An Interview with Richard Kessler, The New School’s New Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Earlier this month, Richard Kessler was appointed Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at The New School. An accomplished educator, performer, and higher education leader, he most recently served as the Executive Dean of the College of Performing Arts and Dean of Mannes School of Music.
New School News recently spoke with Provost Kessler on a wide variety of subjects, including his excitement about stepping into this role, the initiatives he plans to pursue, and his favorite spots around campus.
What are you most excited about in your new role as Provost?
Working again with Joel Towers! I know, it sounds like I’m “managing up” with that statement, but Joel and I were executive deans together and being able to work today as president and provost is something I never imagined would happen. Naturally, I am also so very excited about the planning work that has been taking place this summer, with over 110 colleagues, that is both comprehensive, holistic, and collaborative, dedicated to ensuring a bright future for our unique university.
You joined The New School in 2011 – how has your past experience prepared you for this new role?
I have worked directly with four presidents, three provosts, an evolving board of governors, eleven executive deans, over 400 faculty members, staff, and just about every sort of curricular, personnel, financial, space, planning, contractual, union, safety, and other assorted and sundry issues that one might imagine across the past 14 years. But who’s counting! That said, every new job is a new world to enter, and I am eager to listen, learn, and act, while drawing upon who I am and the skills and knowledge that I have acquired along the way.
What are some of the new initiatives you hope to pursue as Provost?
Supporting and energizing the summer planning work to completion and ultimately successful implementation is first and foremost for me in the category of new initiatives. And in addition to the laser focus so many of us have on making sure that the new school year gets up on its feet successfully, I am also excited to start looking at potential new programs, in areas that are natural to our depth, history, creativity, and collective knowledge base.
Another area that I was working on as a dean and want to bring forward as provost, is a desire to foreground better the creative and in particular, experimental parts of our deep and unique history in the creative practices. Across certain period, in a variety of artistic areas, we were a locus of great experimental art and artists. It’s a somewhat overlooked aspect of who we were, still are, and can increasingly play an important role in for the future. And I am eager to bring some heat to this.
Are there any leaders or artists from the past or present that you turn to for inspiration and whose words or work you think inspire others?
What a fantastic question! There are just so many. I do love to draw upon a number of the legendary New School alums, faculty, etc. Harry Belafonte gives me courage. John Cage reminds me that things are not always what they seem or sound to be. David Mannes is a guiding light for how the arts can be love. John Zorn keeps me believing that powerful communities can be built and supported. And Meredith Monk, though not formally connected to The New School, inspires me every day in how a person can make and remake worlds.
And well, people ask me why I wear a Willie Nelson lapel pin. Willie reminds me that you can be down and out one day and come back to prevail as one of the greatest songwriters and performers across multiple generations.
Of course, there are so many of our artist faculty members here at The New School and across its colleges, schools, and programs, that keep me wanting to do my best as an administrator so their work with our students can keep the flame burning bright.
You’ve worked at The New School for almost 15 years – what are some of your favorite places and things to do around campus?
Well, if you can’t get an appointment to see me on short notice, a lot of people who know me well will tell you to look for me at Tim Ho Wan on 4th Avenue, devouring their legendary baked roast pork buns and shrimp dumplings. I do love to stop at many of the historic photos and other works of art that are framed around the university. I can easily get lost in the brilliance of the Berenice Abbott photos. There’s my favorite room of all across the entire campus, which I don’t spend a ton of time in, but always makes me wish I did, and that’s the Reading Room at the end of the long hallway on the second floor of Arnhold Hall. It’s part of the Alexis Gregory Performing Arts Library. The best windows on campus…a room that is just asking for more. And how could I not mention The Stone at The New School. A lot of people don’t realize that we present 190 concerts a year by many of the greatest improvising and experimental artists in the world.
What books are on your bedside table? What music are you currently listening to? Do you still perform as a trombonist?
Earlier this summer, I decided with all the crazy goings on politically, that I would reread our colleague Julia Sonnevend’s illuminating book, Charm. I have just finished Richard Russo’s sequel to Nobody’s Fool, which is called Somebody’s Fool. (I do love Richard Russo.) Now, I am reading Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt’s The Great Upheaval. Yeah, sure, a new provost might want to read that…
Music. As Jack Benny liked to say: “well,” I have 3700 albums ripped to my digital collection and carry around about 800 gigs of high-end digital music on my portable music player. (I was the Dean of Mannes, after all!) That said, I have been listening to a lot of one of my all-time favorite artists, the indie rocker Chuck Prophet. His new Cumbian influenced album, Wake The Dead, is to die for great. Everyone reading this must go out and buy it, even if they don’t like indie rock. Jane Ira Bloom’s new album, Songs in Space, is just stellar. Steve Reich, who once taught at TNS, has a new album, Jacob’s Ladder, and it’s just so stunningly beautiful. I’ve also been playing Arturo O’Farrill’s amazing, Mundoagua – Celebrating Carla Bley. And, well, a last mention for something that I have been fascinated by, which is Gelsey Bell and Erin Rogers new album: Skylighght.
As to your trombone question, sadly, I don’t play anymore. It’s not the kind of instrument you can really play on an occasional basis and the workload as an administrator makes it impossible to practice on any regular basis. I love that instrument so much and listen to trombonists all the time, including the two great trombonists in our resident ensemble, The Westerlies. In fact, we have a bunch of amazing trombone faculty members at both the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and Mannes, legends like Ed Neumeister and Dave Taylor. While my trombone playing days are a thing of the past, the sound and feel of it is always with me. There are things in life, experiences, passions, dreams, ancestors, that help form who we are, what we carry with us, and the trombone is certainly that part of that for me.