UCLA Arts Newsletter

January 13, 2023

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.

How can cities best manage risk and become more resilient in the face of climate change-fueled natural disasters? That question is at the heart of the global ArcDR3 research partnership, coordinated by UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design Professor Hitoshi Abe and the research team at xLAB. Now, ArcDR3 and xLAB have distilled three years of research and design into a book and exhibition that present the new paradigm of "regenerative urbanism": anticipatory urban design that prepares for inevitable disasters and creates climate-resilient environments—speculating upon new visions for cities affected by or anticipating these threats.

Natasha Sandmeier is an architect, author, and educator. She serves as an adjunct professor in UCLA’s Architecture and Urban Design Department where she leads the department’s postgraduate entertainment studio and, last summer, was named Executive Director of Los Angeles’s A+D Museum.

Check out upcoming virtual programs from across our academic departments, museums, and performing arts presenters. Find a complete list of upcoming events on the UCLA Arts online calendar.

Jan 14: Till, with Chinonye Chukwu & Robin D. G. Kelley		Jan 17: Blaise Agüera y Arcas & Lawrence Weschler
Jan 19: Hey, Can you pick me up? I'm scared. I'm at the Intersection of Art and Technology: DMA UG Exhibition 2023		Jan 21: Israel Galván & Niño de Elche: Mellizo Doble
Jan 25: UCLA AUD Winter 2023 Events: Felecia Davis, PhD		Jan 28: Opening Celebration—Amir H. Fallah: The Fallacy of Borders

In the News:   

UCLA Design Media Arts alumnus and visiting lecturer Refik Anadol has teamed up with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), to include digital artworks, titled Unsupervised, in the museum’s ground-floor Gund Lobby. “Anadol incorporates site-specific input to affect the continuously shifting imagery and sound, revealing the potential for AI technology.”		ARTnews highlights the incredible achievements of Latinx artists in 2022. From WACD professor Judy Baca’s monumental presentation of her ambitious World Wall project at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary space to UCLA Art alumnus rafa esparza’s collaboration with Image magazine and Commonwealth and Council to cultivate the Corpo RanfLA: Terra Cruiser (2022) project.
UCLA Department of Art professor emerita and American conceptual/pop artist Barbara Kruger talked with Elle about “making sense of a drastically changing world [through socio-political reflections] through her prescient work.”		UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design adjunct professor Jeffrey Inaba and his Brooklyn- and Los Angeles-based practice Inaba Williams Architecture, are among the winners of Architects Newspaper’s 2022 Best of Design Awards. Their Brooklyn Biomedical Lab notched a win in the Healthcare Interiors category. Inaba and colleagues are among 43 winners in this year’s awards series.

Announcements: 

As we start the new year, we welcome four new faculty members to the UCLA Arts community: filmmaker and multimedia artist Cauleen Smith, architect Miroslava Brooks, multidisciplinary artist Will Rawls, and interdisciplinary scholar and educator Wendy Sung. 

Berivan “Beri” Eisenhardt will join UCLA Arts as Executive Director, Development on January 17, 2023. Read the announcement.

Read past editions of the UCLA Arts Newsletter

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