UCLA Arts Newsletter
September 25, 2018
How do we return?
A year ago, I was asking how we begin.
I was beginning. Many of you were beginning. We were, for the first time, beginning together.
This year, I am returning; many of you are returning to start a known process anew, and to take the next iterative step forward in your lives, in your work, in your teaching, in your research, and in your creative practice and the many forms in which that takes shape.
How do we come back to our practice, to our community, to our institution with all of the promise of a brand new endeavor? How do we revisit and test—and, at times, discard—patterns and assumptions that are no longer leading us forward?
Giving community members a special opportunity to experience the conversations that drive innovation at the university, this fall the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture will present “10 Questions,” a hybrid academic course and public event series that brings together leading minds from across the university.
Beginning Oct. 2, every Tuesday for 10 weeks UCLA faculty members from disciplines as diverse as dance, medicine, photography, astrophysics, athletics, Chicana and Chicano studies, law, philosophy and religious studies will join UCLA Arts Dean Brett Steele to explore a fundamental question such as: What is space? What is failure? What is freedom?
A new platform for UCLA Arts, this initiative seeks to stimulate dialogue and exchange, and cultivate a greater understanding of the profoundly interdisciplinary nature of knowledge production in the 21st century.
Faculty participants include...
In the News 
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The Choreographer Kyle Abraham Mixes Things Up At |
Frank Gehry's Disney Hall is Technodreaming: Data Projection by UCLA Alumnus Refik Anadol |
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| In New Book, Professor Janet O'Shea Explores the Benefits of Physical Play Like Martial Arts |
Alumnus EJ Hill Stood on a Podium at the Hammer for 78 Days in a Work About Race, Art, and Winning |
Marla Berns, the Shirley & Ralph Shapiro Director of the Fowler Museum, will moderate the keynote presentation for the Striking Iron Symposium. Celebrating the Fowler’s acclaimed exhibition, this two-part symposium explores iron in the context of its history, spiritual potencies, cultural roles and meanings, and artistic possibilities in Africa and its Diasporas. Berns curated the exhibition with World Arts and Cultures/Dance Professor Allen Roberts. The curators also coauthored the exhibition catalog (forthcoming, end of 2018). More info…
Art Professor Jennifer Bolande presents a solo exhibition titled, The Composition of Decomposition, at Pio Picos Projects in Los Angeles. The show includes photographs, sculpture, and the debut of her film of the same name and examines how truth is conditioned by the frameworks through which it is received; how meaning shifts and transmogrifies in the passage from one material or context to another, from “news” to history. More info…
Architecture and Urban Design Professor Dana Cuff will be presenting at The Atlantic’s Sustainability Summit in October. This event brings stakeholders and leaders across industries together to explore the makings of a sustainable world. More info…
Design Media Arts Assistant Professor Isla Hansen presents Aeromorphiscope, a new interactive sculpture commissioned by the Akron Art Museum in Ohio for its group exhibition titled, Planes, Trains & Automobiles. More info…
Design Media Arts Professor Erkki Huhtamo has lent pieces from his extensive media archaeological collection to the Los Angeles County Museum to be shown in their exhibition, 3D: Double Vision, which is the first American exhibition to survey a full range of artworks, dating from 1838 to the present, that produce the illusion of three dimensions. Huhtamo also contributed an essay to the exhibition catalog. More info…
Mary “Polly” Nooter Roberts, UCLA professor of world arts and cultures/dance, died peacefully in her sleep at home on Tuesday, Sept. 11. She was 59, and had been living with stage four metastatic breast cancer for more than eight years.
Roberts was trained as an art historian and became one of the world’s foremost scholars of African arts. She focused her research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she undertook long-term dissertation research among Luba peoples, and in Senegal, where she conducted field research on the arts of a local Sufi movement called the Mouride Way.
Roberts studied the philosophical underpinnings of African visual and performance-based arts and was celebrated for her sensitive and innovative translation of cultural experience into museum exhibitions. She authored or co-authored 15 books; more than 100 scholarly articles published in noted books, academic journals, and online; countless brief entries in exhibition catalogues and encyclopedias. She also presented hundreds of keynotes, panel presentations and museum talks. Through courses like “Curating Cultures,” “World Arts/Local Lives,” and “Arts of Memory,” she brought her wealth of experience to UCLA undergraduate and graduate students.
On Wednesday, Oct. 3, we hope you will join us for The Opening 2018–19, the School of the Arts and Architecture’s annual school-wide celebration open to all students, faculty, and staff. We look forward to kicking off the academic year with DJ sets, games, art, performance, food, drink, giveaways, and fun—featuring programming created by our very own students, faculty, and alumni. RSVP here.
Fall Public Events Calendar
The UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture will present more than 150 public events this fall. Featured in exhibitions, lectures, screenings, and performances are artists, designers, architects, dancers, writers, musicians, policymakers, and cultural critics whose diverse work and perspectives will enliven the campus—and the city—and will offer insight and context for our current cultural climate. Many of the events are free, thanks to the support of donors, and all are open to the public. More info...
Attention Prospective Students!
This fall, there are several admissions events that provide the opportunity to find out if UCLA Arts is the right fit for you. On October 13, join us for the UCLA Fall Open House, a campus-wide event featuring tours, information sessions, and more. UCLA Arts admissions officers will also be traveling to the Bay Area to host information sessions in San Jose and Emeryville on October 19 and 20, respectively. Check out these events and more here.
Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.
