Fowler Museum at UCLA
405 Hilgard AvenueLos Angeles CA, USA
(310) 825-4361
www.fowler.ucla.edu
About Fowler Museum at UCLA
"The museum was established in 1963 by then UCLA Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy as the Museum and Laboratories of Ethnic Arts and Technology. Its first home was in the basement of Haines Hall on the UCLA campus. The goal of this new museum was to consolidate the various collections of non-Western art and artifacts on campus. In addition to active collecting, the museum initiated research projects, fieldwork, exhibitions and publications. In 1971 the name was changed to the Museum of Cultural History and by 1975 its collections, in numbers and in quality, ranked it among the top four university museums in the country, a stature it retains to the present day. "
Upcoming Openings
Past Openings
MAD HATTER TEA PARTY
Exhibition Dates:
Reception: , 1-4pmYou are invited to an Afternoon Tea in celebration of Steeped in History: The Art of Tea. Come dressed as a character from Alice in
Wonderland or decked out in your finest tea party attire or decorate a hat when you arrive. Play a game of mad musical chairs, taste tea and tarts, and take a “curious and curiouser” tour of the exhibition with Fowler educators.
...more info
Fowler OutSpoken Panel: Antonio Pineda and the ‘Silver Age’
Exhibition Dates: Saturday, September 20, 2008 - Saturday, September 20, 2008
Reception: September 20, 2008, 3pmMexican silversmith Antonio Pineda discusses his work, followed by a panel discussion...more info
Fowler in Focus: Ancient Ceramics from Colombia
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, October 5, 2008 - Sunday, February 22, 2009
Visitors can see more than forty examples of these ancient works, including vessels ornamented with colorful designs adapted from weaving patterns, relief plaques depicting a couple embracing or a father and child, and numerous figures of people and animals...more info
Caras vemos, corazones no sabemos
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, October 5, 2008 - Sunday, December 28, 2008
Featuring paintings, works on paper, photographs, video, retablos, and more, these works explore the struggles and visions of migrants. ...more info
"Mixed Feelings" film screening and Q&A with Phillip Rodriguez, director
Exhibition Dates: Thursday, October 16, 2008 - Thursday, October 16, 2008
Reception: October 16, 2008, 6pmPhillip Rodriguez's acclaimed documentary Mixed Feelings explores the landscape and architecture of the San Diego/Tijuana region. The film presents an innovative dialogue about the U.S./Mexico border and also touches on the future impact Latino culture will have on U.S. cities. A Q & A with filmmaker follows....more info
Oaxaca Community Day
Exhibition Dates: Saturday, November 15, 2008 - Saturday, November 15, 2008
Reception: November 15, 2008, 1-4pmEnjoy a performance by local youth ensemble Danza de la Pluma, refreshments, and tours of La tinta grita in English and Spanish as we celebrate Oaxaca culture at the Fowler....more info
Maria Elena Castro
Artist's Choice, Artist's Voice
Exhibition Dates: Saturday, November 22, 2008 - Saturday, November 22, 2008
Reception: November 22, 2008, 3pmMaria Elena Castro discusses her installation commissioned by the Fowler as part of Cara Vemos, and other selections from the exhibition, exploring art as a political strategy....more info
Lucha Libre
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, December 7, 2008 - Sunday, December 7, 2008
Reception: December 7, 2008, 1-4pmAt this drop-in workshop, check out artist Dulce Pinzon's photographic series La Verdadera Historia de los Superheros in the Caras Vemos exhibition, then make your own luchador mask from a paper grocery bag....more info
Nik Wheeler
Iraqi Marshlands Then and Now
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, December 14, 2008 - Sunday, March 22, 2009
In the mid-1970s photographer Nik Wheeler documented a thriving community of 250,000–400,000 indigenous inhabitants, and his remarkable photographs of the region's unusual vernacular architecture, as well as scenes of everyday life during that era, are the focus of this exhibition....more info
Continental Rifts: Contemporary Time-Based Works of Africa
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, February 22, 2009 - Sunday, June 14, 2009
Five artists consider the question of “whose Africa?” through video and digital film works....more info
Transformations
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, February 22, 2009 - Sunday, June 14, 2009
"Transformations" presents works by eight artists of African heritage who explore the potential of their mediums to engender new forms, histories and intentions....more info
Masks of Sri Lanka
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, March 1, 2009 - Monday, March 30, 2009
The collections of the Fowler Museum at UCLA include the most important assemblage of 19th- and early 20th-century Sri Lankan masks in North America, and "Fowler in Focus: Masks of Sri Lanka," which opens March 1, presents 25 of these rare items....more info
Wolmar Castillo
Taxco Today: Tradition and Innovation
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, March 15, 2009 - Sunday, March 15, 2009
Reception: March 15, 2009, 2pmTaxco silversmith Wolmar Castillo (son of Pineda contemporary Antonio Castillo) explores the current design environment in Taxco and how the legacy of the Silver Age influences his work and that of his fellow designers.
...more info
Simon Njami
Africa in the World: Curating African Art in an International Arena
Exhibition Dates: Thursday, March 19, 2009 - Thursday, March 19, 2009
Reception: March 19, 2009, 7pmDrawing on his expertise as the curator of the recent Joburg Art Fair, the African Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennial, and the much-acclaimed Africa Remix, Njami explores Africa’s thriving and sometimes contradictory contemporary art scene....more info
Stephen P. Huyler
Daughters of India
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, March 29, 2009 - Sunday, July 26, 2009
In Daughters of India, photographer Stephen Huyler celebrates the strength, courage, resourcefulness, and creativity of Indian women from a wide variety of backgrounds....more info
Daughter of India Lecture
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, March 29, 2009 - Sunday, March 29, 2009
Reception: March 29, 2009, 2pmIn a sumptuously illustrated lecture drawn from his new book and current Fowler exhibition, photographer and cultural anthropologist Stephen Huyler speaks about the many ways that Indian women use traditional and innovative art forms to meet the challenges in their lives and leverage changes in their futures. A book-signing reception in the Fowler courtyard follows the lecture....more info
Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, May 3, 2009 - Sunday, August 2, 2009
This is the first exhibition to focus on the crucial founding moment of Papunya art, which has a unique status in the history of Western Desert painting....more info
Innovations in Western Desert Painting, 1972-1999: Selections from The Kelt
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, May 3, 2009 - Sunday, August 2, 2009
This exhibition features fourteen paintings drawn from the vast collection of The Kelton Foundation....more info
Fowler Out Loud: Los Angeles Electric 8 / Projecting Berd
Exhibition Dates: Thursday, May 21, 2009 - Thursday, May 21, 2009
Reception: May 21, 2009, 6pmThe classically trained musicians from the electric guitar chamber octet Los Angeles Electric 8 perform Domino Figures by composer Wayne Siegel. This work serves as a backdrop for the premier of Projecting Berd, a multi-screen video installation by Cari Ann Shim Sham*....more info
Steeped in History: The Art of Tea
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, August 16, 2009 - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Explore the cultural and historical significance of tea- after water, the world's most consumed beverage-through a magnificent and wide-ranging survey of visual art....more info
Fowler in Focus: Thinking outside the Basket, African Basketry Arts
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, September 6, 2009 - Sunday, September 6, 2009
See elegant screens, sleeping mats, hats, masks, shields, and other household items—presented in counterpoint to a small grouping of conventional containers including divination baskets, treasure baskets, and more—all made by creatively employing a wide variety of basketry techniques and materials....more info
African American Life on the Gullah/Geechee Coast
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, September 20, 2009 - Sunday, January 3, 2010
In the 1970s, photographer Greg Day and his colleague Kate Young spent time in the basket-making communities along the Gullah/Geechee Coast, documenting a way of life on the verge of change....more info
Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, October 4, 2009 - Sunday, January 10, 2010
Humble yet exquisitely crafted coiled baskets demonstrate one of the enduring contributions of African peoples and cultures to American life. ...more info
James A. Benn
The Buddhist Arts of Tea in Medieval China
Exhibition Dates: Saturday, November 7, 2009 - Saturday, November 7, 2009
Reception: Saturday, November 7, 2009, 2:00pm22nd Annual Sammy Yukuan Lee Lecture on Chinese Archaeology and Art
Prior to the middle of the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), tea was a beverage produced on a small scale and consumed locally by those who appreciated its refreshing and health-giving qualities. Beginning in the mid-8th century, it rose rapidly to become the drink of choice across the empire. James A. Benn, associate professor of Buddhism and East Asian Religions at McMaster University, explores the role of Buddhist ideas, institutions, and practitioners in the promotion of tea drinking and the invention of a Chinese tea culture. Co-sponsored by the Center for Chinese Studies. ...more info
KULOV’S TEA TOUR: THE BIG CHILL
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, November 15, 2009 - Sunday, November 15, 2009
Join Kulov, founder of the Annual Valentine's Tea Festival, for the second of two unique tea experiences in Los Angeles. A tour of Steeped in History: The Art of Tea focusing on tea in the West and a light lunch provided by Tudor House
(www.thetudorhouse.com) starts a day that includes a tea blending demo/workshop by Steve Schwartz, master blender and founder of the boutique import company The Art of Tea
(www.artoftea.com). Close the day with tea cocktails and light
fare at stylish tea shop Algabar (www.algabar.com). Founder and certified tea expert Gail Baral will share ideas on how to use
tea to add flavor and depth to your cooking and drinks.
...more info
Culture Fix with Gina Hall
Exhibition Dates: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Reception: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 12pmAt this 20-minute lunchtime talk, Fowler educator Gina Hall will discuss the Charleston Renaissance paintings on display in the exhibition, contrasting them with the realities of everyday life on the plantations.
...more info
Culture Fix with Polly Nooter Roberts
Exhibition Dates: Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Reception: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 12pmAt this 20-minute lunchtime talk, explore three examples (a Mende mask, Gelede mask and a Luba figure inside Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives) of female representation in African art with World Arts and Cultures professor Polly Nooter Roberts.
...more info
Free Family Basketmaking Workshop
Exhibition Dates: Sunday, December 6, 2009 - Sunday, December 6, 2009
Reception: Sunday, December 6, 2009, 1-4pmJoin us for an afternoon of basket weaving at this drop-in workshop. We’ll begin with a basic basket start and then learn the process of weaving reeds over and under until our baskets begin to take shape. Best of all, when you have completed your basket, you get to take it home with you!...more info
Reviews June 2009
Review of Continental Rifts: Contemporary Time-Based Works of Africa
In this survey the ever-adventurous exo-Western Fowler Museum presents works that focus on Africa as a physical, conceptual, and emotional geography, by various African artists (and one Chilean) recently lauded in international ...more info
Preview of Caras vemos, corazones no sabemos/Faces Seen, Hearts Unknown: The Human Landscape of Mexican Migrati
The title phrase Caras vemos, corazones no sabemos is taken from a popular Mexican dichos, or maxim, and refers to superficial judgments made about people based solely on appearances. This dicho cautions that in order to truly know a ...more info