The Duffy Family Donates $1 Million to NYSID in Support of Non-European Study Abroad, Establishing the Anne K. Duffy Travel Fund

Anne and John Duffy in Scotland, 1992

NYSID Alumna Anne Duffy ’92 (BFA), who passed away last February, and her husband, John Duffy, have made a pledge of a million-dollar donation to the New York School of Interior Design. The funds will go toward the Anne K. Duffy Travel Fund, which will provide scholarships and travel grants that enable NYSID students to travel to Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Mr. Duffy is honoring his wife’s memory by executing a plan they made together to give back to her alma mater. He says, “All travel is eye-opening, but the opportunity to travel to Asia, Africa, and Latin America from the United States is not something everyone gets to do in a lifetime. Anne and I were interested in giving students something that might have been out of their reach and helping them to become well-rounded people.” 

Anne Duffy enrolled in NYSID’s BFA in her late 40s, after raising her two children, Hillary and Kevin. Says her husband, “Anne attended Finch College when she was young, but when she attended NYSID it was different. She approached her studies in design with a fire I had never seen before.” Adds Hilary Duffy, her daughter, “Mom was passionate about NYSID because she went back to school after being a stay-at-home mother. It was her opportunity to thrive in a field she loved, and Dad encouraged her. She had friends who were 15 years her junior at NYSID, but they valued her because she brought maturity and experience. She was a collector of art and antiques, and she knew a lot about the field. NYSID gave her a renewed sense of purpose and an academic goal she was determined to achieve. She delighted in forming bonds with fellow students and teaching artists like Bill Engel. The knowledge she obtained from her favorite lighting class amazed us.” 

John and Anne Duffy traveled the world together, with an eye to design and architecture. They visited Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, Vietnam, Burma, India, Peru and many other countries, often with experts on art history and architecture. Travel became part of the culture of their family, and a way of being they have passed to their children. Hilary Duffy, an international photographer and trip leader who is fluent in Spanish from her years abroad in Costa Rica, notes that Anne would often find a way to communicate with local women about their traditions of weaving and making.  She says, “My parents encouraged me to travel and immerse myself in other cultures. They understood it enriches you; it widens your perspective, not just in terms of design, but also in terms of economic and societal understanding. It creates a more open-minded and adaptive individual.” Adds John, “You learn more when you travel to cultures very far from the one you live in. We wanted to give other people this rare and eye-opening chance.”  

The funds will be applied in a number of ways. NYSID offers two-week study-abroad courses in destinations around the world, the next of which will be a December trip through five cities in India (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, and Mumbai) led by famed Indian architect and sustainability expert, Yatin Pandya and his niece, NYSID instructor Seema Pandya. Some of the funds will support scholarships and travel grants for these types of concentrated study abroad courses. NYSID’s Office of Academic Affairs is also exploring instructor-led journeys to design fairs, a new form of travel-study. There will also be opportunities for independent study in the form of the Anne K. Duffy Travel Prize, a chance for current students to write a proposal for a travel grant that will be judged by faculty and awarded each year. Twenty thousand dollars in study abroad grants and scholarships will be dispersed to NYSID students in the first year of the fund. 

Twenty to twenty-five percent of NYSID students are on some form of financial assistance each year. Says NYSID President David Sprouls, “At NYSID, we believe study abroad in other cultures is an essential part of design education. We want to create a truly equitable environment at the College, and that can only happen when all our students have access to the breadth of offerings NYSID has to offer, including travel study. The Duffy donation will help us ensure that all our students get equitable educational opportunities and the chance to become citizens of the world.”  The funds will be applied to tuition for study abroad courses as well as travel grants that help cover out-of-pocket costs (such as airfare and accommodations), which are often barriers to students' participation. Adds President Sprouls, “We are so grateful for this donation, which will have such a direct impact on our students.”