COLLABORATIVE ARTS Capstone 2026

Join us to celebrate the graduating Collaborative Arts Class of 2026 as they exhibit, perform, screen, and present their capstone art projects across three spectacular days!

Thursday May 7th - Saturday May 9th
721 Broadway 4th Floor
181 Mercer 5th Floor Studio G

On Monday May 11th at 5:00pm the entire cohort will be performing an original live show they wrote and directed together.

You can find the entire daily schedule HERE

PERFORMANCES - 181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G

  • The Water's Just Fine poster - a Collaborative Arts Thesis By Kat Kahler, song and music video out May 8. Performance dates and location listed.

    Kat Kahler

    The Water's Just Fine / 15 minutes
    May 7 5:30pm / May 8 12:00pm / May 9 7:00pm
    181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G

    How can we love what we don't know? "The Water's Just Fine" explores the cyclical internal battle to understand oneself. We beat ourselves down when we confound our own expectations, we reassure ourselves that nothing is ever as deep as it may seem, we submit to our misery and drift into an auto-piloted state of self. We go about life recklessly swinging a sword, hoping it won't fall into destructive hands, even if they are the hands of ourselves at our worst. The voices in our heads are no more cacophonous than nagging crows.

  • Sophia florence an audio visual experience, touchdesigner, ableton live, ambient techno. Performance dates and location listed.

    Sophia Florence

    Sophia Florence: An Audio Visual Experience / 30 minutes
    May 8 12:45pm / May 9 1:30pm
    181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G

    Sophia’s performance combines self-produced songs ranging from ambient to hardstyle EDM. With live singing, live playing, TouchDesigner and Ableton Live help create an ethereal musical atmosphere of angelism, culture, and grief. The visuals include snippets of self-produced short narrative films, stop motion, and drawings, and text. FLASH WARNING.

  • Portrait of a young man with various digitally drawn doodles on top of the photo

    João-Victor ‘JV’ Ataídes

    PILOTO / 15 minutes
    May 7 6:30pm / May 8 1:45pm / May 9 4:30pm
    181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G

    A chance to do something he hasn’t done since childhood: move freely to music. Piloto (pilot) is an archival project built from found sound and found footage, assembling remastered recordings, fragments of voice, crossover pop textures, and visual traces into a living document of process and memory. Inspired by analog horror aesthetics and psychodrama, it operates as an open archive—material that surfaces, rearranges, and reveals itself over time, inviting the audience into something never meant to be public. For João, Piloto marks a transition from the writer in the dark to an unfiltered artist with his own signature.

  • Image with trees with inverted color, splashes of various shades of red. Memories from the womb directed by Mira Aiko. Performance dates and location listed.

    Mira Aiko

    Memories from the Womb / 30 minutes
    May 7 4:30pm / May 8 2:30 PM / May 9 8:00pm
    181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G
    RSVP

    Memories from the Womb is an exploration of how the amorphous, internal self is contained within a multitude of bodily forms. Through an experimental dance form, it inquires: Is there a moment in life at which one leaves their egg? What does it mean for one’s shell to be broken? Are they safe? At risk? Is the risk worth it?

  • First, Sounds, Chiara Tabet's Thesis show. Performance dates listed and QR code links to eventbrite. Poster image shows 4 cartoon individuals labeled Catherine, Bonbon, Chiara, and Amelia, playing keyboard, guitar, singing, and piano respectively, with a tree and birds in the background

    Chiara Tabet

    FIRST, SOUNDS / 30 minutes
    May 7 1:30pm / May 8 3:45pm
    181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G
    RSVP

    How did we first discover music? In this performance you will explore music's first heartbeat through Chiara’s thought process as she explores this question and uncovers her love for music. Expect an afternoon of live music and storytelling led by Chiara Tabet (singer) and her band: Amelia Lee (pianist), Bonbon Chen (guitarist), and Catherine Rong (sound mixer and keyboardist).

  • Hold Me, Earth by Anastasia Mezhanskaya. Performances dates listed and QR code links to Eventbrite. Photograph of a person in a faceless, alien-like mask wearing a red headdress with beads.

    Anastasia Mezhanskaya

    Hold Me, Earth / 30 minutes
    May 7 8:00pm / May 8 5:00pm / May 9 12:00pm
    181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G
    RSVP

    "Hold Me, Earth" is a live dance performance featuring masked and costumed performers, alongside puppetry, that explores the cycle of life — the Beginning, the Continuation, and the End. Witness the soul’s journey unfold through each unique stage of the cycle.

  • Blackberries and Mangos starring Braden Misiaszek and Taylor Fuchs, written and directed by Eden Ellenberg. Performance dates listed and QR code to eventbrite.Photograph of a man and a woman standing together on a rooftop at night.

    Eden Ellenberg

    Blackberries and Mangoes / 50 minutes
    May 7 3:00pm / May 8 6:30pm / May 9 3:00pm
    181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G
    RSVP

    Blackberries and Mangoes is a one act thesis play written and directed by collaborative arts senior Eden Ellenberg. Taking place over the course of one night, how can two people learn about themselves through each other only in the span of a couple hours.

  • Class of 2038 printed over a compilation of distorted, faded images and newspapers

    Sevin Vasiloudes

    Class of 2038 / 40 minutes
    May 7 12:00pm / May 8 8:00pm / May 9 5:30pm
    181 Mercer, 5th Floor, Studio G
    RSVP

    On the day the world ends, a class of 8th grade students embark on a field trip to a refurbished WWII bunker. While their teacher is missing, a ringleader and his traveling circus take over, distracting the kids so he can carry on with his mischief. A 40-minute show informed by a world where little boys are brought up as soldiers and little girls as caretakers; a world where warfare is horribly ever-present.

PERFORMANCES - 721 Broadway, 4th Floor, 404

  • How to Be Okay with Death. Performance dates and location listed. Watercolor painting of a skeleton playing guitar in a picture frame, resting on a table alongside candles and a wine bottle.

    Ana Nava

    How to be Okay with Death / 45 minutes
    May 7 5:00pm / May 8 1:30pm / May 9 3:00pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor, Room 404
    RSVP

    At the end of the day, what are the things you’ll miss the most? During the show; the audience will listen to songs and reminisce about life and its ups and downs with each other before Death comes for everyone at the 45 minute mark. This show is born out of a perceived necessity to fall in love with life again, and the urgency to fix what we can when everything seems to be falling apart.

  • Loose Tooth a play starring Dhruv Anish, Owen Boyce, and Daisy Brookman. Performance dates listed. Graphic of a tooth growing into another tooth, with red sparks to show them hitting each other.

    Daisy Brookman

    Loose Tooth / 50 minutes
    May 7 7:30pm / May 8 12:00pm / May 9 5:30pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor, Room 404
    RSVP

    Loose Tooth is a play about three strangers stuck overnight in an airport.

SCREENINGS - 721 Broadway, 4th Floor, Room 404

  • Child Re-traumatization - we re-traumatize your third great heartbreak, only in Couples Theft-apy. Fake reviews from famous publications run along the left side of the poster. Various screenshots from the film fill the background.

    Kiran Arain

    Couples Theftapy / 30 minutes
    May 7 12pm / May 8 6pm / May 9 12pm & 7pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor, Room 404

    When a dysfunctional couple is assigned to communicate only through letters, they unexpectedly rekindle their relationship— only to find out their therapist secretly wrote all of them in order to steal their social security. Together, they must team up and catch him before he disappears with their identities (and bank accounts).

  • An almost transparent image on a reflective surface of a mother and son arguing. Inertia, directed and written and edited by Lucas Dianda, produced by Nick Dinner, featuring Austin Peyton and Karen Benjamin, shot by William Khuu

    Lucas Dianda

    Inertia / 10 minutes
    May 7 12pm / May 8 6pm / May 9 12pm & 7pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor, Room 404

    A short film that follows a mom and son on the day of a family reunion. As the two get ready, a simple argument over laundry bleeds into a series of domestic moments that reveal a tension between them. This film explores their complicated love-hate relationship and inability to break it.

  • A gritty image of 3 figures in all white facing a decayed wall, the same wall is inverted above with one woman in regular clothing standing upside down. Text over the image: The Place with Pink Clouds, a film by Emma Li

    Emma Li

    The Place With Pink Clouds / 15 minutes
    May 7 3pm / May 8 7pm / May 9 1pm & 8pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor, Room 404
    RSVP

    Bea, a chronically anxious perfectionist, accidentally takes psychedelics as her friends bring her on a “trip” in search of a mythical oasis. As her reality begins to bend, Bea is forced to confront the truth behind what's really eating away at her.

  • Text reads Dear Land, a capstone project by Raveena Ganpat. Screening dates listed at bottom of poster. Image shows a textured photograph of a porch leading to a wetland area, with a hand drawn boy with a kite in the foreground.

    Raveena Ganpat

    Dear Land / 7 minutes
    May 7 3pm / May 8 7pm / May 9 1pm & 8pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor, Room 404

    Dear Land is a mixed-media documentary that follows the filmmaker’s father as he reflects on leaving Guyana, building a life in the United States, and the experiences that shaped his understanding of home. Blending interview footage, archival materials, and animated sequences, the film moves through memory to explore how home is remembered, recreated, and understood over time.

EXHIBITS - 721 Broadway, 4th Floor
Opening Reception - Thursday May 7th 6:00pm

  • Rescue: Milo by Sarina. Small bear/dog creature holds up a sign, different emoticons springing off of it. A missing bear/dog poster is in the upper right corner.

    Sarina Wang

    Rescue: Milo
    May 7-9 10:00-8:00pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor

    This capstone project is an interactive web experience designed to help users identify their psychological attachment styles through immersive storytelling. By navigating a series of animated adventure scenarios, participants make pivotal choices that reveal how they perceive and react to social dynamics. The project integrates original illustration, animation, film editing techniques, and coding to transform complex psychological theory into a reflective, visual journey. Ultimately, it serves as a self-discovery tool to help individuals understand their relationship patterns and better manage social anxiety.

  • Blue poster with closeup shot of bubbles. Text reads: Garden of Fountains. Wake, eat, work, eat, play, eat, sleep, wake-- A simple undisrupted cycle that generates peace. In our constant pursuit of this peace, we blossom and creep into ourselves. To plant these seeds it is pertinent that we pluck the weeds to maintain our garden. Show dates listed. This installation is a collection of fountains made and designed by Mia Kandi James. Instructions to enter the building follow.

    Mia Kandi James

    Garden of Fountains
    May 7-9 10:00-8:00pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor

    Come one, come all to witness history made by Mia Kandi James and her Garden of Fountains. An installation to be cherished. Pluck the weeds. Plant the seeds. Peace and purpose.

  • Four different cityscapes overlayed with text in both Chinese characters and English reading: From the books to the world, a thesis by Lilian Yuan

    Lilian Yuan

    FROM THE BOOKS TO THE WORLD
    May 7-9 10:00-8:00pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor

    This installation explores a dialogue between Chinese and Western artistic traditions, combining seal cutting, three-dimensional sculpture, and photography to create a layered visual language. At its core is a family-inherited Chinese seal cutting technique passed down through generations, grounding the work in personal and cultural lineage. The piece merges imagery from New York and Shanghai to reflect cultural interconnectedness while reimagining traditional forms through three-dimensional and experimental approaches. Shaped by the artist’s cross-cultural experience, the work becomes both a personal reflection and a broader meditation on identity and coexistence.

  • Painted and drawn images meld into each other - babies faces appear in the background, and dancers bodies in the foreground

    Hana Margesson

    De In, De Out, De Blue
    May 7-9 10:00-8:00pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor

    De In, De Out, De Blue is a multimedia visual art exhibition that marks a breakthrough on the question: To what extent does the given shape, in the form of visual metaphors, fill the gap in conveying ideas where the versatility of language cannot suffice? Using the intersection of acrylic, charcoal, and watercolor, the series explores how one captures the unknown, the societal or moral subjects that hold, care for, or provoke them through delving into physicality, life journeys, and inner turmoil. The series explores tension and seeks harmony in the clashes between realism and abstraction, as well as in the dynamics of subjects' actions, expressions, light, and the stillness within the composition of the body, the mind, and the encounters in life, and how they shape the whole of one’s sensory experience.

  • romy.jpg

    Romy Murro

    The Sitting Manual
    May 7-9 10:00-8:00pm
    721 Broadway, 4th Floor

    The Sitting Manual is an experimental video installation that explores the modality of sitting as both physical and conceptual act. It focuses on the body in its seated state – the arch of the back, the way it contours, settles and conforms to structure. At the same time the work expands, considering the abstract conditions of sitting: the difference between sitting in a taxi and sitting shiva, between transit, motion and mourning. Each sitting introduces distinct actors, set designs, and choreographies, collectively staging a range of embodied and symbolic experiences.