Spring 2026 Message from Interim Dean Lionel Popkin
Spring has arrived, and with it the final stretch of another academic year. Across campus, days are getting longer, jacarandas are blooming, and students are deep in the work of finishing what they started—completing projects and papers, mounting exhibitions, rehearsing performances, and, for those graduating this year, preparing for commencement on June 13.
Each time I sit down to write a quarterly message, the weight of the world is hard to ignore: a new war, mounting economic anxiety, the steady accumulation of uncertainty. But this spring, even with all of these real and enormous challenges, I find myself drawn to optimism, not the naive kind that ignores hard truths, but the kind that looks clearly at the world and still believes in what is possible. The kind that says: we are not helpless; we can share ideas; we can make things; we can make things better; we can bring greater understanding and connectivity to the world.
This pragmatic optimism is, in many ways, a defining quality of the UCLA Arts community. It takes a certain stubbornness to spend years developing a creative practice, to keep making work when the path forward is uncertain, and to believe that what you create might matter to someone you have never met. That stubbornness is a form of hope.
I am reminded of this each time I encounter someone from our community who embodies this spirit. We are fortunate that this year's commencement keynote speaker is one such person: Refik Anadol, a distinguished alumnus of our design media arts department. Refik sits at the intersection of art, data science, and artificial intelligence. He does not fear the new; he embraces it with passion and purpose, always asking how emerging technologies can deepen our humanity rather than diminish it. His presence at commencement this June will be a gift to our graduates as he is a living example of what it looks like to meet the future with curiosity, rigor, healthy skepticism, and optimism.
This spirit pervades our school and community. In late March, I had the privilege of joining deans from arts programs across the University of California for a panel discussion at the Sausalito Center for the Arts, held in conjunction with the exhibition Open Inquiry: UC Arts. Co-curated by UCLA Arts board member and alum Jennifer Wechsler, the show features work by recent alumni from UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis. Our conversation centered on the future of arts education at a time when many private art schools have closed their doors. What became clear is that UC's public mission—and the porousness between our campuses and the communities we serve—is more vital than ever. As I noted during the panel, exceptional artists want to teach, want to be part of the discourse, and want to move their fields forward. That is not the posture of a community in retreat: it is optimism in action.
As the quarter unfolds, I hope you will find opportunities to engage with the creativity and scholarship of our community:
On April 12, the Fowler Museum opens Mountain Spirits: Rice and Indigeneity in the Northern Luzon Highlands, Philippines, an exhibition that explores how the Ifugao people have shaped sacred landscapes through ritual, community, and a profound connection to land. The Hammer Museum has just opened Several Eternities in a Day, an exhibition of twenty-two artists from across the Americas working with living materials rooted in Indigenous knowledge. CAP UCLA's spring programming continues to challenge and inspire with highlights that include Grammy-nominated vocalist Luciana Souza and guitarist Marcel Camargo performing intimate Brazilian jazz, and a spirited performance by Ain Gordon and Josh Quillen whose Relics and Their Humans moves between music, theater, and deeply personal storytelling. And across the school, our students are presenting culminating projects and final exhibitions that represent years of dedication and growth—and perhaps the most compelling reason of all for optimism.
If you haven't yet checked out the terrific collection of student work on display in the dean's office on the 8th floor of Broad Art Center, I encourage you to do so before it closes on May 29. This exhibition was conceived not merely as a showcase, but as a way to open the dean's office to students in our school. It has been a joy to share that space with the work on display.
Whatever this spring holds for you, I hope you will carry with you a measure of curiosity and optimism: a belief that making things matters and that the future is not yet written.
I look forward to seeing many of you in the weeks ahead.
With gratitude,
Lionel Popkin
Interim Dean, UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture
Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.
