Announcing the Establishment of the Polly Nooter Roberts Graduate Fellowship
Mary “Polly” Nooter Roberts, who passed away on September 11, 2018, was one of the world’s foremost scholars of African arts. She was a beloved professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, consulting curator of African arts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and served as chief curator and deputy director of the UCLA Fowler Museum from 1999 through 2009. Polly helped found the Center/Museum for African Art in 1984, where she served as senior curator through 1994. Over the years, her exhibitions, books, and teaching concerned Humanities themes such as secrecy, memory, time, and the empowerment of women. Polly held a Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University and a B.A. in Philosophy and French Literature from Scripps College.
Polly’s influence was deeply felt in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. She served as a mentor to a great many students interested in arts theories and practices, inspiring them to question their own identities even as they explored arts of societies throughout the world. Through her museum work, Polly reached out to many communities across the United States and around the world. She was decorated by the Republic of France for her service to francophone Africa, recognized through the lifetime Leadership Award of the Arts Council of the US African Studies Association, and as a Dai Sensei/Master Teacher to the Ethnic Arts Council of Los Angeles. As the latter award statement read, through Polly’s “remarkable teaching and speaking skills… the more we learned the more excited we became; the more we sought, the more she gave.”
The Polly Nooter Roberts Graduate Fellowship will honor her enduring legacy at UCLA through summer awards to graduate students in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. Priority will be given to those in their first year of study who are interested in museums as “contact zones,” African and African diaspora arts, and/or arts and cultures around the world.
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