THE GRADUATE CENTER, CUNY: Press Information

Nanette Shaw
Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs

PRESS CONTACT:
David Manning
212. 817.7177 or 7170
dmanning@gc.cuny.edu


March 2000
for IMMEDIATE release

French Theater, Art and Dance Highlight Graduate Center Celebration

The CUNY Graduate Center’s Ph.D. Program in French will showcase three artistic productions on Monday, April 3, and Thursday, April 6, during "Celebrating the Center," a week of free public lectures, concerts, readings, symposia, and films. The April 3 to 7 series of events will inaugurate the CUNY Graduate Center’s new campus in the landmark B. Altman building at 365 Fifth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets.

All events are free and open to the public, but seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. For further information, call 1-212-817-8215 or e-mail continuinged@gc.cuny.edu.

French program highlights include:

French Fairgrounds and Amusement Parks, 1890-1935
Concept and Realization: Rosa Attali and Francesa Canade Sautman
Monday, April 3, 12 p.m. and 5 p.m., French Department, Fourth Floor
Video presentations of the installation:
12 p.m. Monday, April 3, through Thursday, April 6
5 p.m. Monday, April 3, and Thursday, April 6
4 p.m.Wednesday, April 5
"Singular Views of the Urban Multitude: I’m Different Like Everybody Else," an interactive, multimedia display of projected papercutting by famed French Papercut artist Beatrice Coron.
Monday, April 3, 6 p.m., Martin E. Segal Theatre.
La Ronde Infernale, a choreographed theater-dance performance by Nelly D. Saint-Maurice, based on the work of Antonin Artaud.
6 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, Room 5409.
The Attali and Saltman installation reproduces and interprets the atmosphere, artifacts, and social message of the French fairground. It includes a projection of a short documentary video, sound recordings, and re-creations of the fair booths and their themes.

Sautman, a professor of French and executive officer of The Graduate Center’s Ph.D. Program in French, is a folklore scholar. She is finishing a book on women and French working-class culture in this period. Attali is a doctoral student in French with training in folklore and ethnology, and media technologies.

Saint-Maurice, a doctoral candidate in the French Program, has conceived "La ronde infernale" as an original electro-acoustic spectacle in eight tableaux based on Artaud’s theories of performance. It features live musicians, actors, and dancers from the Splendid ensemble.

Coron’s work is an installation of shadows that plays with illusions and perception, and the allegory of the Cave. Based in New York since 1984, she is a native of Lyon, France. Coron is a member of the Guild of American Papercutters. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues in the U.S. and Europe.

The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York, the largest urban university in the U.S. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, The Graduate Center draws its faculty of more than 1,600 members mainly from the CUNY senior colleges and cultural and scientific institutions throughout New York City.

The Graduate Center offers 31 doctoral programs and seven master's degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The school also houses 24 research centers and institutes and administers the CUNY Baccalaureate Program.

According to a recent National Research Council report, more than a third of The Graduate Center's rated programs rank among the nation's top 20 at public and private institutions, nearly a quarter are among the top ten when compared to publicly supported institutions alone, and more than half are among the top five programs at publicly supported institutions in the northeast.

Further information on The Graduate Center's programs and activities can be found on its Web site at: www.gc.cuny.edu.

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