Statement of Purpose

The New York Film Academy seeks to promote and advance the art of Visual Storytelling (Film and related media including staged performance) as a transformational and ennobling vehicle to both the creator and audience, with a profound impact on individuals, communities and global society.

Mission

NYFA propagates visual literacy and visual storytelling through hands-on intensive learning. It seeks to make visual storytelling education accessible to the most diverse, international, and broadest possible spectrum of students, and to hone the skills of future professionals so that they may one day serve the visual storytelling arts as industry leaders.

Vision and Context

Visual communication plays an increasingly vital role in our globally connected lives. Motion picture content in its innumerable manifestations has entered virtually every aspect of daily life, work, culture, and our constructed environment. Indeed, visual communication is fast becoming the predominant form of expressive communication worldwide. Visual storytelling, in all its historical and evolving forms, has the unique power of allowing us to experience the life of others through the imagination and perspective of the storyteller.

The ability to effectively harness this means of expression will be ever more essential to a successful member of the creative industries. In order to serve aspiring visual storytelling artists, educators in this field should act as conservator and innovator, passing on the accrued knowledge, techniques, and methods of the art while incorporating new technology and innovations.

We believe the process of creation itself can be ennobling to the artist, and the artist’s creation can have a profound impact on others. By giving the audience the chance to experience the world from the perspective of another, visual stories have the power to create empathy, bridge differences, and open new avenues of thought. Therefore, the motion picture artist has a power and a responsibility. Those who master this form of communication will be instrumental in the development and advancement of society, and institutions that hope to educate and train visual storytellers play an essential role in that same mission.

NYFA’s Core Values

NYFA’s set of core values provide objectives and standards across our campuses and satellite locations.

Student Success

The New York Film Academy strives for its students’ success as learners, professionals, and global citizens. As a student-centered institution, NYFA recognizes that the success of its students is inseparable from and synonymous with the success of the college itself. NYFA operates within the belief that everyone has a story to tell, and that great storytellers come from all different backgrounds. We want to make an arts education accessible to as many people as possible by reaching beyond the usual barriers to entry to find students who are passionate and dedicated to their art and craft. Only by diversifying the NYFA community can we help the art form realize its full potential.

Integrity

NYFA expects its students, faculty, staff, and administration to act with integrity, honesty, and the highest ethical standards. Storytelling is an eminently powerful skill, and NYFA teaches students to use that skill to elevate the artistic exchange within and across cultures.

Excellence

In every area, at every level, and among all members of the NYFA community, the New York Film Academy strives for excellence. The institution sees as its main function to create an intellectual, physical, and social environment that promotes and supports excellence within the institution and the community at large. This commitment stems from NYFA’s belief that artists and other visual communicators serve a crucial role in the advancement of society.

Global Reach

In an increasingly interconnected global society, the New York Film Academy is committed to graduating global citizens with the communication, collaboration, and critical skills necessary to address issues facing our modern world. To this end, the New York Film Academy seeks to offer programming to the widest possible array of global populations and to sustainmultiple educational sites around the world, while continuing to deliver visual storytelling education of the highest quality.

INSTITUTIONAL LEARNING OUTCOMES (ILOs):

NYFA has five Institutional Learning Outcomes it expects all students to achieve. These are:

Professionalism – NYFA graduates will be able to demonstrate habits and behaviors of professional artists and media creators, such as regular, disciplined practice; collaboration; creative problem solving; leadership and time management.

Visual Literacy – NYFA graduates will be able to analyze, contextualize, and evaluate visual storytelling in various art forms and media.

Visual Storytelling – NYFA graduates will be able to master the tools of their disciplines to create visual stories, experiences, and works of art with well-defined aesthetic, conceptual, and contextual choices.

Personal Voice – NYFA graduates will be able to demonstrate the development of a personal creative voice through the creation of original works of art and media.

Global Citizenship – NYFA graduates will be able to demonstrate an awareness of global issues, and how their work fits within a global context.

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