“The Road” had been settled by a group of well-known artists, writers, musicians, and actors including John Houseman, Milton Caniff, Maxwell Anderson, Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Hugo Robus,[8] Morris Kantor, and Henry Varnum Poor.
Thus, at an early age Levy was immersed in a creative community that also included his parents’ New York friends - his godparents, the sculptors David Smith[9] and his wife, Dorothy Dehner, as well as the painters John Graham, Richard Lindner, Arshile Gorky, Vaclav Vytlacil,[10] Mark Rothko (Marcus Rothkowitz), I.
During Levy's 19-year tenure as its CEO, Parsons became an international college of the arts, with campuses in Los Angeles, France, The Dominican Republic, and Japan.
[15] Levy developed and often wrote curricula for more than 30 new bachelor's and master's degrees as well as for continuing education offerings in every visual arts discipline.
[17] He wrote the school's initial curriculum and, with the help of his musical collaborator, saxophonist Arnie Lawrence, recruited a faculty of jazz artists including Sir Roland Hanna, Tommy Flannigan, Chico Hamilton, Jimmy Heath, Donald Byrd, Reggie Workman, and Red Mitchell.
Levy took the Corcoran's helm amidst the aftershocks of a national firestorm created in 1989 when the museum cancelled a politically controversial exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe.
[19][20] One of the sparks that ignited the “culture wars” of the early 1990s, the Mapplethorpe incident decimated the Corcoran's constituency of supporters, wrecked its attendance, and seriously threatened its future financial viability.
He created the school's first master's level graduate programs, acquiring and restoring an historic 19th century Georgetown schoolhouse to house them.
DCAD also provided an articulated transfer path for students wishing to continue their studies and complete a four-year degree in either Washington, DC, or New York City.
[24][25] In 2012 Levy established a partnership with Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles County, creating a third major center for the institute.
Sotheby's Institute of Art enrolls approximately 450 full-time students, primarily in programs leading to master's and PhD degrees.
[26] In 2007 Levy, with his wife Carole Feld and partner Jeff Levin, founded Bach to Rock (B2R),[27][28][29][30] a chain of music schools with an innovative curriculum based on the formation of small bands and targeted primarily to young people in grades K–12.
He currently serves on the boards of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers (The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards) and the Larry Rivers Foundation.