Newhouse’s Goldring Arts Journalism Master’s Program Expands Focus, Adds Style and Culture
The Newhouse School is adding style and culture to its trailblazing arts journalism program.
The program, founded by alumna Lola Goldring ’51, will be known as the Goldring arts, style and culture journalism master’s program starting this fall, just in time for its 20th anniversary.
When founded in 2005, the Goldring program was the first arts journalism master’s degree to be offered by an accredited communications school. Two decades into training journalists to write about the arts, the program is expanding its focus to cater to students interested in pursuing a career covering style, food, architecture, film, music and other feature topics on multiple platforms.
“I’m excited about this opportunity to really grow the Goldring imprint and build on our two decades of success,” said Eric Grode, director of the program and an associate professor of magazine, news and digital journalism.
“The Goldring legacy is the hundreds of graduates who have worked in arts and cultural media and communications around the world, from the New York Times and Playbill to Alvin Ailey and the Kennedy Center,” he said. “That will expand to talented writers and editors covering trend-setting style and culture topics that also resonate with readers.”
Over the past year, Grode worked with Dean Mark Lodato and other Newhouse leaders to analyze the program and make sure that course offerings set up students to succeed with their capstone project at the end of the 12-month master’s program.
One highlight of the Goldring program is the extensive travel that offers students opportunities to hone the skills they learn in the classroom at events around the country and in Toronto. Destinations can be catered to a student’s interest in arts, style or culture, which Grode said reflects the flexibility of the program.
For instance, Goldring arts students have always traveled to New York City for a week-long immersion program in January. With the program’s expanded focus, the program could also visit New York for Fashion Week in September.
Students interested in style reporting can look forward to speakers like Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic Robin Givhan, who was a distinguished guest of the Goldring program several years ago, as well as a trip to the School of Design’s extensive costume collection at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse in downtown Syracuse.
Givhan joined the ranks of such prominent arts writers as New Yorker staff writer Emily Nussbaum, “Pop Culture Happy Hour” host Aisha Harris and New York Times film critic A.O. Scott, all of whom have also visited Newhouse as Goldring guest speakers.
With the name change, Grode looks forward to the program attracting more students with a passion to learn more about their specific interest in arts, style or culture, but with an open mind to learn about related topics.
“The hope is having an identified, broader mandate, and having people who know that if they’re really interested in food or if they’re really interested in fashion, this is a place that makes sense for them,” he said.