A week ago Nancy Barton, the head of the art department at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development got an unexpected call from the office of Madame Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. France’s first lady wanted to inform Barton that, as part of an initiative to link New York arts schools with their Parisian counterparts, her foundation was interested in sponsoring a new student-exchange program between the Sorbonne and the Steinhardt, to start in the fall. Yesterday, Bruni-Sarkozy visited NYU to seal the arrangement, arriving with the head-turning impact that only a former supermodel with a secret-service retinue can command. 

Her stopover was part of a whirlwind day touring the New York schools that the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation is partnering with for its multimillion-dollar venture to send 25 students from each country for schooling overseas. (The other U.S. institutions are Columbia, Julliard, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the School of Visual Arts, and the School of the International Center of Photography.) Appearing at the university at 4:30 p.m., she addressed a small group of NYU and Sorbonne faculty (including Sorbonne art program director Yann Toma) in Barton's office — "I always hang out with artists," she said — before taking a tour of the computer lounge, three student studios, and LyleAshton Harris' "Advanced Projects in Art and Media" class.      

Harris, whose work has been exhibited at the Whitney and the Guggenheim, had his students put on a series of short performances to explore human habits as they related to various layers of identity, gender, age, and ethnicity. One student, Christina Thomopoulos, asked the class to close their eyes and meditate. Bruni-Sarkozy — and a surprising number of her secret-service agents — complied. Thomopoulos then left the class and returned with several cameras draped around her neck, taking pictures of her classmates, the first lady, her security detail. She positioned the piece as a commentary on the erosion of private moments in the digital-image age."It was a performance I had in mind for a while, but I knew this was happening and this audience couldn't be better for it," Thomopoulos told ARTINFO.

A champagne reception followed the class, after which Bruni-Sarkozy visited the school's Rosenberg Gallery for "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board," a senior thesis group show. Before heading out into the rain, the first lady took a few minutes to speak to ARTINFO about her decision to work with NYU. "We just wanted to choose a connection and a place, you know?" she said. "I'm a musician, so it's nothing personal. It's just a general interest, a curiosity." And while she's yet to see the work of the Sorbonne students, she said she'd heard good things. 

Asked about the recent resurgence of contemporary art in Paris — highlights this month being Cy Twombly's new ceiling at the Louvre and the Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne retrospective at Les Arts Décoratifs — she noted that it appeared to be a global phenomenon. "It is exciting and très universal," she said, adding that she hoped the new exchange would help interest in her country's arts "increase a lot."

"I feel like it could work, instinctively," Bruni-Sarkozy said. "Maybe I'm wrong. We'll see what happens." Looking around the assembled onlookers sipping champagne, she said, "I wish I could stay for another glass." But, as if on cue, her entourage suddenly whisked her out the door, on her way to Washington and dinner with the Obamas.