Coming Together
A message from dean Brett Steele
Today is the first day of our spring quarter.
Typically, this is a moment of new beginnings filled with excitement and anticipation: students coming together in classrooms, labs, studios, rehearsal rooms; crowded hallways and new faces; a bustle of activity across campus as our work begins again. But this is not a typical moment and this is not the spring quarter we imagined. Campus, like our city, is quiet. Those classrooms, studios, and even our galleries and performance halls are all empty.
Nobody expected this.
But as students, artists, architects, scholars, educators, and staff, we will adapt; we will care for one another, and we will begin again.
As we begin, we need to take time to acknowledge and grieve the losses big and small—those that are personal as well as those that are societal. Our new beginning will be different. Our new normal, for now, is filled with change.
The last several weeks saw all of UCLA pivot in response to this pandemic, with the health and well-being of our community taking first priority. Our students and faculty, in the midst of final exams and presentations, transitioned to remote learning. Simultaneously, our staff shifted to remote work and—with a tremendous amount of grace—continued to steward the school’s administrative and operational functions.
I want to salute every student, faculty, and staff member for this herculean effort. I know this has not been an easy transition and has required a great deal of patience, dedication, and flexibility. Thank you.
I also want to acknowledge our broader community of parents and families, donors, partners, and friends who have supported their students and our work across the school through this transition. So many have come forward with generous offers of support, and, for that, we are humbled and grateful.
At the outset of this crisis, I established a School of the Arts and Architecture task-force, which brought together senior leadership from each of our academic departments and public arts units, to work alongside my senior staff and campus leadership to ensure operational continuity and stability during this time. Together, this group will help guide us forward through uncharted territory. To ensure that our community is kept abreast of available resources and developments, my office has created a COVID-19 resource page that is updated regularly. You can learn more about the campus’s response to COVID-19 here.
As this still-unfolding crisis evolves, we remain committed to the safety of our community and to clear, consistent communication.
In just a few weeks, the jacaranda trees will come into full bloom on campus. While we won’t be able to hold classes together underneath them or stroll across our sculpture garden under the splendor of their purple canopy, I know that our work as a school will not just continue, but flourish.
We are creative thinkers, makers, and problem solvers—every one of us. What we do is adapt and create. We listen closely to the world around us and then each of us begins, in our small way, to improve that world.
The very idea of teaching the arts remotely seems counterintuitive—so much of what we do at the school is in the classroom, studio, and workshop together. We need each other (now more than ever). Even though we are keeping a safe distance, we will find ways to come together. We are artists, and architects, and performers, and researchers, and scholars, and thinkers, and we need to keep moving forward. We will find new forms and new methods for making and for sharing our work.
We already are. Today, the first day of spring quarter, we are finding new ways to connect as a community in virtual classrooms, studios, and conversations, carrying forward the individual and collaborative work that we all do.
Our work will change. Ideas and projects that seemed urgent several months ago may no longer be. We will discover what the vital work is now and what our work is going to be in the future.
These possibilities excite and restore me. While this will be a difficult time of loss, uncertainty, and adjustment, it will also be filled with possibility. This is a grave moment for the world, but I know that as we approach the new beginnings that come with a new quarter and with springtime, we will together emerge from this crisis having created work we never would have otherwise imagined, having sharpened skills that otherwise would not have been tested, and having mastered new ways of making and connecting.
As we navigate the days and weeks ahead, remember to take a moment to check in on a family member, friend, or neighbor who may unknowingly be in need of support. Be kind to yourselves, your colleagues, your friends, and family. Know that while we are all safely at home, keeping distance from those familiar people, places, and activities that we cherish, we are all, each one of us, making a profound contribution that will help flatten the curve and slow the spread of this virus, safeguarding our communities and our collective well-being.
This experience that we are going through as a community will shape our future in ways unknown and, no doubt, with enduring impact.
Thank you for all you have done in this transition and for all you will do. I am grateful for your spirit, resolve, and dedication. The coming days and weeks will not be easy, but I take solace in your commitment and in our shared mission. As dean, I am honored to support you and your work in this trying moment. After all, the arts play a unique role in seeing us through challenging times. They can help each one of us and society as a whole process this experience, find comfort, and become empowered to make change. Our work is more important now than ever. The news keeps us informed; health-care workers keep us alive; but the arts provide context, meaning, and a path forward. They envision another world we can create together.
Be well,
Brett.
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