Home > News > UCLA's World Arts and Cultures Department Receives $500,000 Bequest to Establish the Alma M. Hawkins Memorial Chair

UCLA's World Arts and Cultures Department Receives $500,000 Bequest to Establish the Alma M. Hawkins Memorial Chair

Carolyn Campbell (ccampbel@arts.ucla.edu) (310) 825-6540
For Immediate Use Friday, June 01, 2001.

The Department of World Arts and Cultures in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture has received a bequest of $500,000 from the estate of Alma Hawkins. The gift, which was announced by Daniel Neuman, dean of the School, will establish the Alma M. Hawkins Memorial Chair in support of graduate dance faculty and related studies.

“Alma Hawkins was a pioneer in modern dance education and transformed dance in higher education at the national level,” Neuman said. “She positively influenced the experience of countless students. This generous bequest will allow us to continue in her tradition of excellence.”

Hawkins came to UCLA in 1953 as chair of the dance program. In 1962 she founded the UCLA Dance Department, the first university-based department of its kind in the United States. Through her visionary leadership, she helped the dance program become an integral part of the arts at UCLA. She developed the interdisciplinary ethnic arts program, which was the predecessor to the world arts and cultures program. In 1995 that program merged with dance to create today’s Department of World Arts and Cultures (WAC).

“Support for faculty appointments is vital in maintaining the integrity of our curriculum,” said Christopher Waterman, chair of the department. “This fund will enable WAC to expand the extraordinary educational opportunities we offer our students, and will serve as a lasting tribute to Alma Hawkins.”

Led by an interdisciplinary faculty of artists, dance scholars and ethnographers, World Arts and Cultures is organized around two fundamental missions: the generation of critical and comparative insights into the nature of human creativity and the relationship between art and cultural identity; and the creation, study and critique of dance and other body-based modes of performance.

Contact: Carolyn Campbell
Phone: (310) 825-6540
Email: ccampbel@arts.ucla.edu