Dean’s 2023 winter quarter message
At the beginning of every calendar year, many of us pause to reflect and consider the changes we’d like to see in the year ahead. Personal resolutions to take better care of ourselves or improve how we live in community with others fill our minds. At the same time, we acknowledge that every year brings unforeseen circumstances beyond our control (our recent torrential rains and flooding bring these to mind). The challenge is figuring out how to navigate through a year that is in constant flux.
As I take stock, I’d like to start off by acknowledging the challenges we all faced this fall quarter and expressing my gratitude for your hard work and patience through those difficulties. Our community was part of a historic labor strike that secured UC graduate student workers a new labor agreement with significant improvements to their salaries and working conditions. Our academic student employees and graduate student researchers are critical to the work of our school, and we could not function without their important contributions. I’m so pleased that we are commencing the winter quarter with this labor action successfully resolved and commend our entire community for the support, perseverance, and accommodations we summoned during this period.
There are some exciting changes and transitions afoot at the school and several new faculty members to welcome as we kick off the new year. The Fowler’s new director, Silvia Forni, has officially begun her role of reimagining the museum while continuing the exhibitions and programming that have established it as a cultural gem in Los Angeles. The Hammer is nearing completion on its transformative 20-year expansion and renovation, with a new, more visible entrance on the corner of Wilshire and Westwood boulevards, an outdoor sculpture terrace, and new gallery space that will welcome the public on March 26. And UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance is well on its way to choosing a new director to carry forward its mission of cultural exchange through the presentation of extraordinary live performance, while preparing for the opening this fall of its new state-of-the-art performance space, the UCLA Nimoy Theater.
We are fortunate to work and learn alongside our distinguished faculty who rank among the most accomplished artists, architects, choreographers, curators, dancers, designers, performers, ethnographers, and scholars of our time. I am honored to officially welcome four new faculty members to our school: filmmaker and multimedia artist Cauleen Smith has joined the department of art as professor; architect Miroslava Brooks has joined the department of architecture and urban design as assistant professor, and Will Rawls has joined the department of world arts and cultures/dance as associate professor. I would also like to welcome interdisciplinary scholar and educator Wendy Sung to the department of world arts and cultures/dance. While Wendy’s appointment as an assistant professor came through in 2021, it is only this past fall that she began teaching. I look forward to the important contributions that I know they will each make to the UCLA Arts community.
As 2023 gets underway, the world in many ways feels the same as 2022: COVID is still with us, climate change is announcing itself in unprecedented weather events, and inflation is still making it challenging to make ends meet. It’s easy to feel powerless, exhausted, and overwhelmed by the relentlessness of the challenges we face. And yet, a new year also brings with it a renewed sense of possibility and hope. With a new start comes the potential for finding new solutions and new ways to meaningfully engage with our communities.
As we begin anew this quarter, I invite all of us to to proactively engage with our communities. We are all in this together. There is support and promise in what we do. This is why the work of our school, why your work, is so critical. Now, more than ever, we all need to take on the tasks and challenges of tomorrow, push the boundaries of creative practice, and channel our collective experience into work that inspires others to feel hope and pursue transformative change.
This kind of engagement of transformative change chart the way forward.
Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year and a productive quarter.
Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.
