This pivotal cross-disciplinary dialogue includes a diverse group of leaders the fields of Architecture, the Performing arts, Urban ecology, and Environmental studies.
Moderators:
Jessica Kung Dreyfus, Yale BA Arch ‘04 // website
Jessica Kung Dreyfus is a global thought leader, artist, designer, educator, healer, author, and mother. She has exhibited her work internationally at museums such as Centrale Montemartini in Rome and the De Young in San Francisco. She has collaborated with some of the most influential investors and inventors in the world to develop and communicate vision in built form. Her work straddles disciplines as it explores and illuminates the invisible and inescapable topography between site and psyche, body and building. Her frequent reference to and integration of architectural ornament into her projects highlights her years studying and working with Kent Bloomer and Bloomer Studio.
She received her B.A. cum laude in Architecture from Yale University and her M.F.A. from California College of the Arts. She is also a professional yoga teacher trainer and has certified over 100 yoga teachers around the world. She is the founder of Triveni Yoga and Yogis at Yale. From 2010-2012 she completed a 450 day silent meditation retreat. Her latest creative endeavor is the launch of Make Conscious - a cross-disciplinary studio that merges the contemplative and the creative into a practice that meets the moment. She is currently working on her upcoming book, Your Phenomenal World, a guidebook to consciousness for creatives.
Jennifer Newman, Yale MFA, School of Drama ‘11 // website
Jennifer is the associate artistic director of the Yale Schwarzman Center. A theater artist, Jennifer works extensively with artists across disciplines pushing the boundaries of dance, opera, and theater. She has worked with Michael Jackson, Julie Taymor, Franco Dragone, Donald Byrd, David Rousseve, Ronald K. Brown, Charlotte Brathwaite, Michael Joseph McQuilken, The Radio City Rockettes, and has performed on Broadway in Saturday Night Fever and Disney’s The Lion King. Jennifer has been an artist in residence at Princeton University, Yale University, Central Connecticut State University, The Field, Mabou Mines, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 651 Arts, and Sisters Academy Inkost, and has led workshops across the United States, Sweden, South Africa, China, and Mexico. Jennifer received her B.A. from UCLA and her M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama.
Panelists:
Sari Chang, JACOBSCHANG Architecture, Yale M Arch ‘98 // website
Sari is a Registered Architect in New York & New Jersey. She focuses on projects that have environmental and social impact, while cultivating sustained individual, civic and institutional relationships. Whether working on a project with the NYC Parks Department, with the CEO of a company, or a family building a home, she brings the same collaborative and creative problem-solving leadership. Prior to JACOBSCHANG, Sari worked for Pei Cobb Freed and Partners in New York on numerous award-winning projects for university campuses, including Stanford & Princeton Universities. Subsequently Sari worked at Rogers Marvel Architects as the Project Architect for Kate Spade, and for many years worked as the principal of her own practice, executing a range of projects that included offices, residential and institutional work including Princeton University. Sari received her Master of Architecture degree from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Architecture from Princeton University. She is a member of the Architectural League of New York, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA). She sits on numerous boards, and is Chair Emerita of the Board for Make-A-Wish Metro New York and Western New York.
Naomi Darling, Naomi Darling Architecture, Yale M Arch ‘06 // website
Naomi Darling is founding principal of Naomi Darling Architecture and Five College Associate Professor of Sustainable Architecture. Darling’s research and award-winning professional practice, Naomi Darling Architecture, LLC, founded in 2011, develops projects at all scales in terms of size, time and permanence. Permeating all projects is a dimension of environmental stewardship, social responsibility and the role of architects as agents of change. Current projects include a Kayak Kiosk and Picnic Pavilion for Sunderland, a Bandshell for the town of Amherst, several residential projects, a farm stand and seed library in Nan, Thailand and Nitobe Memorial Hall, a museum, library and community center in Sapporo, Japan. Prior to founding her practice, Naomi worked for Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects in Seattle, Studio ABK in New Haven, and Kengo Kuma and Associates in Tokyo, Japan.
Naomi received a BSE degree from Princeton University in structural engineering and architectural design, an MFA in sculpture from Monash University and a Masters of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture.
Colleen Murphy-Dunning, Director of Urban Ecology, Yale School of Environment // website
Colleen Murphy-Dunning is the Director of both the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology and the Urban Resources Initiative at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). Colleen partners with faculty to lead a field based module on urban ecology for all incoming Yale F&ES graduate students. Prior to coming to New Haven in 1995, she taught agroforestry at the Kenya Forestry College and reviewed natural resource operations in Papua New Guinea for the Rainforest Action Network. Colleen received her B.S. in Public and Environmental Affairs from Indiana University, and M.S. in Forestry from Humboldt State University.
About the Yale Schwarzman Center
Now in development, the YSC will be transformational for Yale in providing, for the first time, a center for student life and the arts at the historic heart of the Yale University campus. In advance of its projected 2021 opening, the YSC is engaging in digital programs and collaborative arts experiences geared toward audiences within and beyond the Yale campus. Learn more about the YSC at https://schwarzman.yale.edu.