NYU folds Runway into curriculum
NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts partnered with Runway to give students credits and training on generative AI tools, formalizing those tools inside arts education. The deal suggests generative workflows are moving from experimental hacks toward standard creative training across storyboarding, concept iteration and pre‑production. (movies.mxdwn.com)
New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts is expanding a deal with Runway so more students can use generative artificial intelligence tools inside credited coursework and personal projects. (runwayml.com) Runway said on April 10 that the expanded collaboration covers the Interactive Telecommunications Program, Interactive Media Arts, and the Hyper Cinema Lab, an initiative housed within Tisch and open across New York University. Students in those programs will get access to Runway’s full tool set as they build class assignments and independent work. (runwayml.com) The arrangement builds on an earlier Tisch adoption in the Master of Professional Studies in Virtual Production program. A Tisch post from April 16, 2025 said a spring 2025 course called “Special Topics in Virtual Production” gave students Runway tools for concepting, previsualization, thesis work, and personal projects at the Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center. (tisch.nyu.edu) Tisch’s current curriculum page lists “Special Topics: Generative AI for Virtual Production” as a 3-credit course in the one-year, 36-credit master’s program. The same bulletin says the Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center opened in fall 2024. (tisch.nyu.edu) (bulletins.nyu.edu) Generative artificial intelligence tools make images or video from text prompts and edits, and schools are starting to treat them less like side software and more like production gear. Runway’s education page says its tools are already used in design and filmmaking curricula at University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Harvard, New York University, and other schools. (runwayml.com) The New York University deal also gives students something expensive in practical terms: usage credits. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Tisch students in the covered programs will receive free training and “generous if not unlimited” video-generation credits, which Runway chief executive Cristóbal Valenzuela and Tisch dean Rubén Polendo said should make artificial intelligence features easier to use in student films. (hollywoodreporter.com) Polendo told The Hollywood Reporter that Tisch is not replacing older ways of making films and still expects students to work in analogue formats when that fits the project. He said part of the school’s goal is to test “the line between human-led and machine-assisted art” while teaching students to navigate ethics around original content. (hollywoodreporter.com) The partnership also has a homecoming element for Runway. Valenzuela said in Runway’s announcement that he and his co-founders came out of the Interactive Telecommunications Program, linking the company’s classroom roots to its return as a formal teaching tool. (runwayml.com) For Tisch students, that shifts Runway from an optional app into part of the school’s training infrastructure. The next test is not whether students can access the tools, but how often they choose to use them in the work they turn in. (runwayml.com) (hollywoodreporter.com)
