Los Angeles, with its communities from around the world, is a melting pot of traditions and practices. During this period of Safer at Home, the Fowler is pleased to offer digital programs celebrating world arts and cultures. All programs are free. RSVP to receive the link to join.

Curator’s Choice
Join curators for lively conversations about their passions and projects that inspire audiences to engage with different worldviews and find joy in the diversity of human experiences.

Séisme (Earthquake) | RSVP
Tuesday, January 12, 11am-12pm

On the 11-year anniversary of a devastating earthquake in Haiti, the Fowler’s Curatorial and Research Associate of Haitian Arts, Katherine Smith, and Assistant Professor of Art History and Africana Studies at Boston College, Kyrah Malika Daniels, discuss Séisme (Earthquake), a beaded flag created in 2010 by Haitian artist Evelyne Alcide. In Séisme, Alcide details the nightmarish post-earthquake landscape of Port-au-Prince. The artwork conflates city and cemetery, revealing the overwhelming presence of the dead, while Vodou spirits and angels hover above the carnage.

Katherine Smith, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and a Visiting Researcher in the UCLA International Institute. She has held fellowships at Brown University and New York University, and publishes regularly in academic journals and edited volumes. Smith has played a curatorial role in two exhibitions: Reframing Haiti: Art, History and Performativity at Brown University (2011) and In Extremis: Life and Death in 21st Century Haitian Art at the Fowler Museum (2012). She is the lead curator on the forthcoming retrospective on Haitian textile artist Myrlande Constant at the Fowler Museum. Smith is finishing a manuscript on death, art, and the religious imaginary in urban Haiti.

Kyrah Malika Daniels, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Art History, African & African Diaspora Studies, and Theology at Boston College. Her research interests include Africana religions, sacred arts, material culture, and ritual healing traditions. Daniels was awarded a Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art for 2019-20. She is currently completing her first book, Art of the Healing Gods, which examines sacred art objects used in healing ceremonies to treat spiritual illnesses in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Following the Haitian earthquake of 2010, she worked in St. Raphael, Haiti, with Lakou Solèy Academic and Cultural Arts Center, a grassroots organization that develops arts-based pedagogy. Daniels currently serves as Co-Vice President for KOSANBA, the Scholarly Association for the Study of Haitian Vodou.

Program recording: “Curator’s Choice: Séisme (Earthquake),” January 12, 2021.

Engaging Lived Religion
The Fowler’s new initiative, “Engaging Lived Religion in the 21st Century Museum,” generously funded by Lilly Endowment Inc, brings to the fore lived, multisensory experiences of religion in Los Angeles. Offering a platform to different religious and spiritual viewpoints, these programs facilitate greater appreciation of the rich, diverse, and indispensable knowledge of our city’s faith-based communities.

Crafting Cartographies – Mapping LA | RSVP
Friday, January 22, 4-5:30pm

UCLA has several pioneering digital projects that map Los Angeles and enable people to visualize and interact with the city’s layered histories of humanity, from sacred burial sites to beloved corner delis. This panel brings together for the first time contributors to Mapping Jewish Los Angeles, Mapping Indigenous LA, and the Fowler’s Vermont Avenue project. The goal is to share the results of these digital projects; to better understand the city’s cultural and spiritual geographies; and ultimately to explore how this knowledge might inform museum practices.

Panelists include Todd Presner, Chair of UCLA’s Digital Humanities program and the Michael and Irene Ross Professor of Germanic Languages and Comparative Literature; Caroline Luce, Associate Director, UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies; Patrick Polk, Senior Curator of Caribbean and Latin American Popular Arts, Fowler Museum at UCLA, and lecturer in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance; Christopher Greene, former Curatorial Assistant and Geographic Information Systems Specialist, Fowler Museum at UCLA; Professor Mishuana Goeman (Tonawanda Band of Seneca), Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs at UCLA; Craig Torres, Tongva Educator, contributor to UCLA’s Mapping Indigenous LA; and Juliann Anesi, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at UCLA. Panel will be moderated by Genevieve Carpio, Assistant Professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies at UCLA.

This program is presented in partnership with the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and Mapping Jewish Los Angeles.

Program recording: “Engaging Lived Religion: Crafting Cartographies – Mapping LA,” January 22, 2021.

A Global Destination for Art
Artists from all over the world flock to work in Los Angeles, drawn by the energy of ingenuity and the space for experimental expression. Join us on Zoom as we visit the work spaces of international artists creating in our City of Angels.

Ardeshir Tabrizi | RSVP
Saturday, January 23, 12–1:00 pm

Ardeshir Tabrizi’s colorful mixed media paintings and works on paper feature imagery and methods that reference the rich literary and visual traditions of Iran, a country he left in his childhood. Tabrizi draws on the Shahnameh, an ancient epic poem describing the history of Persian kingship; historical artifacts, tapestries, rugs, and embroideries; and his own memories. Join the Fowler’s Director of Education and Interpretation Amy Landau for a virtual visit to the artist’s studio and a conversation with Tabrizi about his chosen iconography, which represents the many opposing cultural, political, and religious ideologies that have existed throughout the history of Iran.

Ardeshir Tabrizi was born in Tehran, Iran. He left the county with his family at age four in 1986, during the Iran-Iraq War, and settled in Los Angeles, where he currently lives and works.

This program is presented in partnership with Farhang Foundation.

Program recording: “A Global Destination for Art: Ardeshir Tabrizi,” January 23, 2021.

Lunch & Learn
The Fowler’s Lunch & Learn series offers easily digestible explorations of charismatic objects from around the world in our permanent collection. Join us to chew on some sustenance and feed your mind during your lunch break.

The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth | RSVP
Monday, January 25, 12–12:30 pm

Join Elena Phipps for a program unraveling the Peruvian tradition of weaving textiles with four finished edges—also known as selvages. She will highlight examples from the Fowler Museum’s noteworthy collection of pre-Columbian textiles that demonstrate the high level of artistic achievement of Peruvian weavers, known for their mastery of color, technique, and design.

Elena Phipps, Ph.D., Columbia University (pre-Columbian Art History and Archaeology, 1989) has focused her professional work on the study of the history of textile materials and techniques in cultural contexts. She was senior conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1977- 2010), where she co-curated two major textile exhibitions: The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork 1430-1830 (2004; the accompanying catalogue received the CAA Alfred Barr Jr. Award and the Mitchell Prize) and The Interwoven Globe: Worldwide Textile Trade (2013). In 2013, Phipps guest curated the Fowler exhibition, The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth: Ancient Threads, New Directions, and authored its catalogue. She was President of the Textile Society of America (2011-14); and has taught textile history, techniques, and cultures in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Culture/Dance and at the Fowler Museum since 2011.

Program recording: “Lunch & Learn: The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth,” January 25, 2021.

Global Cuisine Cooking Lessons
Variety is the spice of life. Learn how LA’s favorite international restaurants cook up their most famous, easy-to-make dishes in live cooking classes led by their chefs on Zoom. When food is your love language, some secrets are too good not to share.

Pearl River Deli Cantonese | RSVP
Tuesday, January 26, 5–6 pm

The Chinatown neighborhood in Los Angeles was established by immigrants from the Cantonese “Pearl River Delta” region of China. The aptly named Pearl River Deli—Chef Johnny Lee’s newest restaurant—offers an innovative take on Cantonese food with a small but strong menu that changes regularly. It celebrates the natural state of ingredients and reflects Lee’s appreciation, preservation, and evolution of Cantonese cuisine. Join the Fowler and the “Prince of Poultry” Chef Lee to learn how to make his famous Soy Sauce Chicken with Ginger Scallion Sauce. Ingredients list will be sent upon RSVP. Come with supplies prepared and ready to cook!

Program recording: “Global Cuisine Cooking Lessons: Pearl River Deli,” January 26, 2021.

DISRUPT the Fowler
DISRUPT is a UCLA student design organization that aims to establish inclusive spaces and create opportunities for students of all backgrounds to engage in creative collaborations. The Fowler is honored to partner with DISRUPT to offer programs that break down barriers in the art world, and promote innovative ideation through inclusivity, diversity, equity, and accessibility.

MEAR ONE | RSVP
Friday, January 29, 4–5pm

MEAR ONE is a DISRUPTOR in the world of fine arts; his work calls on viewers to think beyond the canvas. MEAR ONE has been at the forefront of LA’s graffiti and mural culture for nearly four decades, earning his status as a pioneer of the Melrose graffiti art movement in the late 80s and one of the city’s most prolific public muralists. His works’ powerful narratives juxtapose philosophy, ancient mythology, and modern politics to inspire an evolved consciousness, achieved through a balanced dialogue between surrealism and metaphysics. MEAR ONE helps us envision the sublime spirit of our time—not by escaping reality, but by confronting it head on.

MEAR ONE (Kalen Ockerman) was the first graffiti artist to exhibit at the infamous 01 Gallery on Melrose, as well as at 33 1/3 Gallery in Silverlake, where Banksy would later debut his first North American show. MEAR ONE’s work was part of the landmark 2011 Art in the Streets exhibition at the MOCA Los Angeles, Street Cred at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and Last Thursday at the Orlando Museum of Fine Art. His artworks reside in the permanent collection of the Laguna Fine Art Museum as well as in numerous private collections across North America.