Boston University
Hundreds of student artists, entrepreneurs, managers, and scholars study, practice, and participate in events within more than a dozen graduate and undergraduate arts degree programs at BU, primarily in the College of Fine Arts. The BU Arts Initiative in the Office of the Provost is committed to ensuring that the arts are deeply embedded in the fabric of the university by providing free access for students to local museums and the orchestra, presenting prestigious artists, and developing opportunities that encourage students to participate in the arts. BU is also home to the Boston Playwrights’ Theater, the Wheelock Family Theatre, the Tsai Performance Center, and the BU Art Galleries.
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Ty Furman has been advising and facilitating arts organizations and campus arts programs since 1995. He is currently the Managing Director of BU Arts Initiative in the Office of the Provost at Boston University. Previously, Ty served as the Director of University Life Arts Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania; the Managing Director of the Barrymore award-winning Vagabond Acting Troupe, and on the boards of Hotel Obligado and Brat Productions in Philadelphia. He is currently a member of the Fenway Cultural District Committee, the New England New Play Alliance Task Force with StageSource, and the Leadership Council for MassCreative. Furman holds a BA from Juniata College, and MA in Theatre from Villanova University, and a Doctorate in Education/Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania.
Harvey Young’s research on the performance and experience of race has been widely published in academic journals, profiled in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education. As a commentator on popular culture, he has appeared on CNN, 20/20, and Good Morning America as well as within the pages of the New York Times, Boston Globe, Vanity Fair and People.
He is the author of three books, including Embodying Black Experience, winner of “Book of the Year” awards from the National Communication Association and the American Society for Theatre Research; and the editor of five books. His forthcoming edited collection (with Megan Geigner) Theatre After Empire will be published in 2021.
In January 2018, he became Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, where he holds faculty appointments as Professor of English and Professor of Theatre Arts. Previously, Dr. Young was Professor and Chair of Theatre at Northwestern University with appointments in African American Studies, Performance Studies, and Radio/Television/Film.
He is the Immediate Past President of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and has served as a Trustee on numerous boards, including the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, American Society for Theatre Research, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and Yale Club of Chicago. A former Harvard and Stanford fellow, Dr. Young graduated with honors from Yale and holds a M.A. from the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and a Ph.D. from Cornell.