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UCLA Arts History
The establishment of an art gallery and a music department in 1919 demonstrated an early commitment by UCLA’s leadership to offer students opportunities to explore the arts in the context of a budding research university. In 1939 the College of Applied Arts was founded with the addition of a Department of Art. The College of Fine Arts was established in 1960, with degrees available in art, dance, music, and theater arts. Today, UCLA has an outstanding reputation as the flagship arts campus of the University of California system.
Following academic restructuring in the late 1980s, the UC Regents formally approved the establishment of two schools: the School of the Arts and the School of Theater, Film and Television. In 1994 architecture and urban design joined the School of the Arts, which became the School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLA Arts). Today, UCLA Arts is comprised of six degree-granting departments: Architecture and Urban Design, Art, Design | Media Arts, Ethnomusicology, Music, and World Arts and Cultures. Our three internationally acclaimed public arts units are the Hammer Museum, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and a major performing arts program, UCLA Live. The School also features the Art | Global Health Center, the Art | Sci Center, the Center for Intercultural Performance, the Experiential Technologies Center, and the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts.
Below is a timeline noting selected milestones for the arts at UCLA.
1907
- California State Normal School — also known as Teachers College — the predecessor of UCLA, operates University Gallery. Course offerings include art and music.
1919
- University of California establishes its southern branch in Los Angeles . The Vermont Avenue campus includes an art gallery and the Department of Art in the Teachers College. The Department of Music is established.
1926
- The new campus site in Westwood is dedicated.
1927
- The Regents adopt a name: University of California at Los Angeles .
1929
1936
- UCLA Center for the Performing Arts is established.
1939
- The College of Applied Arts opens, with Frederick W. Cozens as dean, as a restructuring of the former Teachers College. Degrees offered include Bachelor of Arts in art, music, and physical education (which includes courses in dance). No advanced degrees are available. The Department of Art is established.
1942
- John F. Bovard is appointed dean of the College of Applied Arts.
1947
- David F. Jackey is appointed dean of the College of Applied Arts.
1953
- UCLA Art Galleries are established for display of fine art in the Art Building (now known as Perloff Hall).
1955
- The Music Building (now called Schoenberg Music Building ) is erected, containing classrooms, practice rooms, a music library, faculty and administrative offices, and two new concert facilities.
1956
- The Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation is established with a gift of 5,000 prints from Fred Grunwald.
1960
- UCLA Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy establishes the College of Fine Arts with degrees available in art, dance, music, and theater arts. A Bachelor of Science degree in business education is also provided. Initial emphasis is on undergraduate liberal education. William W. Melnitz is appointed dean.
- The Institute of Ethnomusicology is established to foster research and dissemination of information about the traditional, folk, and popular music of the world.
1962
- UCLA Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy establishes the UCLA Student Committee for the Arts (SCA), composed of graduate and undergraduate students, to encourage student awareness and participation in the arts at UCLA.
- The dance program is removed from the physical education curriculum and established as a separate department in the College of Fine Arts .
1963
- The UCLA Museum of Cultural History (renamed UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in 1992) is founded.
1965
- Dickson Art Center is completed. The complex includes the UCLA Art Galleries and the Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation.
1968
- The sculpture garden is formally dedicated as the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, in honor of the retiring UCLA chancellor.
- Charles Speroni is appointed dean of the College of Fine Arts.
- The Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning (GSAUP) is launched. The school contained three separate programs: architecture, urban design, and urban planning. Harvey S. Perloff was named dean of the school.
1969
- Design for Sharing is established as the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts' community outreach program.
1972
- The UCLA world arts and cultures program is established for interdisciplinary study of art as an expression of contemporary, ethnic, and non-Western cultures.
1974
- UCLA Art Galleries is renamed the Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery , in honor of the former Art Department chair, and Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation is renamed the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts.
1980
- Robert H. Gray is named dean of the College of Fine Arts .
1981
- The 133-seat theater in Schoenberg is dedicated as the Popper Theater, in honor of Dr. Jan Popper, former chair of the Department of Music and director of UCLA Opera Theater.
1984
- UCLA hosts the Olympic Arts Festival on campus.
1987-89
- The College of Fine Arts undergoes academic restructuring. Separate departments are established for art and design (formerly one department); music and ethnomusicology and systematic musicology (formerly one department). Art history and musicology move to the College of Letters and Science.
1990-91
- The Regents of the University of California approve the establishment of the School of the Arts and the School of Theater, Film and Television. Gilbert Cates is named founding dean of the School of Theater, Film and Television. Robert Blocker is named founding dean of the School of the Arts.
1992
- The Center for the Performing Arts and the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts become public arts programs of the School of the Arts.
1992-3
- The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History opens in a new facility on campus made possible through the generous support of the Francis E. Fowler, Jr. Foundation, the Ahmanson Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Trust, Jerome L. Joss, Dr. Robert and Mrs. Helen Kuhn, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lenart, and Mrs. Herbert Lucas, Jr. The museum officially joins the School of the Arts.
1992
- The Center for the Performing Arts and the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts become public arts programs of the School of the Arts.
1994
- UCLA assumes management of the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center. The exhibition programs of the Wight Art Gallery and the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts are moved to the Hammer.
- In a campus restructuring, the architecture and urban design program in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning merges with the School of the Arts, which becomes the new School of the Arts and Architecture. Urban planning moves to the School of Public Policy and Social Research, now the School of Public Affairs.
- In 1957 the Regents authorize funds for the establishment of a school of architecture and urban planning on the Los Angeles campus.
- In 1968 the School of Architecture and Urban Planning is initiated. The school contained three separate programs: architecture, urban design, and urban planning. Harvey S. Perloff was named dean of the school. In 1981 it is renamed the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
- The Henry Mancini Tribute raises $2.1 million to benefit the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.
1995
- The Board of Visitors is established at the School of the Arts and Architecture with Daniel N. Belin, Eli Broad, and Harold M. Williams serving as co-chairs. Williams continues as the current chairman.
- The New Wight Gallery and exhibition program are established in the former Wight Art Gallery spaces.
- The Department of World Arts and Cultures is founded through a merger of the former dance department and the world arts and cultures program. The Center for Intercultural Performance is established.
1996
- Daniel Neuman is appointed dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture.
- The Center for Digital Arts opens.
1997
- The Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation gives an unprecedented $1 million for music outreach and music performance programs.
- The Pew Charitable Trusts give a $1.475 million gift to the Center for Intercultural Performance for the UCLA National Dance/Media Project.
1998
- The gala reopening of Royce Hall, closed since 1994 due to earthquake damage, raises $1.5 million to benefit the School of the Arts and Architecture and UCLA Performing Arts (formerly the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts and now known as UCLA Live).
1999
- Glorya Kaufman donates $18 million toward the renovation of the historic Dance Building, to be renamed Glorya Kaufman Hall (opening in fall 2005). The donation marks the largest gift to the arts in UC history to date and the first core academic building on campus to be renamed for a woman.
2000
- The Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation gives an additional $1.75 million for music outreach and music performance programs.
- Eli and Edythe Broad donate $23.2 million toward the creation of the new Eli and Edythe Broad Center (opening in 2006), which will house the Department of Art, the Department of Design | Media Arts, the New Wight Gallery, and the Dean's Office.
2002
- Daniel Neuman is appointed executive vice chancellor of UCLA. Christopher Waterman, chair of the Department of World Arts and Cultures, is named the acting dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture.
2003
- Christopher Waterman is appointed dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture.
2005
- Glorya Kaufman Hall reopens.
2006
- The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center opens.
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