It’s almost unheard of for a first-year college student to curate an exhibition at a prestigious art institution. Yet, on a recent December afternoon, three new undergraduates at UC Berkeley — Raena Chan, Emma Cusimano and Caitlyn Liao — guided visitors around Five Tables of Art & Climate Change, a one-day pop-up show they helped curate at the campus’s Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).
In a section of the museum normally reserved for archival research, the...
The Department of Art Practice within the Division of Arts & Humanities is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The department’s two-year MFA program, which supports on average a dozen graduate students, is also welcoming its 100th MFA class this fall with increased resources for students.
Voted in by the Academic Senate in 1923, the department was one of the first of its kind, founded at a time when arts education wasn't widely offered, particularly at the university level. Prior to the Department of Art Practice’s...
UC Berkeley’s Division of Arts & Humanities is pleased to welcome professor Luanne Redeye as of July 1, 2023. Redeye is an assistant professor in the Department of Art Practice, where her works utilize a Native lens to share her experiences and perspective of navigating a modern world as a Native woman.
Having grown up on the Allegany Indian Reservation in Western New York and an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians and Hawk Clan, Redeye incorporates community, family and culture into her artwork. Her...
The Division of Arts & Humanities at UC Berkeley is pleased to welcome professor Darian Longmire as of July 1, 2023. Longmire is an assistant professor in the Department of Art Practice where he utilizes his artwork to articulate the dichotomy of Blackness through invisible matter, black holes and time warps. With years of experience studying mediums like digital processes, drawing, printmaking and design, Longmire considers himself a "remixer," utilizing his skills to create a world of abstraction.
A surprising number of acclaimed women artists have come out of Berkeley, working in a wide array of mediums and styles and hailing from different backgrounds. Here are a few we’d like to draw your attention to because their work was/is startlingly original and their messages carry a lasting urgency. And of course, they have a good story to tell.
A few years ago, when Heesoo Kwon was visiting South Korea during a summer break from her MFA program at Berkeley, she found old home videos of her family. Watching the decades-old interactions among her family members and the Catholic rituals they practiced fascinated her. But in one video, her mother stood by the table while others ate, waiting to serve them. It made Kwon angry.
Driven by the sadness she felt about how women were treated in Korea and what her female ancestors had endured, Kwon tried to reimagine their history. She designed a digital avatar of herself, which she...
Each year, nine seniors in the Department of Art Practice are selected to receive an honors studio for their final semester. Each student receives their own studio space with 24/7 access. The studio space allows students to work on longer-term projects and explore new mediums alongside their cohort. Arts & Humanities had the opportunity to interview three of the nine students in this year's honors studios as they completed their final projects for Professor Stephanie Syjuco's Art + Archive class.
Ruby Jay works in painting and installation and is an honors studio recipient. They...
Each year, nine seniors in the Department of Art Practice are selected to receive an honors studio for their final semester. Each student receives their own studio space with 24/7 access. The studio space allows students to work on longer-term projects and explore new mediums alongside their cohort. Arts & Humanities had the opportunity to interview three of the nine students in this year's honors studios as they completed their final projects for Professor Stephanie Syjuco's Art + Archive class. Jacob Li Rosenberg is a multi-media artist who is graduating this spring. All photos by...
Each year, nine seniors in the Department of Art Practice are selected to receive an honors studio for their final semester. Each student receives their own studio space with 24/7 access. The studio space allows students to work on longer-term projects and explore new mediums alongside their cohort. Arts & Humanities had the opportunity to interview three of the nine students in this year's honors studios as they completed their final projects for Professor Stephanie Syjuco's Art + Archive class.
Armaan Mumtaz is an honors studio recipient, the recipient of the department...