Walk around UCLA during lunchtime and eavesdrop on some of the
conversations. You’ll hear tidbits of gossip, vacuous banter
about clothes, TV and parties, but you’ll rarely hear a
conversation about Marc Chagall’s dimension of metaphor in
the modernist art movement.
While most of society gets inundated with toilet humor and shows
like “Jack Ass,” on Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m., you can
go learn and talk about art at the UCLA Hammer Museum’s
public program Lunchtime Art Talks.
“They’re really short ““ only 15 minutes
““ it lets people come in and get their injection of culture
for the day,” said Heidi Zeller, public information associate
for the Hammer.
The program began this summer and took a brief break in
September, but resumed on Oct. 9. Along with the program, the
museum added a lunch kiosk called Soup’s On, which sells a
range of soups, sandwiches, salads and drinks, so attendees can eat
lunch before or after the talk.
The talks are led by a guest or regular museum curator and focus
on a single piece of art being housed at the museum.
The first talk of the season focused on the Hammer Project
“Inverted Retrograde Theme, USA” by Simon Startling. To
an average museumgoer, the art pieces may seem like wooden
rectangular boxes balancing on tree branches, yet the curator
concisely brought new and deeper perspective to the piece. He
explained the pieces, which were actually modernist architecture
containing live singing birds, were a sort of marriage of life and
art, architecture and musicality.
Last week’s talk focused on Catherine Sullivan’s
exhibition “Five Economies,” a video installation
projected on four walls of two rooms.
The topics always aim to be interesting and educational, and the
15-minute cap keeps the talk from becoming overwhelming like entire
museum tours (or class lectures) oftentimes are.
“I’ve learned something new from all the lectures
I’ve been to,” said Blakely Mikula, a art talk attendee
and an employee of LRN, a legal research firm in Westwood.
This past week, Mikula brought to the lunchtime art talk, her
friend and co-worker Liz Shore, who was surprised the subject of
the talk was Sullivan’s video installation.
“I thought it was going to be on a painter or
photographer,” Shore said. “I thought it was really
interesting ““ I didn’t realize they were even having a
film installation like this.”
Next week, the talk will focus on the modern painting
“Blue Angel” by Chagall. Other talks will explore
various subjects such as post-impressionism in Vincent van
Gogh’s “The Sower” or the artistic value in a
pile of rubbish in Tomoko Takahashi’s “Auditorium
Piece.”
For both Blakely and Mikula, art isn’t a driving force in
their life, but what they both termed “a side interest”
that they can enjoy for 15 minutes a week.
“Going to the art talks is time to take our minds off of
work and do something that we haven’t done since
college,” Mikula said.
Yet while college students are thought to be the demographic to
engage in the highest cultural and scholarly discourse, according
to Zeller very few college students attend. The art talks are
well-attended ““ generally 50 to 60 people come each week
““ but most attendees are professionals from nearby
businesses, not UCLA faculty or students.
In fact, recent museum statistics revealed that of the college
students who were visiting the Hammer Museum, the majority of the
students were not from UCLA, but from outside campuses.
According to Zeller, the Hammer has started to promote more
around the UCLA campus, especially at the art school, which, in its
new location at Lot 32, is closer to the museum.
Located at Westwood and Wilshire Boulevards, the museum is quite
a walk from the campus, but students can make their trek easier by
taking the Campus Express to the Wilshire Center and walking across
the street to the museum.
So people who want to (gasp) learn something during their lunch
break from school can find a cultural haven at the Hammer Museum.
Or forget learning, just get a change of scenery and enjoy your
lunch.
The Lunchtime Art Talks will continue through Dec. 11 at the
UCLA Hammer Museum at 10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood. Call (310)
443-7000 for more information.