, Charles Gwathmey, Phillip Johnson, John Burgee, and Robert Venturi.) Edward Larrabee Barnes created the master plan, and nine distinguished architectural firms designed specific buildings. Buildings on the campus are located in the center of the property, and are isolated from the surrounding community by wooded areas around the perimeter of the property. The college is adjacent to the Westchester County Airport, and is across the street from PepsiCo's world headquarters. The campus is not within walking distance to any commercial area, but maintains an hourly shuttle bus system to and from White Plains, New York.
The buildings and open spaces of the campus are visually distinctive models of late modernist architecture. The Visual Arts Building has 160,000 square feet (15,000 m2) of studios, exhibition spaces, workshops and labs. The Dance Building was the first in America created specifically for the training of dancers.[17] The Music Building has two recital halls, 75 practice rooms, 80 Steinway & Sons pianos, and professional recording studios. The Studio Composition program was one of the first in the country, and the faculty and student showcase Purchase Records has earned 3 Grammy nominations for its 5 releases. The Film Conservatory is housed within the lower level of the Music Building.
Various parts of the Campus are currently undergoing renovation. The new Student Services building opened in 2006, providing one-stop-shopping for most administrative services. The 'mall', or main campus plaza, is currently undergoing renovations to improve its aesthetics, create communal spaces, and to reduce flooding when it rains.
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