Returning for its 10th season , University Open Air (UOA) will be held in the grounds around the Prospect Park Boathouse from September 19th - 29th, 2024. Please check back for individual event listings at the beginning of September.
As it always does, UOA provides immigrant teachers, professors, and academics, who were trained outside of the U.S., an opportunity to share their knowledge with the public by welcoming students to enjoy free classes in collaboration with the Prospect Park Alliance. The September semester takes place on the grounds around the Prospect Park Boathouse while the spring residency is housed in one of the library's branch locations.
Please direct additional questions about the upcoming session to Vanessa Baish at vbaish@bklynlibrary.org.
*Please note, while UOA courses aim to equip students with valuable skills, they are non-accredited.
University Open Air is generously supported by The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund.
Prospect Park Alliance is the non-profit organization that sustains, restores and advances Brooklyn's Backyard, in partnership with the City of New York. The Alliance provides critical staff and resources that keep Prospect Park green and vibrant for the diverse communities that call Brooklyn home.
Upcoming Events
University Open Air: Technical Drawing Exercises for Beginners
In this course, students will gain hands-on experience in technical drawing through learning the art of manual drawing and drafting techniques.
Drawing instruments (including paper and clipboards) will be provided.
University Open Air: How to Pair Tea with Food
We have a variety of teas: green tea, white tea, dark tea, black tea etc. How do you pair them with food? In this lesson we will discuss the characteristics of tea and the best pairings with food.
University Open Air: Mid-Autumn Festival Traditions and Customs
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals observed in China, and occurs to worship the visible and bright full moon in the night sky. It is a precious time for family gatherings and includes many fascinating traditions, like worshiping the full moon and eating…
University Open Air: Reading the Flight of Birds
We should behave as if the things we see, no matter how irrelevant, are always about to tell us a secret.
Birds write messages in the sky, which we will learn to read in this workshop. To know those messages is to let ourselves be seduced by the beauty of reality, poetically expanding our…
University Open Air: Tang Poetry I
Tang poetry (唐诗) refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. We are going to…
University Open Air: Chinese Zodiac Signs
What's your Chinese zodiac sign? The Chinese zodiac associated with your birth year reveals a lot about your personality and the year ahead.
For more than 2,000 years, the Chinese zodiac has played an integral role in Chinese culture.
University Open Air: How to Write a Winning Proposal I
This course aims to introduce students to different types of proposals and how to write them step-by-step. You will learn how to persuade donors, sponsors, and potential collaborators by crafting a feasible and profitable proposal.
University Open Air: Sound Map of Salsa Music in New York. In English
In this lecture, you will explore the origins of salsa music in the South Bronx through its sound and its connection to the territory. You will discover the people who created the new genre from the traditional Latin music brought to NYC by the Caribbean immigrants who settled in the Bronx from…
University Open Air: Save the season: about food preservation and terroir
Uncover the potential of food preservation and the use of local produce in reducing food waste. We will explore how combining seasonal and local eating with preservation techniques can effectively minimize waste while expanding your flavor palette.
This class offers a view into the…
University Open Air: Is Beauty Relevant? A Question for Artists
Beauty is a concept that is assumed to be universally intelligible, but it is seldom defined in our everyday lives. We also live in a world in which we are bombarded with images that bind the beautiful to the realm of advertising. Under capitalism, beauty is manufactured and used to sell us on…
University Open Air: Storytelling like a Ugandan Grandmother
We should behave as if the things we see, no matter how irrelevant, are always about to tell us a secret.
Birds write messages in the sky, which we will learn to read in this workshop. To know those messages is to let ourselves be seduced by the beauty of reality, poetically expanding our…
University Open Air: Dream Language School. Dreams: The X-rays of the Soul
Join Alisa Minyukova of the Dream Mapping Project for a communal dream sharing session in preparation for the publication of the "The Brooklyn Dream Handbook", A zine dedicated to the exploration of the symbols, archetypes and parabolic’s of Brooklyn’s diverse community. Through dream sharing we…
University Open Air: Conferencia: Mapa Sonoro de la Música Salsa en Nueva York. En Español
La lectura se realizará en español como un homenaje a todxs lxs inmigrantes afrocaribeñxs que llegaron a Nueva York en los años cuarenta y que, con su cultura y nostalgia por su tierra, crearon la música Salsa. Los participantes en esta conferencia recibirán el magazín Sursystem 08 en español, y…
University Open Air: Pair Tea with Seasons
In traditional Chinese herbal medicine theories, summer is when people get weaker due to the excessive body water loss. Based on the same theories, our organs have more burdens in the summer because people tend to consume more iced or chilled foods and drinks. Therefore, the beginning of…
University Open Air: Technical Drawing Exercises for Beginners
In this course, students will gain hands-on experience in technical drawing through learning the art of manual drawing and drafting techniques.
Drawing instruments (including paper and clipboards) will be provided.
University Open Air: Tang Poetry II
Tang poetry (唐诗) refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. We are going to…
University Open Air: Daily Objects Altered
This is a sculpture workshop where we’ll reinterpret ordinary objects through sculpting and casting. We'll delve into sculptural methodologies that offer personal interpretations of the mundane aspects of our daily lives. By examining and reimagining the objects that surround us,…
University Open Air: Playwriting in a day
We should behave as if the things we see, no matter how irrelevant, are always about to tell us a secret.
Birds write messages in the sky, which we will learn to read in this workshop. To know those messages is to let ourselves be seduced by the beauty of reality, poetically expanding our…
University Open Air: Reading the Flight of Birds
We should behave as if the things we see, no matter how irrelevant, are always about to tell us a secret.
Birds write messages in the sky, which we will learn to read in this workshop. To know those messages is to let ourselves be seduced by the beauty of reality, poetically expanding our…
University Open Air: Yin Yang Life Arrangement
In Feng Shui, the Chinese art of arrangement and placement, Yin and Yang are forces that represent complete balance between masculine and feminine, light and dark, and other opposites. The goal of Feng Shui is to attract Qi (life force and energy) while avoiding Sha (negative energy). To…
University Open Air: What's in the Day-to-day?
This workshop is conversation seen through the work of female artists and writers about all that surrounds us on our day to day. We’ll talk about our approach to the expected and predictable; our home, our work, our body, our roles in life, our image, our family, our care, and how all that…
University Open Air: How to Write a Winning Proposal II
This course aims to introduce students to different types of proposals and how to write them step-by-step. You will learn how to persuade donors, sponsors, and potential collaborators by crafting a feasible and profitable proposal.
University Open Air: Five Elements
The five elements of Feng Shui are wood, fire,earth, metal, water; these elements are interrelated life phases that work together to create a complete system. Each element promotes a different energy, and you can use them to shift the energy in your space, which can affect your relationship with…
University Open Air: Save the season: about food preservation and terroir
Uncover the potential of food preservation and the use of local produce in reducing food waste. We will explore how combining seasonal and local eating with preservation techniques can effectively minimize waste while expanding your flavor palette.
This class offers a view into the…
University Open Air: Is Beauty Relevant? A Question for Artists
Beauty is a concept that is assumed to be universally intelligible, but it is seldom defined in our everyday lives. We also live in a world in which we are bombarded with images that bind the beautiful to the realm of advertising. Under capitalism, beauty is manufactured and used to sell us on…
University Open Air: Beauty and Ugliness in French and Francophone literature and the Arts
French society’s obsession with taste shows up in many areas. We will examine some laudatory and critical devices used in some emblematic works to present the concept of beauty and ugliness, starting from XVII century literature and visual arts to arrive in modern times. Works from Madame…
University Open Air: Dream Language School: Share your strangest dreams
Dreams come in many forms, from the sacred to the profane - and some go farther. Have you had a dream so impactful that it has lingers in your memory for days, months, years? The dream sharing tradition has been lost to many in our western societies, but that has not diminished the power of…
University Open Air: Making Music from our Surroundings
How can we make music drawing inspiration from our daily lives? Can we translate into sound what we observe in, for instance, a tarot card or a painting? What lies behind notes and rhythm? In the past few decades, musicians have been exploring alternative ways to compose and perform…
University Open Air: Strangeness
Strangeness is the “state of being strange”. Let’s look at how some artists represent strangeness. Nabokov’s The Gift and Marie Ndiaye’s That Time of Year, feature outsiders: respectively, a Russian exiled in Berlin and a Parisian stranded in a small town. Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s paintings…