THE INSTITUTE
The Institute fosters intellectual and creative diversity unconstrained by medium and discipline through the interaction of the arts and academia.
The Institute also welcomes Columbia scholars and faculty who wish to come for shorter visits to carry out research, organize meetings and talks, or collaborate in arts outreach with its SNF Public Humanities Initiative.
Architecture at the Institute and in the neighborhood
Based in Paris, the Institute is housed within Reid Hall, a large property in Montparnasse dating back to the 18th century. Overlooking a verdant garden and a cobblestone courtyard, the Institute contains fellows’ offices on two floors, and a seminar room, reading room and common room/dining area on the top floor.
The entire building was renovated and modernized by Explorations Architecture in 2017–2018. The building backs onto the rue de la Grande Chaumière, home to a famous painting academy of the early twentieth century, and the studios of artists such as Amadeo Modigliani and Paul Gauguin.
A presidential initiative that grew out of an extended process of faculty consultation, the Institute aims to encourage connections between the analytic and the creative, between ideas and imagination.
Each year the Institute brings together a cohort of 14 Fellows, half of them Columbia faculty and post-docs, the other half artists and writers from around the world, to spend a year together in work and conversation.
The Institute fosters intellectual and artistic diversity unconstrained by medium and discipline through the interaction of the arts and academia. It also welcomes Columbia scholars and faculty who wish to come for shorter visits to carry out research, organize meetings and talks, or collaborate in arts outreach with its SNF Public Humanities Initiative.
The SNF Rendez-Vous de l’Institut series presents the Fellows’ projects to the public at Reid Hall throughout the academic year. To learn more about these events and other public programs involving our Fellows, please visit our Events page.
Donors
The Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination is made possible by the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the Areté Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Daniel Cohen, with additional gifts from Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc, Olga and George Votis, the EHA Foundation, Fondation Louis Roederer, Tom and Maarit Glocer, Gerald Rosberg, and Mel and Lois Tukman.
