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.

Saturday, October 10, 11am – 12pm | RSVP
DISRUPT the Fowler: Denisse Ariana Pérez

Denisse is a DISRUPTOR in the field of photography. Her work, such as the Men in Water series, addresses the fluidity of the masculine identity. Denisse identifies herself as a “people photographer” and provokes her viewers to dive deep and challenge the public consciousness. By depicting a vulnerable balance between her subjects and their environments, Denisse rewrites the narrative surrounding the idea of masculinity.

Denisse Ariana Pérez is a Caribbean-born, Copenhagen-based copywriter and photographer. Her photographic work gives “a face to culture,” highlighting the beauty of marginalized groups she feels inspired by and connected to, such as Afro and LGBTQI+ communities. Her photography has been featured in a variety of publications, including The Guardian, El Pais, VICE, Afropunk, Dazed, Ignant, Marie Claire, and Accent Magazine. Denisse currently works as a freelance Senior Creative and is represented by Probation Agency London as a photographer worldwide.

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.

Program Recording: “DISRUPT the Fowler: Denisse Ariana Pérez,” October 10, 2020.

Monday, October 12, 5-6pm | RSVP
Curator’s Choice: Mystical Romanticism

Legends have long told of fantastic beasts and unexplained phenomena. On Catalina Island, located off the coast of Los Angeles, stories of Nephilim, giants, hollowed earth portals, ancient aliens, and white Indians have obscured the actual 10,000+ year history of the Tongva people on Pimungna (as they call Catalina). The Pimu Catalina Island Archaeology Project was founded in 2007 to counteract the deep lack of understanding about Tongva history, the Indigenous people of the Los Angeles basin, and the four Southern Channel Islands. Panelists will share some of their favorite experiences on and historical documents about Catalina Island, and will unpack the implications of its legends.

Panelists will include Pimu Catalina Island Archaeology Project Co-Director Wendy Giddens Teeter, Curator of Archaeology, Fowler Museum at UCLA; Desiree R. Martinez (Tongva) President, Cogstone Resource Management; and Karimah Kennedy Richardson, Associate Curator, Autry Museum of the American West.

This program is co-presented by Catalina Island Museum.

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

Program Recording: “Curator’s Choice: Mystical Romanticism,” October 12, 2020.

Saturday, October 17, 12pm – 1:15pm | RSVP
Share the Mic: Incarcerated Arts

Art programs for incarcerated youth and adults provide healing-informed strategies for coping with trauma and the significant challenges of re-entering society. These programs empower the imprisoned to break generational cycles and reclaim their individual narratives; they also provide opportunities for those outside prison walls to see the value and creative potential of all human beings.

Join us for a panel discussion with the inspirational leaders of art programs for imprisoned people. We’ll explore how museums and other cultural and academic institutions can destigmatize and center incarcerated voices in the public sphere and elevate all forms of experience and knowledge.

Panelists will include Bidhan Roy, co-founder of WordsUncaged and Faculty Director of CSULA’s Bachelor of Arts program at Lancaster State Prison; Tobias Tubbs, spoken word artist, former inmate, and co-founder of WordsUncaged; Fabian Debora, Executive Director of Somos L.A. Arte – Homeboy Art Academy; and Jahanna Blunt, Program Director of Rhythm Arts Alliance. Conversation will be moderated by Amy Landau, Director of Education and Interpretation at the Fowler Museum.

With days left before the November election, the panel will conclude with a spoken word performance by Tobias Tubbs, “When I’m President.”

Share the Mic
The Fowler believes in the civic duty of museums to give forum to different points of view and is committed to amplifying the voices and concerns of Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized people. This series offers a platform to thought leaders—artists, activists, and allies—who are guiding us along the arc of justice.

Program Recording: “Share the Mic: Incarcerated Arts,” October 17, 2020.

Tobias Tubbs: “When I’m President”

Monday, October 19, 12-12:30pm | RSVP
Lunch & Learn: El Anatsui

The Ghanaian artist El Anatsui (b. 1944) dazzled the art world with his monumental textile-like wall panels exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2007. At the same time, the Fowler was hosting a solo exhibition of Anatsui’s large-scale works, including Versatility (2006), a sculptural wall assemblage that hangs today in the museum’s exhibition space, Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives. Visitors often mistake Versatility’s shimmering surface for a cloth woven from gold; in reality, El Anatsui used thousands of metal liquor bottle wrappers. Join Fowler Director Marla C. Berns, who was instrumental in acquiring Versatility for the museum’s permanent collection, as she discusses the complex meanings and inspirations behind this sumptuous work.

Program Recording: “Lunch & Learn: El Anatsui,” October 19, 2020.

Monday, October 26, 12-12:30 | RSVP
Lunch & Learn: An Ancient Acrobat

Join Chief Curator Matthew Robb as he explores one of the Fowler’s most intriguing ancient Mexican objects: a small ceramic vessel in the form of an acrobat balancing a ball on his feet. The use of gold leaf and finely painted imagery suggests that this object required great skill to make and may have been used in a courtly feast. Learn how to recognize the distinct features of the Nahua-Mixteca style, and how artists used it to record epic histories and ritual practices in a variety of objects, from screen-fold books, to precious metals, to ceramics like this acrobat figure.

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.

Program Recording: “Lunch & Learn: An Ancient Acrobat,” October 26, 2020.

Friday, October 23, 5–6 pm | RSVP
Festivals in the City of Angels: Día de los Muertos and Linares Studio

Get into the spirit of Día de los Muertos by joining us for a conversation with Self Help Graphics & Art’s teaching artist William Acedo and the Coronado Family, and hear their perspectives on calacas by Felipe Linares in the Fowler’s collection. Norma and Edgar Coronado learned the craft of making calacas cartonerías (papier-mâché skeletons) from William Acedo through Self-Help Graphics & Art’s community art workshops and became master craftsmen themselves.

Self-Help Graphics & Art is the leading non-profit visual arts center serving the Latino community of Los Angeles. Founded in 1970 in the heart of East Los Angeles, Self Help Graphics & Art is dedicated to the production, interpretation, and distribution of prints and other art media by Chicana/o and Latinx artists. Their multidisciplinary, intergenerational programs promote artistic excellence and empower our community by providing access to space, tools, training, and capital.

William Acedo is a member of Self-Help Graphics & Art’s Artists’ Roundtable. Besides printing, he assists with the popular calavera papier-mâché workshops and the annual Día de los Muertos celebrations. His detailed, narrative woodcut prints can be found in the permanent collections of LACMA, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and in the private collection of Cheech Marin.

Program Recording: “Festivals in the City of Angels: Día de los Muertos and Linares Studio,” October 23, 2020.

Festivals in the City of Angels
This series connects the museum programs with communities across the city in order to better understand manifestations of lived religions in Los Angeles and support local expressions of global faiths.

This program is generously supported by the Lilly Endowment.

Saturday, October 24, 4-5pm | RSVP
A Global Destination for Art: Amir H. Fallah

Iranian-born artist Amir H. Fallah uses personal history as an entry point for discussions of race, the body, and the memories of cultures and countries left behind, while also interrogating systems of representation embedded in Western art. His newest body of work probes the history of portraiture, reimagining it as standing apart from the body altogether and offering a wider representation of personhood. Join the Fowler for an artist-led walk-through of his current exhibition at Shulamit Nazarian Los Angeles, followed by a conversation with Shiva Balaghi, Ph.D.

Shiva Balaghi, Ph.D., is a cultural historian who specializes in the arts of the Middle East and its diasporic communities. For nearly two decades, she taught History and Art History at NYU and Brown University. She is currently Senior Advisor to the President and Provost of the American University in Cairo on Arts and Cultural Programs.

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 with international artists creating in our City of Angels.

This program is co-presented by the Farhang Foundation

Program Recording: “A Global Destination for Art: Amir H. Fallah,” October 24, 2020.

Friday, October 30, 5-6pm | RSVP
Global Cuisine Cooking Lessons: Guelaguetza

The renowned Oaxacan restaurant Guelaguetza’s website says it all: ilovemole.com. In honor of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, which is often celebrated with a dinner of mole, co-owner Bricia Lopez will teach us how to make the restaurant’s famous Estofado de Pollo (chicken in mole estofado), a dish featured in the restaurant’s 2019 cookbook, Oaxaca: Home Cooking from the Heart of Mexico. Ingredients list will be sent upon RSVP. Come with supplies prepared and ready to cook!

Bricia Lopez is an entrepreneur, cultural ambassador, and key figure in LA’s gastronomic world. Her family’s restaurant, which won the James Beard Foundation Award, helped put Oaxacan cuisine and culture at the forefront of today’s dynamic culinary scene. Bricia lives in LA with her husband and son, and travels frequently to Oaxaca.

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.

Program Recording: “Global Cuisine Cooking Lessons: Guelaguetza,” October 30, 2020.