Fowler Museum at UCLA - Fowler Talks: Destination Crenshaw X UCLA

To celebrate Black history and creativity in LA, Destination Crenshaw—a $100-million, transformative, revitalization project—will develop a walkable commercial corridor defined by public artworks, tranquil green spaces, and beautiful storefronts along the 1.3 miles of Crenshaw Boulevard. Once finished, Destination Crenshaw will serve as an epicenter of Black American culture, as well as the most significant public/private Black art program in the United States.

Join us for a discussion of the ways UCLA faculty and alumni have contributed ideas, expertise, and artworks to this pioneering “Afrocentric streetscape,” including its monuments, murals, and augmented reality storytellings. Darnell Hunt, advisor to the project and UCLA’s executive vice chancellor and provost, will be joined by president and COO of Destination Crenshaw Jason Foster, influential art collector and advisor Dr. V. Joy Simmons, prominent artist Maren Hassinger, and arts educator and independent filmmaker Ben Caldwell. Panelists will explore further ways to connect Destination Crenshaw with UCLA campus in the years ahead.

This program is part of the Fowler initiative “Art of Liberation: Africa and the African Diaspora,” which is generously funded by the Nissan Foundation and The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

Ben Caldwell is an arts educator and independent filmmaker. His passion for the visual arts led him to study film at UCLA, where he was a part of the “LA Rebellion” film movement. After teaching film and video at Howard University in Washington, D.C. from 1981 to 1984, Caldwell moved to Leimert Park, the epicenter of the African American art scene in Los Angeles, and created an independent studio for video production and experimentation that became the KAOS Network: a community arts center that provides training in digital arts, media arts, and multimedia. Since the early 90s, KAOS has hosted the legendary open-mic workshop Project Blowed, which gave birth to such rappers as Aceyalone, Medusa, Busdriver, Freestyle Fellowship, and Jurassic Five.

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