UAM Receives Grant from Getty Center

The CSULB University Art Museum will be among the recipients of the 15 grants the Getty Foundation will give totalling $2.8 million, it announced Tuesday.

The grants are part of a project called “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980" which will include various exhibitions throughout Southern California with a special focus on Southern California and Los Angeles.

The Long Beach Art Museum will collaborate with the CSULB UAM in studying and presenting an exhibition that focuses on the Long Beach Museum of Art's role in the development of video art both within the community and internationally.

Ilee Kaplan Talks Smart Facility

Associate Director of the CSULB University Art Museum Ilee Kaplan said the new smart facility will be built as a museum that merges art with technology.

Kaplan described the museum as one that will be a "laboratory for new ideas - for the gestation of ideas that cross boundaries between science, technology and art."

The smart facility will use technology for exhibitions and visitor services so that if a visitor wants to learn more about an artwork he or she can download it instantly onto their iPod and read about it later.

The new museum will rely heavily on technology to enable "ephemeral performances," Kaplan said, which can be difficult to maintain and store.

More and more, artists are beginning to explore new types of expression for their art and one of these is performance art in which an artist creates an experience rather than a physical piece of art. What is left behind are instructions, rather than an object, Kaplan explains.

Thus, the smart facility will be "storing ideas," Kaplan said, and the artwork can be experienced as "interactive projects online."

"The museum itself will be a work of art."

President Alexander Talks UAM

Plans for a new smart facility in downtown Long Beach will not be affected by the recent economic crises, President F. King Alexander said Thursday.

"The only way it'd be affected will be the construction possibilities which might be more favorable now," said Alexander. The president seemed optimistic about the plans since construction costs will go down as a result of the country's economic turmoil.

This, he said, "improves our chances of being present" in the downtown Long Beach community.

The University Art Museum has a lot to gain from building a new off-campus museum, Alexander said.

For one thing, the UAM's permanent Hampton Collection, which is worth about $10 million, has to be housed in a law firm in downtown Los Angeles because there is not enough space at the campus museum.

"We have about 6,000 square feet and we need about 20,000 to do what we want to do," Alexander said.

Another problem for the UAM is parking. When the museum has events, parking is always a problem for the visitors who come from the community and have to pay fees and search for a space.

It's a problem, Alexander said, when we tell people, "Hey, come to our musuem, but there's nowhere to park."

A new facility would help solve this problem.

It would also "give our students a place to showcase their art better," Alexander said. By having a museum in downtown Long Beach, art students would have the chance to get "more exposure."

The UAM, Alexander said, is "one of the things we should be showcasing, instead it's cocooned within the heart of campus."

*Photo from http://www.csulb.edu/president/; www.tripadvisor.com; and http://www.csulb.edu/org/uam/

5D: The Future of Immersive Design

Media heavyweights converged at Cal State Long Beach to attend the two-day conference, 5D: The Future of Immersive Design, which took place at the Carpenter Performing Arts Centeron October 4 and 5.

Henry Jenkins, co-director of the Comparative Media Studies at MIT and the author and/or editor of 12 books on media and pop culture, was the keynote speaker.

Presented by the University Art Museum and the Art Directors Guild of America, the conference included panels and workshops all of which discussed the future of various forms of design.

Among the moderators were John Tarnoff, from Dreamworks Animation; Ann White, a programming executive from PRN by Thomson; Scott Fisher, Interactive Media chair at USC; and Alex McDowell, a production designer who has worked on the films Minority Report, Fight Club and Watchmen.

Workshops featured Disney Imagineers, Dreamworks animation artists and other industry experts to explore the impact of technology in their fields and new advancements in creating engaging visual experiences.

To see the 5D Conference YouTube Channel and videos from some of the guest speakers click here: http://www.youtube.com/user/5Dconference08

College of the Arts Dean Talks UAM and Christopher Scoates

College of the Arts Dean Para spoke about the University Art Museum’s plans for a new smart facility and how Christopher Scoates is leading the way.

The smart facility, Para said, will be a big bonus for the UAM as well as the university.
Right now there are three to five possibilities that are being explore, said Para. These options, he said, are primarily associated with private donors.

The UAM is still looking for a partner along with the city of Long Beach and President F. King Alexander is still in the conversation stages with people in the city such as the mayor and the development manager.

The president has “championed the idea of moving the museum downtown and has provided great leadership in integrating the university with the city of Long Beach,” said Para.

And despite current economic woes, Para remains optimistic about completing the museum in 2011.

It would be a simple construction, Para explained, since a lot of the museum would be open space.

The “cutting-edge facility with wonderful art collections” would not only provide the UAM with the space and resources it needs to grow as a museum, said Para, it would also show a link between the university and the city.

“Everybody wins in that one,” he said.

As for Christopher Scoates, the UAM director, Para said, he is “a tireless worker on behalf of the UAM.” Scoates is “good at attracting an amazing group of people from art, entertainment and technology worlds to serve on his advisory board,” he said.

Scoates, Para said, has a “unique vision for the museum. He believes art is not just stuff you hang on the wall.”