UCLA Arts Newsletter

April 12, 2017

On Jun. 3, the art department at UCLA — which houses the highest-ranked graduate art program on the West Coast — presents a one-time benefit exhibition and art sale featuring work by UCLA faculty, both current and former, and alumni to support the renovation and expansion of the UCLA Graduate Art Studios in Culver City. Contributing artists include Judy Chicago, Anne Collier, Robert Heinecken, Toba Khedoori, Barbara Kruger, Dave Muller, Catherine Opie, Lari Pittman and James Welling. The exhibition coincides with the semi-annual graduate open studios, an opportunity for the public to visit the studios of the department’s MFA students.

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Five things to see and do in and around Los Angeles this spring.

HANDPICKED BY SILKE OTTO-KNAPP, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ART


Kerry James Marshall: Mastry		Reconstitution


It is obvious from the map		PJ Harvey at the Greek Theater


Hammer Projects: Judith Hopf

A destination for the arts, UCLA Arts provides opportunities for the public to experience the full depth and diversity of UCLA Arts activities and creative programming. Don’t miss your chance to engage with the next generation of cultural leaders. See below for highlights, visit our calendar for the season’s complete listing, and subscribe to our weekly events email.


A Celebration of UCLA Dance: 1962–2017		Excellence in Teaching Artistry: An Evening with Eric Booth and Local Arts Educators


Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely		Design Media Arts Final MFA Exhibition


The LA Uprising: 25 Years Later		Graduate Open Studios + A Benefit Exhibition and Sale to Support the New Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios


RUMBLE		Concert: Aditya Prakash Ensemble

On a sunny Friday afternoon in late January several dozen Design Media Arts (DMA) students crowded outside the Broad Arts Center, reviewing their resumes and checking over their portfolios one final time before heading into interviews with industry professionals in hopes of landing a summer internship or job offer. After years of exploring media in the studio, studying history and theory in lectures, and developing personal voices and technical skills in their classes, these juniors and seniors were now presented with the opportunity to connect with potential future employers and collaborators.

Welcome to DMA Career Day.

For Ana Maria Alvarez (MFA Dance, ’05), dance is a perfect medium for community engagement and activism: “When you think about activism, you think about that idea of putting your body on the line. You're putting yourself on the line, putting your ideas and your opinions out into the world, and that’s what dance does,” she says. With her company, CONTRA-TIEMPO, Ana Maria Alvarez choreographs and tours technically rigorous and thought provoking work, develops and implements community workshops and programming, and seeks to change the way that artists exist and function within communities. Read on for excerpts of press coverage of her ambitious initiatives, and a few insights she recently shared with UCLA Arts.

On developing her own form:
“I learned very early on that I wasn’t going to be a ballet dancer because of the shape of my body, but also because of the kinds of movement I really love to do and felt inspired by. . . So I started doing modern dance and studying Katherine Dunham and learning Afro-Cuban and Afro-Haitian and Ghanaian dance. I was so inspired by dance as this form of expression for life and for culture and for what’s happening in the world.” (KPCC’s The Frame)

This year, UCLA celebrates the 55th anniversary of its dance department, which was the first in a public university. Throughout this history, UCLA has been at the forefront of the dance field, redefining trends in choreography and performance and making important contributions to the fields of dance ethnography and dance movement therapy. This month, we will celebrate this rich history and honor the women who founded the department.

In 1953, Alma Hawkins, who trained at Columbia and Teachers College in New York, was persuaded to come to UCLA to teach dance in the Department of Physical Education. She joined Pia Gilbert, Carol Scothorn, and several others in the dance unit, and found that dance was an integral part of the Physical Education major with courses in social and folk dance, modern dance, composition, music analysis, and dance history. Led by pioneering dance educator Martha Deane, UCLA had already developed a genuine commitment to dance and had even introduced opportunities for student performance.

Architecture and Urban Design Professor Hitoshi Abe to lecture in Perloff Hall.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance Professor Kyle Abraham’s company Abraham.in.Motion to perform at The Broad Stage

Department of Art Professor Jennifer Bolande exhibits installation “Visible Distance” along Gene Autry Tail in Palm Springs.

Center for Art of Performance Director Kristy Edmunds to deliver a lecture at Culture Summit Abu Dhabi.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance Professor Dan Froot was named a Knight Foundation Artist in Residence at Miami Light Project.

Architecture and Urban Design Lecturer Wonne Ickx co-curates Graham Foundation exhibition Spaces without drama or surface is an illusion, but so is depth in Chicago.

Architecture and Urban Design Professor and Director of the Critical Studies M.A. and Ph.D. program, Sylvia Lavin, curates upcoming SCI-Arc exhibition The Duck and the Document: Stories of Postmodern Procedures.

Architecture and Urban Design Distinguished Professor Thom Mayne will deliver Keynote Address at Architectural Record Innovation Conference West and a James Michelin Distinguished Visitors lecture at Caltech.

Department of Art Professor Catherine Opie and Distinguished Professor Lari Pittman are featured in group exhibition, What I Loved: Selected Works from the ‘90s.

For his Ambivalent House Jason Payne (Hirsuta), Architecture and Urban Design Associate Professor, wins the Arch Out Loud Design competition.

The work of Art Department Distinguished Professor Lari Pittman and Associate Professor Silke Otto-Knapp will be in conversation with one another for Subject, Predicate, Object exhibition.

Design Media Arts Professor Casey Reas will give a lecture at the MIT Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST) as part of the Being Material symposium.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance Distinguished Professor Peter Sellars presents performances at Princeton University and in Austria, and lectures at Peabody Dean's Symposium Series at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and UC Irvine.

Four Department of Architecture and Urban Design faculty members and one Department of Art professor emeritus were selected as participants of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) announced an exciting collaboration with The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles, for the Center’s 2017–2018 season, launching in September 2017. Conceived and curated under the direction of CAP UCLA’s Artistic & Executive Director Kristy Edmunds, the season will showcase maverick work with a downtown vibe where artists and communities can find each other.

To support the interdisciplinary inquiry and creative production of our students and faculty, the Office of the Dean is maintaining a list of scholarships, fellowships, grants, and awards open to students, faculty and alumni. Check out the latest listings and opportunities.

UCLA Arts will continue offering mindfulness sessions led by Jesse Fleming, ’16 (M.F.A. Design Media Arts) for students, faculty, and staff of the School of the Arts and Architecture.

Congratulations to 2017 UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture graduates! We invite you and your family and friends to join our faculty and staff in celebrating your academic and artistic achievements at this year's commencement ceremony, which will take place Saturday, June 17 at 4 p.m. in Dickson Court North (Perloff Quad).

Read past editions of the UCLA Arts Newsletter.

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