The Department of Performing and Media Arts leads students from all disciplines through artistic and scholarly explorations of live and mediated forms of creativity and expression. Students are challenged to think creatively, critically, and historically about the world around them as they identify and interpret the power of image, sound, gesture, and movement and cultivate their own artistic and academic voices.
Welcome to PMA!
We are excited to welcome you to Cornell or welcome you back! All of us here in Performing and Media Arts (PMA) look forward to helping you find opportunities to make your time in Ithaca more enriching, whether you are a budding performer, a seasoned auteur, an aspiring critic, or just a curious observer. Please use the page linked below as a springboard to the wealth of opportunities available to you in the Schwartz Center:
PMA Events
Feb
26
Thursday
05:30 PM
PMA Open Auditions for the 2026-27 Academic Year
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Black Box Theatre
Mar
03
Tuesday
05:00 PM
Home and the Body: Multiplicities of Time and Memory, a Performance-Lecture with Kayla Farrish
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Class of '56 Dance Studio Theatre (SB10)
Mar
09
Monday
11:40 AM
Apr
10
Friday
12:00 PM
CANCELLED: Chats with the Chair
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
220
PMA Links
PMA News
Home and the Body: Multiplicities of Time and Memory, a Performance-Lecture with Kayla Farrish
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Home and the Body: Multiplicities of Time and Memory, a Performance-Lecture with Kayla Farrish on Tuesday, March 3, from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, in the Class of ’56 Dance Studio Theatre (SB10), Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.
Professional Directions: A Conversation with Kyle Abraham
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Professional Directions: A Conversation with Kyle Abraham on Thursday, March 5, from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, in Reading Room 124, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. The guest will join virtually on Zoom.
Professional Directions: Expand Your Scope: Working as a Creative in Entertainment with Carolyn Michelle Smith
Join the Department of Performing and Media Arts for Professional Directions: Expand Your Scope: Working as a Creative in Entertainment with Carolyn Michelle Smith on Friday, March 13, from 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, in Room 220, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Open to all Cornell students. Lunch will be provided. RSVP to pma@cornell.edu by Wednesday, March 11.
PMA Chair Samantha Noelle Sheppard Writes Review About the Documentary “Natchez”
PMA Chair and Associate Professor Samantha Noelle Sheppard has written a review for The Guardian about the documentary Natchez, called “Plantation weddings and pre-civil war fashion: the film that critiques the historical fantasy of Natchez.”
Five A.D. White Professors-at-Large on campus this spring
Named for Cornell’s first president, the program sponsors scholars and public intellectuals in the life sciences, physical sciences, humanities, social sciences and the arts and this semester features several connections with the College of Arts and Sciences.
Ladies of Manila Sound
Join PMA for Ladies of Manila Sound Presented by PMA 1183 FWS: Hip-Hop’s Global Vibrations (NYC, LA, Southeast Asia). This event will take place on Zoom on Monday, March 9, from 11:40 am - 12:55 pm. There will be a short DJ turntablist performance, followed by a Q&A session.
Join on Zoom: https://cornell.zoom.us/j/97871338956?pwd=jkVtNRwYV9DOw8MtoeQ9Sf5vYgyLQY.1
PMA/LSP Associate Professor Karen Jaime Quoted on the Political Expression of Bad Bunny’s Halftime Performance
PMA/LSP Associate Professor Karen Jaime has completed a set of media appearances discussing Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance. Jaime was featured in a televised broadcast on WNYW’s local Fox 5 News station, during a segment titled "Halftime Show Audience Estimated to be More Than 135 Million Viewers." Jaime was also quoted in the article “Bad Bunny's Ford pickup a nod to automaker's relevance in Puerto Rico” by Jamie L. LaReau, originally published in the Detroit Free Press.
PMA Ph.D. Candidate Rejoice Abutsa Joins Post-Screening Conversation with Filmmaker Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine
On Wednesday, February 18, at 6:00 pm, Cornell Cinema will host a screening of Memories of Love Returned, a documentary by filmmaker Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine. PMA Ph.D. Candidate Rejoice Abutsa will join Mwine for a post-screening conversation.
Land Acknowledgement
Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' people, past and present, to these lands and waters.
This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' leadership.