What makes Adelphi a Haven for the Arts?

Adelphi is proud to be home to an arts community that, as the below factors help explain, is uniquely vibrant.

Setting & Heritage
Nestled on 75 beautifully landscaped and art-filled acres in a quiet community only 40 minutes from New York City, our Garden City campus has a storied relationship with the arts. It was here, after all, that Ruth St. Denis founded a dance department in 1938; the first independent academic dance department at an American college.

Intimate Community & Superb Artist-Teachers
The tradition of excellence in the arts continues on our campus. As you'd expect, our calendar is full of outstanding concerts and performances, featuring not only our own students but also national and international artists. What truly distinguishes us, however, is the pride we place in creating a learning environment where artistic excellence and student-centered and practical learning go hand in hand.

This is an intimate and nurturing community. And because of our size, all our students get to receive personal attention from full-time world-class faculty such as Nicholas Petron (chair of the Performing Arts department and past winner of Adelphi's Teaching Excellence Award), Frank Augustyn (an internationally renowned performer and former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada), Christopher Lyndon-Gee (five-time Grammy-nominated composer and internationally acclaimed conductor), and University Professor Paul Moravec (winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Music).

Beyond being gifted artists, our faculty are consummate educators. They are energized by the challenge of helping young artists flourish, and invested in the capacity of the arts to contain and spur our most meaningful conversations.

Yes; you can get a conservatory-type education here. But you'll also be part of a nurturing community energized by the opportunity to pursue excellence within the context of a liberal arts learning community

State-of-the-Art Facilities
We're very excited about the new Performing Arts Center that is currently being built on our campus. The new 53,000-square-foot Center (opening in 2008) is being built around a renovated Olmsted Theatre. It will include acoustically state-of-the-art concert and recital halls, new practice studios, classrooms, and offices.

Competitive Scholarships
We value the talent and drive of our students. As a result, students who major in dance, music, or theatre at Adelphi University are eligible for competitive, generous scholarships based on their auditions.

An Art-full Campus
Today, our arts community includes vibrant programs not only in dance, music, and theatre, but also in art, art history, and art education. The new Center for the Performing Arts currently under construction follows hard on the heels of the recently built new fine arts facility; a building that features spacious and light-filled studios. At Adelphi, artistic energy isn't limited to buildings, performance spaces, classrooms, and studios. When you walk across our campus you'll be struck by the presence of artworks scattered across the landscape. The arts occupy a central and prominent role in our greater University.

Our campus - noted for its vitality, convenience, and safety - is truly a haven for the arts, and a place where artists thrive.

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