NEWS
FOUR FROM FIT
WIN VILCEK PRIZES
The prestigious Vilcek Foundation Awards recognize contributions from immigrants in the arts and other sciences. Past recipients include Henry Louis Gates Jr., Edwige Danticat, and Marcus Samuelsson. This year, remarkably, four FIT faculty and alumni won Vilcek Awards.
Tanya Meléndez-Escalante
Museum Studies: Costume and Textiles ’04, senior curator of Education and Public Programs at The Museum at FIT, born in Mexico, received $100,000 for her work promoting Latin American talent.
Natalie Nudell
A fashion and textile historian who is an adjunct assistant professor of History of Art, born in Canada, received $50,000 for her work preserving U.S. fashion history.
Diego Bendezu
Photography ’15, born in Peru, received $50,000 for his visual storytelling that centers Latin American and immigrant narratives.
Peter Do
Fashion Design ’14, born in Vietnam, received a $100,000 prize for his unique and versatile clothing designs.
Courtesy of the Vilcek Foundation
BEHIND THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
Fun fact: FIT’s campus is located steps from the birthplace of American popular music. Tin Pan Alley, on 28th Street, was home to a cluster of music publishers that launched the careers of the best songwriters of the early 20th century—Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter, to name a few. Performers could browse sheet music in the storefronts, where the composers could often be found arranging and auditioning the songs on upright pianos.
“What’s typically referred to as the ‘Great American Songbook’ is actually, to a great extent, the ’28th-Street-between-Broadway-and-Sixth-Avenue Songbook,” says Dan Cooper, an adjunct associate professor of American History who has taught music history at FIT since 2002. He adds that many of the songwriters were Jewish, and that the songs share connections with Jewish liturgical music, along with jazz, ragtime, and classical compositions.
On the first day of his course MU203: Survey of American Music, Cooper plays Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” As the course proceeds, students learn more about the concerto and its composer, who was from Brooklyn and got his start working in Tin Pan Alley.
ALUMNI WEEKEND, A NEW TRADITION
Hundreds of alumni descended upon the campus October 17–19 for the second annual Alumni Weekend. Alumni sold their crafts in an outdoor bazaar and partied down in a recreation of Binsky’s, a once-hopping club in the college’s basement. Speakers included Joe Zee, Advertising and Communications ’92, journalist, stylist, and producer; Julie LaPlaca, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’07, former producer of The Bachelor; and Project Runway contestant Yuchen Han, Fashion Design MFA ’19.
This fall’s Alumni and Family Weekend will welcome not just alumni and their families but also students and faculty to participate in a packed roster of education, networking, and fun.
