Long Tone: Spring Thesis Studio, Arts Letters & Numbers

Long Tone: Spring Thesis Studio
with David Gersten
Dates: February 14 – May 2, 2025
Application Deadline: January 20, 2026

Arts Letters & Numbers presents the second twelve-week iteration of Long Tone, an intensive on-site thesis studio led by David Gersten. Following the success of its inaugural semester, the program continues Gersten’s seminal approach to education as an art form in itself, where studios become open sites of inquiry and sustained attention.
Long Tone is rooted in a pedagogical practice developed over nearly four decades of teaching at institutions including The Cooper Union, RISD, CAFA, and others worldwide. Following his departure from The Cooper Union, this long-form teaching practice now unfolds fully within the context of Arts Letters & Numbers, outside the constraints of conventional academic structures and grounded instead in open inquiry, individual creativity, and shared transformation.
The studio operates as both a physical site and a constructed situation: an atmosphere in which material, spatial, and poetic imaginations are explored as interwoven gestures of listening, making, perception, conversation, and silence. Participants engage in sustained, cross-disciplinary work shaped by deep focus, long-duration attention, and responsiveness to the urgencies of the present moment.
This kind of immersive, experimental pedagogy has always been central to the founding mission of Arts Letters & Numbers. Long Tone continues that commitment by creating the conditions for work to emerge slowly, rigorously, and with care.
For inquiries or to recommend students, please contact info@artslettersandnumbers.com