UCLA LIVE
Lars Jan is one of the new artists that will be part of the new Center for Art of Performance at UCLA, which evolved from UCLA Live.
Over the last 75 years, the name UCLA Live has evolved from the Department of Fine Arts Productions to UCLA Presents to UCLA of Performing Arts to UCLA Live as of 10 years ago. Come May 22, the name shall transform once again and become the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA.
Three major initiatives that the new program will pursue include the installation of an artist residency, an artist fellows program and collaboration between campus research locations as well as with off-campus cultural institutions to encourage the creation of new artistic projects.
In spite of taking on a new name and implementing new projects for the 2012-2013 season, the Center for the Art of Performance will still have the same performances that UCLA Live offered, student tickets will still be $15, and the process of renting Royce Hall for public and campus club groups will remain unchanged.
Kristy Edmunds, executive and artistic director at the Center for the Art of Performance, who coined the new name, explained one of the reasons for changing the name of the program. For her, the title “UCLA Live” has a strong corporate connotation because the word “live” focuses on a performance and disregards the backstage work of other efforts dedicated to fostering the arts.
Edmunds said she felt that the behind-the-scenes groups were not appreciated as openly as they should have been.
“What we needed was to evolve toward the given artistic landscape: what are artists facing and what are their aspirations … that we can support creatively,” Edmunds said. “The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA allows these tendrils to work.”
The artist residency program will give artists the time and space necessary to carry out research for their creative projects. The first of these artists are Meredith Monk, Barak Marshall and Lars Jan. According to Edmunds, the center is also planning to make the often vacant Royce Hall Rehearsal Room available to artists-in-residence to present more modern performances.
Jan, an interdisciplinary artist who works with theater and video, said he will be using his artist residency to research technical details for his public performance “HOLOSCENES,” a choreographed dance epic meant to express the urgency of cross-cultural environmental awareness. In his project, Jan uses water as a metaphor to transcend language boundaries; at UCLA he has access to the latest hydraulic, climate and engineering research that will allow him to flesh out his work.
“The residency program … (is)like an incubator for new artists to make and create different work on a larger scale. … UCLA is an amazing resource,” Jan said.
The Artist Fellows is a new group that is run by master artists who are interested in sharing their knowledge and creating a relationship with institutions and audiences over a long period of time.
Under the direction of Laurie Anderson and Robert Wilson, the group will collaborate with the Center for the Art of Performance to give artists access to scholarly information and to create new ways to present this information to the general public.
Institutions included as part of the campus research locations are the Powell Library, the Clark Library, the Fowler Museum, The Herb Alpert School of Music and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
The program will also expand beyond the confines of UCLA to foster ongoing discussions with off-campus organizations such as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Angel City Jazz Festival.
According to Edmunds, extending the reach of the program’s interaction with the greater Los Angeles will provide opportunities for students to be exposed to the modern cultural movements beyond the boundaries of campus.
Other groups involved in staging performances at Royce Hall, including the Student Committee for the Arts at UCLA, Art in Action and Design for Sharing, will also be more openly recognized through the expansion.
“As an art major, it is very important to be exposed to active and professional artists and to make contacts … and be surrounded by other artists,” said first-year theater student Jagger Waters. “But it is also important to get out of UCLA and look at what is out there. So any chances that allow UCLA to bring artists to us is important.”