•  Academia (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαδημία), originally a public garden or grove in the suburbs of Athens, was founded by Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) in ca. 387 BC in Athens. Academia was not a school or college in the modern sense but rather an informal association of people, who were interested in studying with Plato as their guide. Festivals were held there, as were athletic events in which runners would races between the altars, and funeral games also took place at Academia.
  
• Paracademia (pronounced parakademya) was founded in 2015 in Harlem, NY by the a composer, educator and performance artist and  Juilliard faculty Milica Paranosic. Paracademia is not a school or college in the traditional sense but rather an informal association of people interested in fostering artistic growth and sharing under Paranosic’s mentorship. Festivals, workshops, social events and concerts regularly take place at Paracademia.
  
• The “para-" comes straight from the Greek - a prefix with many meanings, including: alongside of, beside, near, resembling, beyond and apart from. It is also the first part of our founder’s Milica Paranosic last name.

 When she was 4 years old, our founder Milica Paranosic discovered interdisciplinary creation and performance, in Belgrade, then Yugoslavia. 

She immigrated to New York in 1995 to begin a life as an interdisciplinary artist, composer, producer and educator.

Today, she embraces the opportunity to provide the tools she learned to be useful in enjoying a life as a successful, fulfilled artist and citizen.

For more information, visit Milica's website

 As children, we all create art. We sing and dance together, we build sand castles, we make up stories and draw landscapes on the walls of our rooms. Then somehow, life teaches us to become ‘serious’, get a ‘real’ profession and stop ‘plying around’ and the links to our inner artists brake. 

At Paracademia, we keep those links alive and awake them if they fall asleep. 

Paracademia is committed to nurturing and revitalizing our artistic predispositions through the community efforts and collaborative productions, performances and education.

We particularly support immigrants, women and youth, by providing education, performance and professional opportunities.