14 faculty projects earn Chancellor’s Arts Initiative grants at UCLA

Fourteen faculty-led arts projects, including a new musical work shaped by Altadena poets reflecting on wildfire recovery and an immersive installation exploring memory, have received seed grants from the Chancellor's Arts Initiative. Administered by the Chancellor's Council on the Arts in partnership with the Office of Research and Creative Activities, the initiative provides seed funding for faculty-led projects that advance UCLA's commitment to interdisciplinary inquiry and the public impact of the arts.

This year's grants, ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, support a diverse group of UCLA faculty exploring history, culture, technology and community through creative research. The funded projects span disciplines across campus and highlight the arts as a catalyst for scholarship, public engagement and social dialogue.

The grants went to projects initiated by faculty in the departments of art, design media arts, architecture and urban design and world arts and cultures/dance in the school of the arts and architecture; the departments of musicology, ethnomusicology and music industry in the Herb Alpert School of Music; the department of theater and performance studies in the school of theater, film & television; and the departments of anthropology, Asian American studies, Chicana/o and Central American studies and english in the college of letters and science.

Since its launch, the Chancellor's Arts Initiative has supported more than 60 faculty-led projects across UCLA, investing in research and creative work that brings artists and scholars together across disciplines while engaging communities on campus and beyond.

2025 Arts Initiative supported projects:

• Shared Currents: Transpacific Histories of Migration - Stephen Acabado, department of anthropology professor; Nenita Domingo, department of Asian languages and cultures lecturer
  Through audio and video storytelling, this project examines historical connections between the Philippines and Mexico, illuminating overlooked migration histories and their relevance for contemporary communities.
• Opera, Black and Queer - Joy H. Calico, department of musicology professor and chair
  An international symposium convenes scholars and artists to explore the intersections of opera with Black and queer histories, culminating in performances and the North American premiere of an opera film.
• Calling Junior, this is Håyun Lågu - Keith Camacho, department of Asian American studies professor; Elizabeth DeLoughrey, department of english professor
  A film project that explores the Chamoru (peoples of Guam and the Mariana Islands) diaspora through storytelling centered on trees as witnesses to colonial history, foregrounding Indigenous knowledge and sovereignty.
• Time in a Spiral - Jenna Caravello, department of design media arts assistant professor
  An immersive installation built with game-engine technology that explores memory and temporality through branching narratives shaped by simulation and theoretical science.
• Designing the Commons: Public Architecture at UCLA - Dana Cuff, department of architecture and urban design distinguished professor and Carrie Gammell, Ph.D. candidate
  Faculty, students and community partners will co-create public space interventions across Los Angeles, advancing scholarship and pedagogy focused on spatial justice and civic design.
• Planetary Performance Lab - Felipe Cervera, department of theater and performance studies assistant professor; director Center for Performance Studies
  An interdisciplinary laboratory uses performance as a framework for exploring cultural and ethical questions surrounding humanity's expanding presence in space.
• Black Star Rising - Justin Dunnavant, department of anthropology assistant professor
  A documentary that follows divers searching for Marcus Garvey's sunken Black Star Line ships, while historians and family members work to reclaim the legacy of the early 20th-century Black liberation leader and examine the forces that sought to discredit him.
• Voices Rising: Bridging Pre-service Music Educators with Justice-Involved Youths - Johanna Gamboa-Kroesen, department of music education assistant professor.
  This research examines how collaborative music-making in a juvenile detention setting shapes emerging educators' perspectives on teaching, identity and community engagement.
• Jenni Rivera's Vulgar Feminism - Yessica Garcia Hernandez, department of Chicana/o and Central American studies assistant professor
  An audio documentary investigates the legacy of singer Jenni Rivera, highlighting the role of fan communities and Latinx cultural economies in shaping her enduring influence.
• Liberated Planet Studio Artist Research Program - Ayasha Guerin, department of world arts and cultures/dance assistant professor
  This initiative supports Los Angeles-based artists in site-responsive research examining environmental and racial histories, fostering collective learning and creative responses to the region's ecological challenges.
• Altadena After the Fire: Reimagining Place Through Music and Poetry - Thomas Hodgson, department of musicology and music industry associate professor
  Composers and local poets collaborate on a new work reflecting on wildfire loss and recovery, fostering dialogue around resilience, sustainability and community memory.
• Hurl A Rock, Feel A Flame - Vishal Jugdeo, department of art assistant professor
  Created in collaboration with LGBTQ+ communities in Guyana, this experimental documentary develops a participatory film archive tracing a landmark legal case that overturned a colonial-era law targeting gender expression.
• Gestural Publics - Kate Ladenheim, department of world arts and cultures/dance assistant professor
  Combining choreography, motion capture and AI, this project examines how digital movement datasets encode cultural assumptions and proposes alternative approaches to imagining bodies in virtual space.
• Echoes of Heritage: Korean Musical Legacies in Los Angeles - Namhee Lee, department of Asian languages and cultures professor; Gamin Kang, department of ethnomusicology lecturer
  A documentary that preserves the stories of first-generation Korean traditional musicians whose work helped shape cultural life in Southern California and UCLA's music programs.