With more than 150 public events this spring, the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLA Arts) will offer the public numerous opportunities to experience the depth and diversity of UCLA Arts activities and creative programming.

Programs include distinguished lectures, student exhibitions and performances, and the rich offerings of the Fowler Museum, the Hammer Museum and the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA). Many of the events are free, thanks to the generous support of donors, and all are open to the public.

Exhibitions

Various dates from Mar. 24–May 21: The UCLA department of art and department of design media arts will present exhibitions featuring work by M.F.A. candidates.

April 19–Aug. 2: “The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989,” at the Fowler Museum, introduces Sahmat’s work through a survey of art and ephemera illustrating the impact this unique — and sometimes controversial — artists’ collective has had on contemporary Indian society and artistic practice.

May 23–Sept. 27: The Hammer Museum presents “Hammer Projects: Mary Reid Kelley.” UCLA art professor Mary Reid Kelley creates narrative videos set within her own stylized black-and-white drawings. Working with videographer Patrick Kelley, her characters — with all roles usually played by the artist — move through her black-and-white scenery and speak in poetic verse written by the artist.

Jun. 8–13: The UCLA department of architecture and urban design presents “RUMBLE,” an end-of-year exhibition that engages students, faculty and the international design community in a discourse on the forefront of contemporary design and innovation.  

Performances by UCLA’s world-class student ensembles and guests

April 13, April 30 and May 6: The UCLA department of ethnomusicology hosts “The Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music 2015 Concert Series” featuring performances by Merima Kljuco, the Sarajevo native who created the multimedia work “The Sarajevo Haggadah;” Uri Cane, pianist, composer and frequent collaborator with John Zorn; and Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell.

April 17–19: CAP UCLA presents Leonard Nimoy’s “Vincent,” a thoughtful scenario using excerpts and reminiscences from more than 500 letters exchanged between Vincent Van Gogh and his brother, told through a riveting one-man performance by actor Jean-Michel Richaud.

May 5: A concert of new music by UCLA department of music faculty composers, performed by faculty artists, students and guests.

May 8: The culmination of a yearlong research process, “Narratives” is a showcase of 17 dance, film and spoken word pieces by graduating seniors in the UCLA department of world arts and cultures/dance.

May 14 and June 4: The UCLA Philharmonia, the flagship orchestra of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, presents two concerts featuring Luke Storm, tuba soloist and winner of the Atwater Kent Concerto Competition.

June 5: The UCLA department of world arts and cultures/dance presents “First Hand,” an evening of in-progress dance works by four of the nation’s leading choreographers and UCLA faculty members: Ann Carlson, Jackie Lopez, Ana Maria Alvarez and Cheng-Chieh Yu.

Lectures

April 12: Astronaut Loretta Whitesides’ talk, “Virgin Galactic: Building the Earth’s First Spaceline,” will be presented as part of the IDEAS Lecture Series in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design.

April 18: Fowler OutSpoken presents a conversation with Vivan Sundaram and the Sahmat Collective, which will introduce two major exhibitions of contemporary Indian art, “Making Strange” and “The Sahmat Collective.” Attend the opening party following the lecture by emailing fowlerRSVP@arts.ucla.edu.

April 19: UCLA’s departments of art and design media arts co-present a lecture by American artist Charles Gaines, whose work interrogates the discourse relating aesthetics and politics, and who is the subject of the Hammer Museum exhibition, “Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974–1989,” on view until May 24.

April 21: Louis Phillip Demer, a multidisciplinary artist who uses machines as media and whose robotics works can be found in theater, opera, subway stations, art museums, science museums, music events and trade shows will lecture as part of the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts Lecture Series.

May 5: Back by popular demand, David Sedaris returns to Royce Hall for another engaging evening at the podium featuring anecdotes, works-in-progress and readings from recent and popular books. Presented by CAP UCLA.

Additional highlights

April 11, April 26, June 7 and June 14: The Fowler Museum’s “Kids in the Courtyard” events invite children to learn about Fowler exhibitions in engaging and hands-on ways.

  • April 11: “Home is Where the Art Is”
  • April 26: “Great Impressions”
  • June 7: “Craft a Comb”
  • June 14: “Pop-up Book Making”

Feb. 13–14: Together with the UCLA Boethius Initiative, the Hammer Museum presents “Human Faces in the American Juvenile Justice Gulag.” Acclaimed photographer Richard Ross and MacArthur fellow and celebrated artist Peter Sellars discuss the reality of incarcerated young people in the U.S. and the growing movement for reforming the youth justice system.

May 15–June 6: The annual “Spring Festival of World Music and Jazz,” produced by the UCLA department of ethnomusicology, features a variety of performances by student ensembles featuring the music of Bali, bluegrass and the UCLA Jazz Orchestra.

Martyna Szczesna studio
Graduate open studios in Culver City

May 30: The UCLA department of art presents Graduate Open Studios. Graduate students’ studios in Culver City will be open to the general public, and visitors can meet the students and see their work in progress.

For a complete listing, please visit the UCLA Arts Events Calendar. 

For more information, please visit:

For ticketed events, visit www.tickets.ucla.edu or contact the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310-825-2101. All-day parking is available for $12; short-term parking is also available (payable at pay stations). Programs are subject to change.