Fourteen faculty-led arts projects at the University of California Los Angeles have been awarded seed grants through the Chancellor’s Arts Initiative. The initiative, managed by the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts in collaboration with the Office of Research and Creative Activities, aims to provide funding for projects that promote interdisciplinary research and enhance public engagement with the arts.
This year’s grants range from $5,000 to $15,000 and support a wide variety of creative research initiatives. Projects include new musical works inspired by local poets reflecting on wildfire recovery and immersive installations exploring memory using technology. Faculty recipients represent departments such as art, design media arts, architecture and urban design, world arts and cultures/dance, musicology, ethnomusicology, music industry studies, theater and performance studies, anthropology, Asian American studies, Chicana/o and Central American studies, and English.
Since its inception, the Chancellor’s Arts Initiative has funded over 60 faculty-led projects across UCLA. The program encourages collaboration among artists and scholars from different disciplines while engaging communities both on campus and beyond.
The 2025 supported projects include:
– Shared Currents: Transpacific Histories of Migration — Led by Stephen Acabado (anthropology) and Nenita Domingo (Asian languages and cultures), this project uses audio and video storytelling to examine migration histories between the Philippines and Mexico.
– Opera, Black and Queer — Joy H. Calico (musicology) organizes an international symposium focused on opera’s intersections with Black and queer histories.
– Calling Junior, this is Håyun Lågu — Keith Camacho (Asian American studies) and Elizabeth DeLoughrey (English) produce a film exploring Chamoru diaspora stories centered around trees as witnesses to colonial history.
– Time in a Spiral — Jenna Caravello (design media arts) develops an immersive installation using game-engine technology to explore memory through branching narratives.
– Designing the Commons: Public Architecture at UCLA — Dana Cuff (architecture) leads collaborative public space interventions across Los Angeles focused on spatial justice.
– Planetary Performance Lab — Felipe Cervera (theater & performance studies) heads an interdisciplinary lab using performance to examine cultural questions about humanity’s presence in space.
– Black Star Rising — Justin Dunnavant (anthropology) creates a documentary following divers searching for Marcus Garvey’s sunken ships while historians work to reclaim his legacy.
– Voices Rising: Bridging Pre-service Music Educators with Justice-Involved Youths — Johanna Gamboa-Kroesen (music education) researches collaborative music-making in juvenile detention settings.
– Jenni Rivera’s Vulgar Feminism — Yessica Garcia Hernandez (Chicana/o & Central American studies) investigates singer Jenni Rivera’s legacy through an audio documentary.
– Liberated Planet Studio Artist Research Program — Ayasha Guerin (world arts & cultures/dance) supports site-responsive research by Los Angeles-based artists examining environmental histories.
– Altadena After the Fire: Reimagining Place Through Music and Poetry — Thomas Hodgson (musicology/music industry) collaborates with composers and poets on works about wildfire loss.
– Hurl A Rock, Feel A Flame — Vishal Jugdeo (art) partners with LGBTQ+ communities in Guyana for a participatory film archive about legal reforms affecting gender expression.
– Gestural Publics — Kate Ladenheim (world arts & cultures/dance) combines choreography with motion capture technology to study how digital movement data encodes cultural assumptions.
– Echoes of Heritage: Korean Musical Legacies in Los Angeles — Namhee Lee (Asian languages & cultures) documents first-generation Korean musicians’ contributions to Southern California culture.
The University of California Los Angeles is recognized for its excellence in scholarship, arts, athletics according to its official website. The university is associated with Nobel laureates and MacArthur Fellows as noted online, operates within the University of California system as stated officially, maintains a 419-acre campus supporting academic activities, fosters diverse perspectives through academic programs according to its website, and has gained national acclaim for achievements in multiple fields as highlighted online.
