FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 1, 2022
CONTACT: Johanna Hernandez; JHernandez@skdknick.com; 929-866-0602
New York, NY – Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Foundation have donated $5 million to Teachers College, Columbia University, to create new, state-of-the-art dance education research studios.
The Arnhold Dance Education Research Studios, 5,000-square-foot flexible dance spaces, will serve as a critical laboratory to advance teaching, learning and research in dance education, and enhance collaboration with cultural, educational and community partners.
“The new Arnhold Dance Education Research Studio space will affirm and advance core components of Teachers College’s founding principles: to enable teachers and schools to provide culturally relevant opportunities for growth and development for every child, everywhere,” said Thomas Bailey, President of Teachers College.
“This marks yet another milestone for the arts and education at Teachers College that will help to ensure that dance education is a core component of a well-rounded education.”
The gift to create the dance spaces caps a series of creative and philanthropic efforts by Jody Gottfried Arnhold aimed at creating a pipeline of professionals who can serve the field of dance education on multiple fronts. With this new gift, Jody and John Arnhold have donated a total of $15 million for dance education and research at Teachers College to advance Jody Gottfried Arnhold’s vision of a world where the opportunities for high-quality dance education are accessible, equitable and excellent for all learners.
“The realization of the Arnhold Dance Education Research Studios is a defining moment in my goal of elevating dance education and research to bring about policy that will provide a consecutive, scaffolded dance education for all children,” said Jody Gottfried Arnhold (M.A. ’73), who taught dance in New York City public schools for more than 20 years and earned a master’s of arts degree in Dance Education at TC.
In 2016, Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Foundation committed $4.365 million to establish the nation’s only doctoral program in dance education at Teachers College. The program, which will welcome its fifth class this fall, prepares researchers, policymakers and university-level educators who will elevate dance education as an essential component of a high-quality arts education in PK-12 schools across the nation.
Three years later, Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Foundation donated an additional $6.085 million to launch the Arnhold Institute for Dance Education Research, Policy and Leadership to further expand research, build leadership and shape policy in the field of dance education.
“Teachers College is enormously grateful to Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Foundation for helping us to realize the full potential of the doctoral program and Arnhold Institute as we forge new pathways and transform dance and education nationally and internationally,” said Barbara Bashaw, Arnhold Professor of Dance Education, and Executive Director of the dance education doctoral program and the Arnhold Institute.
The new studio space, to be located on the ground floor of Horace Mann Hall, will significantly expand and enhance the teaching, research and collaboration capacities of TC’s doctoral dance program and the Arnhold Institute. Plans call for two highly flexible studio spaces that can be subdivided and reconfigured in multiple ways for different instructional and research uses.
The program and the Institute collaborate with Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea and with Ballet Hispánico in New York City, among others. The new studios will expand opportunities to partner with local, national and global community and cultural organizations as well as educational institutions both in-person and simultaneously across communities and continents.
Stephanie Rowley, Provost, Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs, said the studios will provide the best possible environment for faculty and doctoral students to collaborate, research and develop new educational methods in dance. “In any discipline, research is essential to knowing what works for each learner. For the dance education doctoral program, that means providing the best space possible to examine and share successful methods of embodied research, teaching and learning.”
About Teachers College, Columbia University: Founded in 1887, Teachers College, Columbia University, the first and largest graduate school of education in the United States, is perennially ranked among the nation’s best. Teachers College’s mission is to create a smarter, healthier, and more equitable and peaceful world. Teachers College engages in research and prepares professionals in its three main areas of expertise—education, health and psychology—to work with public and private entities in local, national and global communities and inform public policy. Students choose from among 150 separate programs to earn graduate degrees, which are conferred by Columbia University. While it is closely affiliated with Columbia University and collaborates with it on many programs, the College is an independent, autonomous institution with a separate, independent governing board, president, and financial endowment. The Arnhold Institute for Dance Education Research, Policy & Leadership at Teachers College conducts dance education research and champions public policies that eliminate disparities in access to high-quality PK-12 dance education for children, families, and communities. The College’s doctoral program in Dance Education prepares teacher educators and leaders to forge new pathways in dance education that are accessible, inclusive, equitable, and excellent for all learners, and researchers who investigate educational issues affecting underrepresented sectors in dance education.