Music School staff and faculty awarded Chancellor's Arts Funding Grants
UCLA Announces New Arts Initiative and Research Grants
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has recently announced a new arts initiative and a series of research grants aimed at advancing the role of the arts within the university and the city of Los Angeles.
The Chancellor's Council on the Arts (CCoA) and the university's Office for Research and Creative Activities (ORCA) have awarded grants to several projects, covering various musical genres such as jazz, gospel, rap, and film scores.
One of the funded projects is led by Music Education Professor, Lily Chen-Hafteck. Her research will investigate how students in Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools may benefit from classes designed to teach them the music and cultures of their classmates. The project aims to provide 30 teachers with training and teaching materials, and will take place in 10 schools serving students of low socio-economic backgrounds.
Supeena Adler from the Department of Ethnomusicology received funding for her project "Researching, Teaching, and Performing a Folk Tradition of Northeast Thailand." Adler's project will enable her to document a specific folk tradition, acquire instruments and costumes, and offer a course on it through the Music of Thailand Ensemble.
The Chancellor's Arts Initiative and GO ARTS UCLA, a new online portal launched by the CCoA, are committed to supporting the integration and visibility of arts-related programs, research, and resources at UCLA. The portal aims to foster collaboration, increase access to arts opportunities across the campus community, and advance equity and inclusion in the arts.
Through GO ARTS UCLA, users can access a full calendar of events, recent feature stories, and the latest news on arts-related research at the university. The portal will also co-sponsor an exhibition titled "Celebrating Black Music in Los Angeles" with the Ethnomusicology Archive. This exhibition will be the first large-scale exhibition at UCLA to present a comprehensive look at the city's Black music, featuring both well-known figures and those often excluded from history, such as Black women musicians and composers, music educators, and owners of important music venues.
The UCLA Library will also co-sponsor this exhibition, which aligns with the library's focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion in music and arts education. The digital humanities efforts at UCLA encourage computational and interdisciplinary approaches to cultural studies and arts analysis, further emphasizing the university's commitment to supporting diverse voices in the arts.
The CCoA has expanded its membership to include Darnell Hunt, May Hong HaDuong, Cindy Fan, and David Yoo. The Initiative provided $150,000 in funding for arts research projects, with the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music having three faculty members receive arts research grants.
The research grants demonstrate the power of the arts within our community and throughout the world, as they aim to contribute to the university's commitments to sustainability, equity, diversity, and inclusion. The new arts initiative and research grants at UCLA are a testament to the university's dedication to fostering creativity, promoting equity, and advancing the arts as a vital part of the rich and diverse UCLA experience.
References: 1. UCLA Library Resources on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Music and Arts Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/ethnomusicology/resources/equity-diversity-inclusion 2. Digital Humanities at UCLA. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.digital.ucla.edu/
- The research grants, such as the one received by Music Education Professor, Lily Chen-Hafteck, not only focus on advancing the arts within the university but also promote diversity-and-inclusion by providing opportunities for low socio-economic background students in Los Angeles.
- The new online portal, GO ARTS UCLA, is committed to supporting the integration and visibility of arts-related programs and resources at UCLA, with a particular emphasis on education-and-self-development opportunities that foster equity and personal-growth for a diverse community.
