The UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture will present more than 100 public events this spring featuring exhibitions at campus museums and galleries; lectures by artists, alumni and faculty; and music, theater and dance performances by students and acclaimed professionals. Many of the events are free — thanks to the support of donors — and all are open to the public.

For more details and a complete listing of events, see the UCLA Arts calendar.

Lectures, panels and symposia

April 13: The UCLA Department of Art presents a visiting artist lecture by Michael Smith, whose multidisciplinary practice includes performance, video, sculpture and drawing, and multi-media installation. His works are in the permanent collections of Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; MoMA, New York; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.

April 21: UCLA Art | Sci presents “ECO-CENTRIC ART + SCIENCE: Prophesies and Predictions,” an open-mic marathon symposium. Guest artist and author, Linda Weintraub’s forthcoming book: “WHAT’S NEXT? Eco Materialism and Contemporary Art” provides the opportunity for professors from multiple academic disciplines to share their predictions of the theory, practice, insight, re-evaluation or revision that will emerge in their discipline in the coming years.

May 1: The architecture and urban design department presents a lecture by assistant adjunct professor Georgina Huljich, principal of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, a design research architectural practice based in Los Angeles that has gained international recognition for its subtle approach to architecture, one that seamlessly integrates digital technology within an extensive consideration of form, novel tectonics and innovative materials.

May 4: The Visual and Performing Arts Education Program and theater department present “Excellence in Teaching Artistry: An Evening with Eric Booth and Local Arts Educators,” an event to discuss the importance and impact of teaching artist profession and the conditions necessary for excellent teaching artists to thrive in partnerships with non-profit arts organizations and local schools. The event features a keynote presentation by Eric Booth, renowned author, publisher, speaker, curriculum designer and teaching artist pioneer; and a panel of teaching artists.

May 20: In conjunction with “African-Print Fashion Now!,” Victoria Rovine, associate professor of art history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, addresses African fashion designers inspired by longstanding traditional dress practices, which they transform to create something new. These innovations feature both African-print cloth and other textiles and media. This talk is co-sponsored by the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California, Inc.

May 31: The Hammer Museum at UCLA presents “Philosophy of Japanese Arcade Culture.” Having recently collaborated with Japanese pop art legend Keiichi Tanaami, Oliver Payne discusses Japanese arcade culture, specifically the manic and psychedelic “bullet hell games.” These niche arcade games — often considered the purest form of video games — follow a chaotic, complicated system of rules and patterns. Payne considers labor, play, identity, and art in gaming culture, and how it all informs his work. This talk is held in conjunction with Hammer Projects: Oliver Payne and Keiichi Tanaami.

Jun. 2: The Fowler Museum at UCLA presents Culture Fix: Curator Betsy Quick on African-Print Fashion. Among the most popular of African-print cloth fashions, the ubiquitous “Angelina” design came to prominence in the Dashikis of the 1960s and 1970s. Quick, the exhibition’s co-curator, traces the history of the cloth to the resurgence of design today in worldwide trends.

Jun. 8: Hammer chief curator Connie Butler outlines the artist Marisa Merz’s challenging, evocative body of work, its relationship to her domestic space and family life, and its engagement with sexual and cultural difference. Butler’s presentation is followed by a screening of the short film “Mario Merz” by artist Tacita Dean, in which she creates a film portrait Marisa’s husband and artist Mario months before his death. The film will be followed by a discussion between Butler and Dean.

Exhibitions

May 18–June 1: The UCLA Department of Design Media Arts presents a final exhibition featuring multimedia work by 11 artists graduating from the department’s M.F.A. program. On Thursday, May 18, join the artists for an opening reception at the New Wight Gallery in the UCLA Broad Art Center.

June 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 M.F.A. students. For more information email [email protected].

June 4–Aug. 20: The Hammer Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are partnering on an exhibition of works by the Italian painter, sculptor and installation artist Marisa Merz (born Turin, Italy in 1926). Merz was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 2013 Venice Biennale. “Marisa Merz: The Sky Is a Great Space” will be the first retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work in the United States and will be accompanied by the first monograph to be published in English.

June 11 and 12: RUMBLE is the architecture and urban design department’s annual exposition between Perloff Hall and the IDEAS campus in Culver City that engages students, faculty and the international design community in a discourse on the forefront of contemporary design and innovation. With 20,000 square feet of studio and program installations, 240 projects on view and 90 leading critics and practitioners, RUMBLE redefines the provocative opportunities confronting the next generation of architects.

Performances

April 8 and 9: UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance presents “Penny Arcade: Longing Lasts Longer,” a multi-award winning monologue, which turns contemporary stand-up on its head to create a crack in the post-gentrified landscape.

April 21: The UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance presents “A Celebration of UCLA Dance: 1962–2017,” a special performance and reception honoring the legacy of the six extraordinary founders of dance at UCLA: Elsie Dunin, Pia Gilbert, Alma Hawkins, Carol Scothorn, Doris Siegel and Allegra Fuller Snyder. The performance features world arts and cultures/dance alumni Fuller Snyder, Linda Gold, Jackie Lopez, who founded the Versa-Style Dance Company, and Kevin Williamson. The Lula Washington Dance Theatre, founded by alumna Lula Washington, will also perform, and the event will be emceed by alumna Kristina Wong.

April 29: Renowned santoor player Rahul Sharma and one of the finest tabla players in the world, Zakir Hussain, are teaming up again. The two virtuosos, beloved in India and around the world, have collaborated before on several projects including a live recording. Zakir Hussain and Rahul Sharma is presented by the CAP UCLA.

May 4: CAP UCLA presents Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely. Described by Vibe magazine as “one helluva rock’n’roller-coaster ride” and by Pop Matters as “a treasure waiting to be found,” Reagon is a one-woman celebration of all that is dynamic, progressive, and uplifting in American music.

June 8 and 9: World arts and cultures/dance presents “First Hand: In-Progress Choreography from WAC/Dance Faculty.” This performance features new work by faculty artists Lynn Dally, Jeanine Durning, Jackie Lopez and Sheetal Ghandi.

June 18: The Aditya Prakash Ensemble breaks down walls between the cultures of jazz and Indian classical music, to discover music that is free from genre. Through improvisation as well as compositions that uniquely blend Indian ragas and complex rhythms, with jazz’s rich harmonic structure, the group seeks to illuminate the transcendental nature of music. For this “Enduring Splendor” closing day concert, the Adita Prakash Ensemble will perform in the Fowler Amphitheatre.