CalArts, unknown, ca. 1971-1972. B/w photograph. California Institute of the Arts Archives Photographic Materials Collection.
Issue 6
Winter/Spring
“Look into people’s eyes when you speak with them. Establish rapport. Human beings have the home field advantage here in the real world. But being human is a team sport.” –Douglas Rushkoff Technology keeps Douglas Rushkoff (Theater MFA 86) awake at night. Not because he’s busy using it, but because he’s concerned about the ways…
For centuries there’s been symbiosis between art making and teaching. It not only provides a source of income for artists, but also a way to refine their skills and connect with a new generation of makers. Today that tradition lives on, and there’s hardly a better example than Rhodes School of Music founder, David Rhodes…
The Kestner Gesellschaft’s Where Art Might Happen: The Early Years of CalArts takes a magnifying glass to the Institute’s first decade (1970–1980) and the legendary artists it produced during this era and beyond. The show’s title refers to a John Baldessari quote about his belief that art was not teachable, but that one could set up…
A principal dancer for 12 years with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Holley Farmer joined the CalArts faculty and is currently teaching Cunningham’s technique to students in The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance. She will also serve as director of the BFA program in Dance. As a stager, Farmer is authorized by the Merce…
“I really like how all these differences are trying to come together, finding a way to fight gravity together. The only way they can do it is through negotiation.” –Shirley Tse Venice Biennale is known as “The Olympics of the Art World” for its international participation, and this year, CalArts students, faculty, and alumni have…
OFF CAMPUS Standoff in Oregon CalArts School of Critical Studies faculty Anthony McCann’s new nonfiction book Shadowlands is an apocalypse-flavored account of the Oregon standoff of 2016. The book examines the deep historical, religious, and ecological contexts of the high desert showdown that kicked off one of the more tumultuous years in recent American memory….
It is with great sorrow that we note the passing of Suzan Pitt, a singular artist and one of the great contributors to the art of animation in the last century. Friend and faculty colleague, Maureen Selwood remembers: The Experimental Animation Program invited Suzan to teach at CalArts in 1998. She came to us providing…
When the hardcore band Touché Amoré played its 1,000th show last year, its members were feeling nostalgic. Nick Steinhardt (Art BFA 09), who has been the band’s guitarist since its start in 2008, had an idea. He wanted to design a retrospective book honoring the 10th anniversary of the band’s first record. The result is…
“Jade Jackson may be the next big country-rock star,” proclaimed a full-page write-up in the Los Angeles Times earlier this year. By all accounts, her career is taking off. After releasing her second country-rock infused album, Wilderness, she’s been touring extensively, participated in a performance and conversation at the Los Angeles Grammy Museum, and will…
The internationally acclaimed exhibition, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983, made its West Coast debut at The Broad in Los Angeles and was on view through September. Beginning at the height of the Civil Rights movement and running through the activism of subsequent years, the show featured era-defining work…