Works In Progress

UCLA Arts alumnus, artist, and filmmaker Zach Blas joins the podcast to discuss his upbringing in Point Pleasant, West Virginia; his initial interests in film and what ultimately inspired his passion for art and technology; his life-saving experience as a Tori Amos groupie; and his current work and contribution to the exhibition Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film at LACMA, party of Getty's region-wide initiative PST ART: Art & Science Collide.

UCLA Arts alumna and lecturer Davida Persaud joins the podcast to discuss her passion for community-based work, activism, and the arts; her experience in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance Ph.D. program; and the origin and future of MuralColors, a company she co-founded that produces, preserves, and restores public artworks.

UCLA Arts alumnus and artist Amir H. Fallah M.F.A. ‘05 joins Works In Progress to discuss his initial interests in art, skateboarding, and graffiti; how he has time after time had to sink or swim; the ups and downs of being an independent magazine publisher; and the therapeutic power of his 2023 Fowler Museum exhibition, The Fallacy of Borders.

UCLA Arts alumnus and Detroit-based artist and professor Osman Khan M.F.A. ‘04 joins "Works In Progress" to discuss his remarkable journey from the tech world to the art field, how he arrived at UCLA, the inspirations behind his provocative and poignant work, and his upcoming solo exhibition at MASS MoCA, Road to Hybridabad.

UCLA Arts alumna, emerging researcher, and education evaluation specialist Lindsey Kunisaki ‘15 joins "Works In Progress" to discuss what initially drew her to the arts, what she gained from her time in UCLA's Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) program, the importance of culturally sustaining pedagogy, and California Proposition 28, the largest investment in arts and music in our nation's history.

UCLA Arts alumni and active practitioners Dami Olufowoshe M.Arch. ‘16 and Katie Chuh M.Arch. ‘16 join "Works In Progress" to discuss what initially drew them to architecture, what they gained from their time at UCLA, how they have adapted to rapidly evolving technology, and any advice they can provide to aspiring architects.

Dancers and UCLA Arts alumni Jackie Lopez ‘04, Harry Weston ‘12, and Alli Gray ‘10 join "Works In Progress" to discuss what initially drew them to Hip Hop; what they gained from their time at UCLA; the history and future of Versa-Style Dance Company, a non-profit organization and dance ensemble; and any advice they can provide to aspiring dancers.

Artists Jackie Amézquita M.F.A. ‘22 and Roksana Pirouzmand M.F.A. ‘22 both currently have work on view at the Hammer Museum at UCLA's biennial "Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living." For the first episode of the new season, the UCLA Arts alumnae join "Works In Progress" to discuss what originally drew them to art, their work in the show, what they gained from their graduate studies at UCLA, and what it's like to be a working artist in Los Angeles.

Design media arts students worked alongside environmental science students this spring to create design and art projects that draw attention to climate change and ecological inequality. Professor and department chair Rebeca Méndez led the “Introduction to Ecological Art and Justice” class this quarter, the final part of a three-quarter sequence, and joined several students to discuss design's ability to change minds and spur action.

Native American Indigenous artist and UCLA alumna Mercedes Dorame will deliver the keynote address at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture's 2022 commencement on Saturday, June 11th at 4 p.m. This will be the first commencement ceremony to be held in-person since 2019. Dorame spoke to the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress about how her Tongva heritage informs her practice, which encompasses photography, sculptural installations, and sound art.

The Fowler Museum exhibition Aboriginal Screen-Printed Textiles from Australia's Top End invites us to explore more than 70 distinctive, screen-printed textiles made by contemporary artists at five Aboriginal-owned art centers across northern Australia. These textiles combine traditional cultural knowledge with contemporary production techniques to produce dazzling, unique fabrics. Their bold colors and striking patterns have inspired interior design, furnishings, and fashion apparel.  Joanna Barrkman, Senior Curator of Southeast Asian and Pacific Arts at the Fowler Museum, joins the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress to share stories about the artists and inspirations behind these textiles, on view at the Fowler through July 10.  

This winter quarter, design media arts students researched Los Angeles and its ecologies through the lens of climate change. Department of Design Media Arts professor and vice chair Peter Lunenfeld emphasized the importance of design research in the hybrid seminar/studio course “Introduction to Ecological Art and Justice,” part of a three-quarter sequence. Students conducted original research in order to think through historical and on-going issues of environmental racism in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.

Dance Camera West, the world-renowned dance film festival, marks its 20th anniversary this year. From March 24-April 2, the festival will screen the top films selected from a record of over 400 submissions from around the world, in a live in-person event at two Los Angeles venues.UCLA professors of choreography Lionel Popkin and David Roussève, who are board members of Dance Camera West, and the festival's executive and artistic director Kelly Hargraves join the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress" for a conversation about the festival and the evolution of dance on film.

Classes rooted in AEDI – anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion – are being taught across the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. This winter quarter, two undergraduate Art studio classes – painting and new genres – are being taught as AEDI-themed courses. On this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress," we spoke to faculty members Patty Wickman and Vishal Jugdeo as well as students about this shift and how students are responding in the classroom.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance will present award-winning choreographer Ronald K. Brown and his company EVIDENCE's newest dance work, The Equality of Night and Day: First Glimpse, at Royce Hall on Saturday, March 5. The work features recordings from UCLA distinguished professor emerita Angela Davis's speeches. CAP UCLA is highlighting the activist and educator's legacy with a special exhibition drawn from UCLA Library Special Collections.

Edgar Arceneaux is an artist-in-residence at UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance, where he is developing his work-in-progress "Boney Manilli," a live performance, exhibition, and single-channel film. On the latest episode of "Works In Progress," Arceneaux discusses his inspirations for the work, from 70's disco group Boney M. and 90's pop duo Milli Vanilli, to losing his mother to dementia. He also discusses his extensive research process, working on themes across an array of media, and seeking out artistic subjects that have “a level of unsettledness.” 

At just 16 years old, Jimmy Wu committed a crime that led to 13 ½ years of incarceration. In a Los Angeles juvenile detention facility, IOW introduced him to creative writing. He now runs the organization and is an advocate for juvenile justice reform. This quarter, Wu is teaching a class at UCLA through the Visual and Performing Arts Education program (VAPAE) called “Arts Programs in Correctional Institutions.”

A cultural and economic corridor that's central to Southern California's Black community is getting a new look. Destination Crenshaw is a $100 million revitalization project that will bring public art, pocket parks and small business investment to 1.3 miles of Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles.Helping bring this project to life? UCLA faculty and alumni.On this episode of "Works In Progress," hear from two UCLA scholars who are advising the project, Darnell Hunt and Marcus Hunter, and two UCLA Department of Art alumnae who are creating public artworks for it, Maren Hassinger and Brenna Youngblood.

Art and science students at UCLA want you to reconsider the human relationship with nature, even if it means shrinking you down to the size of an insect – or at least creating an immersive environment that helps shift your perspective to the scale of tiny creatures. This past fall, students from the Department of Design Media Arts (DMA) collaborated with environmental science, biology, and public policy students in the course “Introduction to Ecological Art and Justice.” The students staged an installation at Broad Art Center called “Ritual of Return,” which combined immersive video, audio, sculpture, and performance to make visitors feel fully embedded in a natural environment. Students also produced an illustrated booklet about the research and iteration that led to the final exhibition. "Works In Progress" host Avishay Artsy met with class instructor Erin Cooney, a lecturer and alumna of DMA; Leslie Foster, the TA for the class and a second-year graduate student at DMA; and Jen Hotes, an undergraduate student in the class. 

As we approach the end of 2021 and the second holiday season of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us are tired, frustrated, and impatient to see transmission rates drop and restrictions further loosened.Meanwhile, our front-line medical workers are bracing themselves for a repeat of last winter's surge in hospitalizations, driven this year by the non-vaccinated.Dr. Thahn Neville is an ICU physician, researcher, and the current medical director of UCLA's 3 Wishes Program – which fulfills end-of-life wishes for hospitalized patients and their families – and a graduate of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Her research centers on improving palliative care for patients in the critical care setting. On Monday, Nov. 29, Dr. Neville will participate in the final session of this year's UCLA Arts public discussion series "10 Questions" to discuss the question, “How do we love?”On this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress," Dr. Neville shares her thoughts on medical worker burnout, mandatory vaccinations, and politicizing the pandemic, and describes her perspective as a first-generation college student and the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants.

The composer, bandleader, and pianist Arturo O'Farrill has his hands full. The seven-time GRAMMY Award-winning jazz musician is a professor of global jazz studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where he is also the associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion.O'Farrill, the director of the renowned Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, has just released the album "...dreaming in lions...", his debut on the legendary Blue Note Records label. O'Farrill is also working to open a permanent home for his orchestra in East Harlem.On Monday, Nov. 22, O'Farrill will participate in the UCLA Arts public discussion series "10 Questions" to discuss the question, “How do we sustain?”On this episode of "Works In Progress," O'Farrill talks about the power of music to overcome divisions and distances, the backlash he's experienced for expressing his political views, and how music has allowed him to give back to the community.

Rap and hip-hop are the most popular musical genres in the United States. At the end of 2017, Nielsen Music, which tracks music listenership, noted that the combined genre of R&B and hip-hop had surpassed rock to become the most-consumed style of music in the country. Hip-hop continues to grow and evolve, and Adam Bradley has been tracking its changes. He teaches English at UCLA and founded the Laboratory for Race and Popular Culture, known as RAP Lab. In his books, which include “Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop” and “The Anthology of Rap,” he makes the case for rap's literary merit. On Monday, Nov. 15, he'll take part in the UCLA Arts public discussion series "10 Questions" to consider the prompt, “How do we build?” On this episode of "Works In Progress," Bradley talks about hip-hop's cultural significance, the value of working in collectives, and the need to make failure more acceptable.

In July of 2020, soon after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police along with the murder of many other Black men and women, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established an anti-racist County policy agenda. They also created an executive director of racial equity position for Los Angeles County with a charge of creating a strategic plan to eliminate structural racism and bias in the county, and appointed D'Artagnan Scorza to fill that role.Scorza is a long-time justice activist who views education as a tool for civic and social empowerment. After getting a bachelor's degree in the study of religion at UCLA, he joined the Navy and served in Iraq, then returned to UCLA to get a PhD in education, while launching a nonprofit called the Social Justice Learning Institute. He served the Inglewood Unified School District as president of the Board of Education, and is the current president of the UCLA Alumni Association. He also created the Urban Scholars program to train students to be social justice youth leaders.On Monday, November 8th, he'll join the UCLA Arts public discussion series “10 Questions,” responding to the question “How do we change?” In this episode of "Works In Progress," Scorza talks about his journey of growing up in Inglewood, studying at UCLA, serving in Iraq, creating educational opportunities for underserved students, and promoting anti-racist policies at the county level.

The search engines that we use throughout the day, like Google and Yahoo, aren't just useful digital tools. They're also multi-billion dollar companies that track our browsing habits and sell that data to advertisers and marketers. They also invest heavily in developing artificial intelligence – highly complex algorithms meant to predict and manipulate our behavior. But just as humans have biases, so do the algorithms. And that has real-world implications that can lead to greater inequity, particularly against people of color and women. This is the subject of Dr. Safiya Noble's research. She's an associate professor of gender studies and African American studies, as well as founder and co-director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. Her bestselling book “Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism” helped popularize the current interest in AI bias. And she's a 2021 MacArthur “genius grant” recipient. She'll join the UCLA Arts public discussion series “10 Questions” on Monday, Nov. 1 to respond to the question “How do we fail?” In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress," Noble discusses the problems inherent to digital technologies and the collective power of individuals to change the culture of Silicon Valley.

Diane White-Clayton found her voice in the church. As a little girl in Washington DC, the church was central to her community. The classically trained singer and pianist studied music at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and at UC-Santa Barbara, where she received her masters and PhD.Music has brought her around the country and around the world, where she performs, conducts choral groups, composes original music, and leads workshops of gospel, jazz, and classical music. White-Clayton, popularly known as “Dr. Dee,” is now a lecturer in ethnomusicology at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. She also directs the African American Music Ensemble, is the Artistic Director of the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, and the Founding Director of the BYTHAX Ensemble.She'll join the UCLA Arts public discussion series “10 Questions” on Monday, October 25 to discuss the question “How do we heal?”In this episode of "Works In Progress," White-Clayton discusses her musical upbringing and the power of music to heal, uplift, and connect.

Leroy Moore is a writer, poet, community activist, and a hip-hop and music lover. He was born with cerebral palsy, and has dedicated much of his writing and activism to disability rights. He co-founded Krip-Hop Nation, a movement that uses hip-hop as a means of expression for people with disabilities.Moore is currently a doctoral student in linguistic anthropology at UCLA. He writes and delivers lectures and performances that reflect the intersections between racism and ableism, in the United States and abroad. His most recent book “Black Disabled Ancestors” came out in 2020.Moore will join the UCLA Arts public discussion series “10 Questions” on Monday, Oct. 18 to discuss the question “How do we remember?” In this interview with the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress," he reflects on his life-long activism in racial and disability justice, and how hip-hop provided a platform for that movement.

Luis Alfaro is a celebrated and award-winning artist and writer. His plays, short stories, poems, and performances are often set in barrios like the Pico-Union district of downtown Los Angeles where he grew up, and tell stories about working class people and the systems that trap them – systems of poverty, incarceration, racism and homophobia. Alfaro is a MacArthur "genius" fellow, teaches theater at the University of Southern California, and was recently named the Associate Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group.On Oct. 11, Alfaro will join the UCLA Arts series “10 Questions” to help us answer the question “how do we connect?”He joined the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress" to talk about how the movement for equity, diversity and inclusion is reshaping theater, how LA theater specifically needs to change to reflect the stories of its audiences, and how live theater will recover from the pandemic.

The arts can heal and transform us. This is something that Ping Ho has been advocating since she founded the group UCLArts & Healing in 2004. It trains artists, educators, therapists, health care professionals, and community members to use visual art, movement, music and writing, in concert with mental health practices, to build social and emotional skills and foster self-discovery. These alternative health practices have gradually become more integrated in traditional health settings, and are now increasingly viewed as important tools for preventative care and for beginning the process of addressing more serious traumas and conditions. This work combines Ping's lifelong experiences in performing arts and her graduate education in counseling psychology and public health. Ping Ho will join the UCLA Arts event series “10 Questions” on October 4th to respond to the question “How do we begin?” She joins the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress” to talk about the power of creative expression to improve social and emotional well-being. 

California Assemblymember Isaac Bryan ran in a special election earlier this year and won the California State Assembly seat representing the 54th District. The district includes a wide swath of West LA and South LA, including Westwood, Mar Vista, Culver City, Ladera Heights, View Park and Leimert Park.Prior to holding elected office, Bryan was a longtime organizer and educator, and the director of public policy at the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African-American Studies. He was also founding director of the Black Policy Project at UCLA.Bryan will be a featured panelist in the “10 Questions” public discussion series, presented by the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, responding to the question “Who are we?” on Sept. 27. For this interview for “Works In Progress,” Bryan discussed his election, his policy priorities, and the centrality of the arts in his community.

The Fowler Museum at UCLA has brought together approximately 200 objects from collections across campus for an exhibition called "The Map and the Territory: 100 Years of Collecting at UCLA." The show was set to open last spring to coincide with UCLA's Centennial, and will now open in July.Thematically linked and geographically diverse, the objects – such as a guitar made from an armadillo, a meteorite, a Star Trek manuscript, and the bodies of Arctic terns – tell stories of migration, home, and the unknown.Through their juxtapositions, the objects included in the exhibition make new meanings in exciting and unexpected ways, and also tell a larger story about UCLA's pursuit of knowledge in our global society through its collections.In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, we hear from several curators about the special collections at UCLA, and the stories that these remarkable objects tell.

Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK is a GPS-enabled work of public sound art that gives users a customized soundtrack for their walk. Subtly shifting compositions change along with users' paths to reflect their environment.  SOUNDWALK's creator is the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and sound artist Ellen Reid. UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance presented the Griffith Park version of the app.  In an interview with the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, Reid explains how she made SOUNDWALK, how walking and jogging are part of her composing process, and what makes LA a great city in which to compose music. 

In the late ‘90s, Fulton Leroy Washington, also known as Mr. Wash, was convicted of a nonviolent drug offense and sentenced to life in prison. He has always maintained his innocence. He served 21 years, until President Obama granted him clemency and commuted his sentence in 2016.  Washington learned how to paint in prison. Several of his teardrop paintings – which show photorealistic portraits of people with big tears rolling down their faces and miniature scenes inside the teardrops – are part of the Made in L.A. 2020 biennial, now on view at the Hammer Museum and at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.Washington will deliver the commencement keynote address to the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture graduating class of 2021 on Saturday, June 12. The self-taught artist and social justice advocate will share anecdotes from his journey and lessons learned along the way.He joined the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress to discuss his extraordinary life and the evolution of his work.

The vast majority of UCLA's research budget, which topped $1.4 billion last year, is spent in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math to develop vaccines and robots as well as break new ground in agriculture, chemistry, nanoscience, and other fields. Although the arts and humanities historically receive considerably less research funding than the STEM fields, they are just as vital to UCLA's research environment, said Roger Wakimoto, UCLA's vice chancellor for research and creative activities.For this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, Wakimoto discussed the importance of arts-related research on campus, his own creative interest in photographing tornadoes, and how his office is promoting diversity and inclusion in research at UCLA.

These are polarized times. Fights over masks and vaccines, the debate over policing, immigration reform and the border situation – even in this new political era, partisan divides feel as wide as ever.For Janet O'Shea, fighting may be the solution. She's a professor in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, and focuses on critical dance studies, performance, and the social and political contexts of martial arts.In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, she talks about her own martial arts training, the value of competitive play, food politics and veganism, and her forthcoming book about physical risk and social justice.

The rise of blockchain-enabled NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, to buy and sell artwork has created a boon for digital artists, who have long struggled with selling works that can be infinitely reproducible. In this episode of Works In Progress, faculty and alumni of the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts weigh in on the potential for NFTs to empower artists, connect them directly with fans and collectors, and build demand and appreciation for digital art. They also consider the carbon footprint of the blockchains that power NFTs, and whether an NFT bubble is likely to pop anytime soon. This episode includes UCLA faculty Casey Reas, Refik Anadol and Rebecca Allen, and alumni Nate Mohler and Adam Ferriss.

Three alumni of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design have teamed up to design an art gallery housed in an industrial stretch of Historic South-Central Los Angeles. Kevin Sherrod gave Works In Progress a tour of Gallery 90220, which he – along with fellow UCLA architecture alums Chris Doerr and Wayne Thomas – hopes will become a hub of community and inspiration, to be led by and primarily serve an audience of color. “What I'm really interested in is changing the way we understand the memory of Black and Brown people and displaying that architecturally. That's really what this gallery is about," Sherrod said.

When Susan Leigh Foster gets in front of an audience, she doesn't spend much time standing behind a podium or pointing at slides. The choreographer and scholar dances freely around the stage, her movements underlining and sometimes building on her words."I needed to provide the audience with an example of what I was talking about, and also an example of why it's so difficult to talk about," she said. “I also wanted to offer them the opportunity to reflect on the fact that all lectures are performances, and the best lecturers are people who know that.”At the 129th Faculty Research Lecture, titled “What Dancing Does,” Foster, distinguished professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, will describe some of the ways dance functions in our individual lives and within society. The talk will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14.She joined Works In Progress for a preview.

The Hammer Museum at UCLA plans to reopen April 17, allowing the public to finally see Made in L.A. 2020: a version, the acclaimed biennial that spotlights emerging Los Angeles artists and, for the first time, extends to galleries at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino.“We're not allowed to have big gatherings or big crowds,” said Connie Butler, the Hammer's chief curator. “It will be quiet and a really nice time to be in the galleries.”Butler, who co-curated the second iteration of Made in L.A. in 2014, says the biennial “proves … that Los Angeles is such a deep and vast art community right now — actually, it's many different art communities — and it can really support a show that is a core sample of contemporary art in L.A. every two years.”In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, Butler reflects on the Hammer's resilience during a year of challenges, and what the future holds in store for the museum.

Before the pandemic, downtown L.A. was in the midst of a renaissance, with the steady opening of new bars, restaurants, hotels and apartment buildings.Architect and UCLA alumna Karin Liljegren has been a leader in that effort. Over the past 20 years, she has overseen or consulted on more than 400 adaptive reuse projects, mostly in downtown's historic core. Last year, the American Institute of Architects named Liljegren to the College of Fellows, considered one of the architecture world's highest honors.Liljegren joined the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress to talk about downtown's post-pandemic recovery, her own path to becoming a leader in adaptive reuse, and the pleasure of visiting spaces that she has designed.

A student-conducted survey from across the School of the Arts and Architecture found that the pandemic is having a profound impact on students' mental and physical health, and "Zoom fatigue" is a major factor.In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress," Joy Chen, a second-year design media arts student, breaks down the findings; Victoria Marks, associate dean of academic affairs, shares what faculty are doing about it; and Dr. Drea Letamendi, head of the UCLA RISE Center, provides solutions for minimizing burnout from all that screen time.

Students at the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design are proposing a hypothetical center where principles of AEDI – anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion – are put into action."I think what we're trying to do is a paradigm shift away from a distant, automated, estranging kind of environment where people are bureaucratized, into something way more engaging,” said Mohamed Sharif, the faculty member who is heading the design studio for the master of architecture program students.In this episode, Sharif and several students talk about putting AEDI principles, as well as sustainability and accessibility, at the forefront of building design.

Verlena Johnson is a student affairs officer in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA. But she's also a multi-media visual artist with a published children's book and a series of paintings that pay homage to LGBTQ African American icons.She talks to the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress" about the themes of race, gender, sexuality, and divinity in her paintings; how she maintains her creative practice during the pandemic; and how to promote diversity in academia.

Photographer Janna Ireland is known for portraits of family and friends that explore domesticity and Black life. But she has devoted the last four years to driving the streets of Los Angeles, seeking out some of the more than 3,000 projects designed by barrier-breaking Los Angeles architect Paul Revere Williams.The result: her critically praised collection of photographs “Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer's View” (Angel City Press). The book features 280 of Ireland's black-and-white images that evoke moody interiors and exterior landscapes, with long shadows stretching over curving staircases and archways, showing the architect's mastery of proportion and composition and his lasting impact on Los Angeles.Ireland spoke to the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress" about the project and the unique details that she found in the architect's work.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a handful of galleries in downtown LA's Chinatown neighborhood opened amid souvenir shops and restaurants. With names adopted from previous businesses, China Art Objects and Black Dragon Society showed work by UCLA art students and became hubs of a burgeoning art scene. A DIY-inspired community of artists threw parties and staged concerts while selling their work at dirt-cheap prices, with some finding unexpected success.The salon-style exhibition "Via Café" relives that heady time, bringing together work from about three-dozen old friends and UCLA alumni in a gallery in a small town outside Athens, Georgia.

Internet art is a broad term for the work of artists who use the internet as their canvas. Think of Flash animation, psychedelic glitch art, computer-generated art, GIFs, and many other examples. The internet has been around for five decades now, and internet art is falling victim to broken links, expired domains, and unsupported file types."I believe we're in a crisis right now, where so much work is disappearing and will never be seen again. We want to be in communication with these artists while they're still with us,” said Casey Reas, co-founder of the UCLA Arts Conditional Studio with Lauren Lee McCarthy and Chandler McWilliams, all professors in the Department of Design Media Arts.The UCLA Arts Conditional Studio is launching an initiative to collect internet art made by LA-based artists and preserve it for future generations. “Art and the Internet in LA 1969+” will explore the history of artists in Los Angeles who have worked with, responded to, and transformed the internet.Their beginning point is November 21, 1969, when UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock established the first permanent ARPANET link from his laboratory to Stanford University. It continues through the emergence of the World Wide Web to the ubiquitous influence of the internet today.

UCLA Department of Art Professor Rodney McMillian's practice embodies a wide range of media and technique, and often confronts racial and socioeconomic injustice. McMillian's most recent show at Vielmetter Los Angeles, "Body Politic," explores the body's symbolic meaning and the relationship between politics and aesthetics. It included sculptural works depicting body parts made of chicken wire and black fabric. Vividly-colored drawings used mixed media and text to narrate a history of the violence against Black bodies in the names of science and slavery. “There needs to be a deep rooting out – of the racism, of the inequalities, of the brutality – that is plaguing this land," McMillian said.In this interview with the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, McMillian discusses this nation's racial reckoning, his use of color and materials, and how music and science fiction inspire his work. 

This week, pro-Trump supporters marched through Washington D.C. and stormed the Capitol building, just as Congress was meeting to formally certify the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The insurrection left five people dead and a world in shock. Many are asking, is this what America has become?The attack also comes the same week that Tucson, Arizona is marking the ten-year anniversary of a shooting rampage outside a supermarket that killed six people and injured thirteen, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The attack took place at a “Congress on the Corner” event, days after Rep. Giffords had won a contentious re-election race.Today, a permanent memorial to honor the victims and survivors of the Jan. 8, 2011 attack was dedicated in a small ceremony. Rebeca Méndez, professor and chair of the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts, worked with the architecture firm Chee Salette to design that memorial.The memorial, called "The Embrace," includes a series of symbols that Méndez and a team of UCLA students created to depict the victims, survivors and first responders, and to tell a larger history of Tucson and southern Arizona.

How does one create a more equitable learning environment? Anna Spain Bradley, UCLA's new vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion, has been thinking a lot about this question. Despite the political polarization of our time, Spain Bradley – a scholar of international law, global racism and human rights – says it's imperative that we sit down and have conversations with people we disagree with. "If people communicate and we look at each other and see each other and value each other, it's not easy, but it's worthwhile, and it can lead to creating solutions that didn't exist before," she said.Spain Bradley sat down with the host of UCLA Arts' podcast “Works In Progress” for a broad ranging conversation that touched on the events in her own life that led her to the field of international dispute resolution, and how she's applying those experiences at UCLA. She'll also be a panelist for the final session in this year's “10 Questions: Reckoning” discussion series, on Monday, Dec. 7 at 7 pm PST, responding to the question “What Matters?”

Sharon Hayes makes video, performance and installation art that tackles complex questions about history, politics and speech. Her work is staged on the street, in living rooms, and in museums and galleries. She incorporates historical texts and her own writing into her work. She might involve strangers, activists, and fellow artists as performers. Hayes was born in Baltimore and came of age in a community of queer artists and activists in New York's East Village in the early '90s, where she drew inspiration from feminism and AIDS activism. She received her MFA from UCLA and now teaches in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Fine Arts. In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress," Hayes discusses the form love takes in the personal, private, public and political spheres. She'll also explore that theme on Monday, Nov. 30 in the UCLA Arts-led “10 Questions” public discussion "What Is Love?”  

Jenna Caravello makes mind-bending video games, interactive installations and animated short films that use symbolism and metaphor to ask profound questions about memory, loss, and meaning.Caravello is an assistant professor in the Department of Design Media Arts. And she'll respond to the question “What Is Loss?” as part of the UCLA Arts series “10 Questions: Reckoning,” which brings UCLA faculty from across campus together to examine ten essential questions.In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast “Works In Progress,” Caravello talks about creating digital avatars, storytelling in virtual spaces, and what inspires her, from ‘90s video games and “Akira” to European and Soviet animators.

Few things strike fear into the hearts of college students like the words “organic chemistry." Neil Garg, a distinguished professor and the Kenneth N. Trueblood Endowed Chair in Chemistry and Biochemistry, wants his students to get creative and enjoy learning. His undergraduate class has been one of UCLA's most popular classes, and he uses a range of innovative and out-of-the-box teaching methods to make what can be a very dry topic more fun and engaging.   Garg will respond to the question “What Is Humor?” as part of the multidisciplinary discussion series “10 Questions.” In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast “Works In Progress,” Garg speaks about his passion for education and about using humor to get students excited about chemistry.