Atelier

A founding principle of the Arts Arena is to make encounters with the arts available to the broadest possible audience. In this episode, founder and artistic director Margery Arent Safir discusses the organization’s many performances, screenings, and conversations, which are always free of charge and open to all. A long-time member of the Reid Hall community, Safir reflects on many years of collab...

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, life and work have changed drastically for Ukrainian academics. A new book edited by Tetiana Kostiuchenko and Tamara Martsenyuk gathers personal reflections from the first three months of the war, featuring voices across disciplines—from sociology and political science to international relations and literature. In this episode, Ko...

Journalist Marguerite Holloway arrived at the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop as a climbing novice, but with a passion for trees and a deep concern about their future. In this episode, she shares lessons learned from everyday tree lovers and women arborists, which would come to shape her latest book, Take to the Trees (Norton, 2025). Visiting Paris as a Reid Hall faculty visitor, she recounts how P...

Reid Hall has often been the site of serendipitous encounters, perhaps none more so than those leading to the discovery of its fascinating story. In the final episode of this special series, Brunhilde Biebuyck and Marie Doezema reflect on their journey through the stories of two dozen women who helped shape the legacy of 4 rue de Chevreuse. Through archives, digital tools, and historical records,...

The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, based at the Columbia Journalism School, was founded to support ethical, informed reporting on violence, conflict, and tragedy. Executive Director Bruce Shapiro, visiting Reid Hall for a PGIF workshop on forced migration, highlighted Dart’s vital role in equipping journalists to cover trauma with skill and sensitivity. Website - globalcenters.columbia.edu...

Alabama-born Lucille Sinclair Douglass was a globe-trotting artist, etcher, writer, and lecturer whose adventurous spirit defined her career. After exhibiting in Paris’s top Salons, she landed in Shanghai, leading a lantern-slide studio and launching a life of travel through South Asia. Her work—ranging from book illustrations to a French government commission at Angkor Wat—blended artistry with e...

Janet Scudder rose from modest beginnings in Indiana to become a celebrated sculptor, suffragist, and wartime contributor. Splitting her time between New York and Paris, she created whimsical garden sculptures for America’s elite and founded the Studio for Portrait Masks to aid the WWI recovery effort. A regular at the Girls’ Art Club and AWAA exhibits, she earned acclaim at the Paris Salons from...

American universities are in the midst of a crisis, as federal government interference in academic inquiry continues to grow. In this episode, Lee C. Bollinger—former president of Columbia University and this year’s Sidney N. Zubrow Memorial Lecture speaker at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination—explores the mounting threats to free speech and what they mean for the future of higher education...

Angela Gregory, the "doyenne of Louisiana sculpture," broke barriers from New Orleans to Paris. After ditching a scholarship program she found lacking, she talked her way into the studio of Antoine Bourdelle—Rodin’s famed protégé—and spent two formative years under his mentorship. Living at the American University Women’s Club, she exhibited widely before returning home to shape Louisiana’s visual...

New York-born Alice Morgan Wright was a sculptor, writer, suffragist, and early adopter of Cubism and Futurism. Living at the Girls’ Art Club in Paris, she not only exhibited in major Salons but also turned the studio into a hub of feminist activism—inviting Emmeline Pankhurst to speak and joining the militant suffrage movement in London. Throughout her adult life, Wright pursued the twin paths of...

Filmmaker Kamal Aljafari and writer Gil Hochberg explore the intersections of their work in this special conversation at Reid Hall. Aljafari discusses The Museum of Days , an extension of his film trilogy set in post-1948 Jaffa, while Hochberg shares insights from her research based on past exhibitions, including Jews and Muslims: From Colonial France to the Present Day . Website - globalcenters.c...

Cincinnati-born Florence Esté found her artistic voice in France, where she became a celebrated painter and watercolorist. A fixture in the Paris art scene from the late 1800s through the early 20th century, she exhibited widely—from the Paris Salons to women-led art clubs. Finding artistic inspiration in Brittany, particularly St. Briac, she spent summers capturing its coastal beauty. Although he...

A trailblazing biochemist turned bodywork pioneer, Ida Rolf developed “Rolfing,” a method of structural integration that challenged conventional medicine and redefined movement therapy. In Paris, she was a resident of the American University Women’s Club in 1926, and worked at the Institut Pasteur. From Barnard College to the labs of the Rockefeller Institute, and eventually to the alternative cir...

Columbia University’s M.A. in History and Literature is an innovative program that explores the interconnections and intersections between history and literature. It is the only Master’s degree from Columbia run entirely outside of New York City. In this episode, the program’s Associate Director Keithley Woolward discusses his path to joining the Reid Hall team in 2023 and his role in encouraging...

A Southern-born trailblazer, Anne Wilson Goldthwaite made her mark in the art world as a painter, printmaker, and fierce advocate for women’s rights. From sharpening her craft in New York to mingling with avant-garde legends like Matisse and Picasso in Paris, she led the American Women's Art Association and exhibited in the groundbreaking 1913 Armory Show.  More on Anne Wilson Goldthwaite: re...

The first woman to graduate in architecture from the École des Beaux-Arts and California’s first licensed female architect, Julia Morgan designed over 700 projects—including the iconic Hearst Castle in California. Despite her incredible work, she avoided the spotlight. In this episode, we explore her legacy, the biography that brought her story to light, and the long-overdue recognition she receiv...

During a recent visit to the Institut de France, Reid Hall Faculty Visitor Nikolas Kakkoufa explored the archives of Claude Fauriel, who collected Greek folk songs and poetry—including what is considered the first Greek homosexual poem. In this episode, he shares insights on the emotional connections to archival research, teaching Modern Greek to undergraduates, and his upcoming book, A Queer Hist...

Jane Harrison, a trailblazing classical scholar, and Hope Mirrlees, a modernist writer, shared a deep intellectual and personal bond. Harrison, a Cambridge Ritualist, reshaped the study of Greek mythology, while Mirrlees, her student-turned-companion, made her mark with the avant-garde Paris: A Poem . Together, they lived at Reid Hall in Paris during the 1920s, immersing themselves in literary and...

Democracies are eroding, and climate skepticism is on the rise worldwide—in some countries more than others. In this episode, we speak with climate adaptation consultant Mélody Braun about the growing attacks on climate projects and professionals, and the need for innovative support strategies. This spring, Mélody is organizing a three-part event series highlighting the vital role of women in clim...

Grace Gassette was an American portraitist, nurse, and inventor whose impact spanned both the art world and wartime medicine. Born in Illinois, she moved to Paris in 1896, studying under Mary Cassatt and exhibiting her work in prestigious Paris salons. When World War I broke out, she managed the surgical dressing department at the American Hospital in Paris, where she invented orthopedic devices t...

Leonora Raines was a self-styled American journalist, war correspondent, and patron of the arts. For over thirty years, she immersed herself in the sociocultural world of Paris, becoming an active member of the Girls' Art Club at 4 rue de Chevreuse. As a WWI war correspondent for The New York Sun , she provided a personal and emotional perspective on the conflict. Throughout her life, Raines trave...

The Maison des femmes, located at Saint-Denis Delafontaine Hospital, offers medical, psychological, legal, and social support to women facing violence and trauma. In this episode, newly appointed director Violette Perrotte discusses the support they received following the #MeToo movement and their ambitious plan to establish a Maison des Femmes in every department across France. Perrotte returns t...

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller overcame racism and sexism, from subtle slights to overt segregation, to become a celebrated sculptor and a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. In Paris, she studied under Auguste Rodin, exhibited at the Salon des Beaux Arts in 1903, and formed a close friendship with W.E.B. Du Bois. Returning to the United States, she dedicated over sixty years to her artistic career, c...

When you think of a librarian, what comes to mind? Constance Winchell worked as a highly influential reference librarian for over 30 years—but her career took her far beyond the dusty stacks you might imagine! Winchell traveled to Paris during the Roaring Twenties, worked on Franco-American relations at the newly founded American Library in Paris, and traveled extensively throughout Europe. Upon h...

Kate Daudy believes that discussing honey can inspire better communication. A British visual artist and 2024-2025 Fellow at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination , Daudy explores this idea in her ongoing project, Telling the Bees . In this episode, she takes us from the cloud forests of Bolivia to her favorite café on Portobello Road—places that inspire her interdisciplinary art, which delves in...