Beginning this fall, local residents and travelers to Southern California will have an added incentive to visit UCLA, already well-known as a major cultural center in the West. The new Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center, opening in mid-September on north campus, features "T.E.U.C.L.A.," a 42.5-ton torqued ellipse by Richard Serra, which has been installed on the plaza. The Serra sculpture is the first work by the artist to be on permanent view in a public space in Southern California. The Broad Art Center, designed by Richard Meier & Partners Architects, is located adjacent to the internationally renowned Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden. The center enhances the campus's rich cultural attractions, which include the Fowler and Hammer museums and UCLA Live, a major performing arts program.

The Murphy Sculpture Garden, one of the most distinguished outdoor collections of its kind in the country, spans five acres on UCLA's north campus and features more than 70 sculptures by artists such as Alexander Calder, Claire Falkenstein, Barbara Hepworth, Gaston Lachaise, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, Auguste Rodin, David Smith and Francisco Zuñiga.

Visitors will see the new installation of the garden, where some of the works have been strategically re-sited to other parts of the garden in order to accommodate the construction of the Broad Art Center. Jacques Lipchitz's "The Song of the Vowels" and Isamu Noguchi's "Garden Elements" now greet visitors at the southeast entrance to the garden near the campus' Public Policy Building. Additional works by Jean Arp, Émile-Antoine Bourdelle, Pietro Consagra, Henri Laurens and Bernard Rosenthal have been relocated within the site. Anna Mahler's limestone "Tower of Masks" is now on view for the first time since it was restored after being damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. In addition, new landscaping and conservation on various sculptures have greatly improved the appearance of this beloved UCLA landmark.

The Broad Art Center, which houses the visual arts programs at UCLA, offers an ongoing public series of free exhibitions and lectures at the New Wight Gallery and the EDA (experimental digital arts) space. 

The New Wight Gallery, established in 1995, is a vital center on the UCLA campus for the display and discussion of student art, design and media arts work. In winter and spring quarters, master's of fine arts exhibitions representing work from the UCLA Department of Art and the UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts are presented in the 5,500-square-foot gallery, offering each graduating M.F.A. student a professional exhibition setting for their work and an appropriate venue for review by their graduate faculty committees.

The annual Department of Art Juried Exhibition includes work selected from student submissions by a well-known critic or curator. The gallery also provides a venue for the annual self-selected Department of Art Senior Show. The New Wight Gallery committee, comprised of graduate students in art, design | media arts, and architecture and urban design, curates biennial exhibitions of graduate student work, drawing from M.F.A. programs across the United States and abroad.  In alternating years, the committee organizes themed exhibitions, including work from Southern California area art schools. The 2006 Wight Biennial exhibition will take place from Nov. 19-30.

The UCLA Department of Art's popular Visiting Artists Lecture Series continues to be presented at the UCLA Hammer Museum with a lecture by Marcia Tucker at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19. Organized by members of the department's faculty, the series has in the past featured well-known artists and scholars such as Parveen Adams, Judith Barry, Matthew Barney, Mark Bradford, Coco Fusco, Alfredo Jaar, Glenn Ligon and Orlan.

The UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts offers a variety of events throughout the year for the public's education and enjoyment, including public lectures, workshops and demonstrations by leaders in the fields of design, new media, science, architecture and culture and society. The events are presented in the EDA (experimental digital arts), located on the first level of the new Broad Art Center. The EDA was conceived for talks and short-term fluid events and installations. Live streaming of the lectures is available on the Web.

Information and confirmation of events programming is available at the department of art at (310) 825-0557 or www.art.ucla.edu; and the department of design | media arts at (310) 825-9007 or www.design.ucla.edu. To schedule a group tour of the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, contact Trinidad Ruiz at (310) 443-7041 or email truiz@hammer.ucla.edu. Campus parking costs $8 and is available in Lot 3. (Enter the campus at Hilgard Avenue and Wyton Drive.)

Exhibitions of works by world-renowned artists who are members of the faculty in the UCLA Department of Art and the UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts will highlight the opening of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center this fall.

The exhibitions will be on view from Sept. 14 through Oct. 26 in the New Wight Gallery and the first- and second-level spaces of the tower located in the Broad Art Center. Hours are noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; open until 7 p.m. Thursday. The gallery is closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is free. Fully illustrated catalogues will complement the exhibitions.

A press preview for the Broad Art Center will take place at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 13. Speakers will include Eli Broad, Richard Meier and Richard Serra. From 6-9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30, a public reception to celebrate the two faculty exhibitions will take place in the New Wight Gallery. The exhibitions are:

·         "SIXTEEN TONS," the UCLA Department of Art exhibition at the Broad Art Center — curated by Michael Darling, the Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum — will feature works by faculty members John Baldessari, Jennifer Bolande, Chris Burden (emeritus), Barbara Drucker, Roger Herman, Mary Kelly, Paul McCarthy (emeritus), Catherine Opie, Hirsch Perlman, Lari Pittman, Charles Ray, Nancy Rubins (emeritus), Adrian Saxe, Don Suggs, James Welling (acting chair) and Patty Wickman.

·         "SECOND NATURES," the UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts exhibition — curated by Christiane Paul, adjunct curator of new media arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City — will feature work by faculty members Rebecca Allen, Robert Israel, Rebeca Méndez, Vasa Mihich, Christian Moeller, C.E.B. Reas, Jennifer Steinkamp and Victoria Vesna (chair). Faculty who teach theory in the department—Erkki Huhtamo and Katherine Hayles — contributed essays to the catalogue for the exhibition.

Eli and Edythe Broad donated $23.2 million toward the construction of a renovated complex at UCLA that will provide modern facilities, including interactive multimedia technology, studio space for students, updated classrooms and galleries for student exhibitions and public presentations, as well as office and conference space.

In reconstructing and seismically repairing the existing eight-story structure, which was severely damaged in the Northridge earthquake, Richard Meier & Partners Architects transformed the building, creating a distinctive new home for the world-class visual arts programs of the School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLArts), while integrating the complex into the surrounding campus. The contemporary building of architectural concrete, teak, stainless steel and glass is located on an important north-south pedestrian axis, which is integrated into the building plan.

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