The Map and the Territory: 100 Years of Collecting at UCLA

July 1–October 24, 2021

The Map and the Territory distills the vast holdings of UCLA’s diverse collections into a single exhibition. Some 160 representative objects tell stories and make new meanings in exciting and unexpected ways. Organized by the Fowler Museum in partnership with the Hammer Museum and the UCLA Library, and featuring works from additional campus collections, the exhibition juxtaposes rare books and manuscripts, historic prints, contemporary paintings and drawings, abstract animations, ceramics, musical instruments, bird and animal specimens, meteorites, and more. Together, these seemingly disparate things invite you to explore the world, its communities, and the universe beyond. The Map and the Territory serves as a guide to the valuable place these collections hold in the history of UCLA’s pursuit of knowledge in our global society.

PRESS RELEASE
The Map and the Territory: 100 Years of Collecting at UCLA

Video
Exhibition Preview

Director of Exhibitions Sebastian Clough and architect Benjamin Weisgall created this video by digitally 3D-modeling each object and rendering the exhibition­ space frame by frame to convey visitor experience. Take a look at the video to immerse yourself virtually into the gallery and the range of displayed objects, including ancient ceramics, contemporary art installations, maps, architectural models, and even meteorites, all assembled from UCLA’s diverse collections.

Article
Exhibition Titles are Tricky

Exhibition titles are tricky things: they need to convey a sense of what viewers will see quickly, accurately, and—ideally—with some memorable phrasing. As we developed the exhibition that we now call The Map and the Territory: 100 Years of Collecting at UCLA, the curatorial team from the Fowler, the Hammer, and the UCLA Library considered a number of different titles.

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Participating Campus Collections:

Fowler Museum at UCLA
Archaeology Collection | Fowler Museum
Hammer Museum
UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts
Library Special Collections | UCLA Library
Film and Television Archive | UCLA Library
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
UCLA Meteorite Collection
Benjamin and Gladys Thomas Air Photo Archive
UCLA Rock Art Archive
Donald R. Dickey Collection of Birds and Mammals
World Musical Instrument Collection
Ethnomusicology Archive

The Map and the Territory is made possible by major funding from the Office of the Centennial | UCLA External Affairs. Additional support is provided by our UCLA Spark crowdfunding campaign donors.