Dr. John Vance Gilbert has sometimes been described as the architect of a new type of performing arts department at the college level that was grounded in technology as supportive of all aspects of arts making. He was appointed in 1968 to create the documents and structure for a Department of Music and the Performing Arts in the Steinhardt School at New York University. He spend five decades developing new programs that culminated in an experimental multimedia workshop known as IMPACT. He was the first to put a music department on the newly developing Internet in the '90s. He was a leader in distant arts collaboration, having played a role in the performance of Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Hope, an interactive performance between the University of California at Irvine and New York University. This Internet2 production was the first to respond to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.