ART EVERYWHERE: A Flashmob That Really Sings

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Hopefully, the flashmob craze as a means of Astroturf campaign advertising has settled into the realm of lessened popularity (along with planking, one would presume). But leave it to the fine arts to take a craze and turn it into a truly remarkable experience. Bravo to the Copenhagen Philharmonic!!

This reminds me of the amazing Milk campaign executed by the Dortmund Concert Hall

 

An Open Letter On the Attempted Closing of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden

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The UCLA-owned Japanese Garden is a marvelous plot of land unique to the Los Angeles landscape. In lieu of making real budget cuts to exorbitant administrative costs, Chancellor Gene Block has led the charge to sell-off this one-of-a-kind property under the public eye.

Send him your own e-mail at chancellor@ucla.edu and SIGN THE PETITION! Here’s my response…

Concerning the Tumultuous Future of the UCLA Arts Library

Blog, Writing Samples

As a student leader in the push to save the UCLA Arts Library from dismemberment, actions including a petition signed by 4,000 people, coverage in the Daily Bruin {not once, but twice} and an outpouring of Social Media hits, we were successful in keeping the library in tact with full operating hours. Below is the open letter I wrote to the University President…

There are many things that college has taught me and a great things I am yet to learn. As a World Arts and Cultures major, I am no stranger to outrage at the disintegration of the arts in our modern society. Indeed, a core principle of my education thus far has been towards sensitivity to the frailty of the arts. Yet, I am not so oblivious to believe that the building of great monuments to the arts in LA such as the New Getty, Walt Disney Concert Hall or the new Kaufman and Broad buildings would not, in time, render other venues in the city inauspicious at best, or frivolous at worst. With every great achievement, previous greatness becomes yesterday’s news. With the crowning achievements that the internet has achieved in the past two decades, the written word, the printed book or the writing on the wall has been rendered sub-par. And it comes with deep regret and sadness that I hear news of the tumultuous future of our arts library here at the University of California, Los Angeles.