New York State Summer School of the Arts

[1] In 2020 and 2021, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NYSSSA offered tuition-free virtual programs for young art students in each of the seven disciplines.

The School of Ballet also presents lectures on dance and career opportunities led by the staff and guest artists from around the world.

Students receive intensive instruction in ballet, pointe, character, jazz, variations, and pas de deux.

The School of Dance took place before 2020 at Skidmore College during the latter half of the summer, after the Ballet program is completed.

The program includes classes in video, film making, photography, computer graphic arts, and new media, with courses providing a review of fundamentals of the craft, overview of aesthetics, and surveys of contemporary work, trends, and ideas, as well as giving students an opportunity to use professional equipment and facilities.

Students have the ability to take seminars in topics such as musicianship, free improvisation, and practice techniques.

Guest artists and performers also provide master classes, readings, and workshops in diverse areas, such as stage combat, comedy and improvisation, mask, play writing, and directing.

Students work in the studio with drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, figure, and inter-disciplinary arts under the direction of noted exhibiting artists/educators.

[8] Related activities include drawing and painting from a live model, trips to farms and lakes in the area, and experience with art processes that include welding, casting, direct carving, modeling life-size objects in clay, and experimenting with a variety of printmaking techniques.

The New York State Summer School of the Arts was established in 1971, under Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, opening with the Orchestral Studies program.

Tuition for the schools is $2,500 which includes, room, board and classes and artistic events for the four-week residential program.

NYSSSA awards financial assistance based upon individual need, but is limited to New York State residents only.

• David Heiss (Orchestral ’71) - Cellist with the Metropolitan Opera since 1982, Principal Cellist with the New York Pops since 1989 • Jace Alexander (Theater 1980) – Television director (Rescue Me, Burn Notice, Law & Order) • Philip Seymour Hoffman (Theater ’84) – Oscar-winning actor (Capote), nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Charlie Wilson's War), as well as an accomplished stage actor and director[10] • Dan Futterman (Theater ’84) – Accomplished actor (The Birdcage, A Mighty Heart, TV's Judging Amy) and nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (Capote) • Bennett Miller (Theater ’84) – Film director (The Cruise, Moneyball, Foxcatcher), nominated for Best Director (Capote)[11] • Vanessa Carlton (Ballet ’92) – Pop singer; hits include Grammy-nominated single "A Thousand Miles" • Graham Goddard (Visual Arts ’95) – Contemporary artist; exhibitions include the Skirball Museum and the California African American Museum • Jeremy Cushman (Orchestral ’08) – violin soloist, serving as concertmaster for the 2008 class