The Fowler Museum at UCLA, commonly known as The Fowler, and formerly Museum of Cultural History and Fowler Museum of Cultural History, is a museum on the campus of the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...
(UCLA) which explores art and material culture primarily from
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
and the Pacific, and the Americas, past and present.
The Fowler is generally home to three to six art exhibitions and also acts as a venue for lectures on cultural topics, musical performances, art workshops, family programs, festivals and more. The Fowler is located in the northern part of UCLA's Westwood Campus, adjacent to
Royce Hall
Royce Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Designed by the Los Angeles firm of Allison & Allison (James Edward Allison, 1870–1955, and his brother David Clark Allison, 1881–1962) and completed ...
and
Glorya Kaufman Hall.
The museum is operated under the jurisdiction of
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture
The UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLA Arts) is a professional school at the University of California, Los Angeles. Through its four degree-granting departments, it provides a range of course offerings and programs. Additionally, th ...
(UCLA Arts).
History
The museum was established in 1963 by then UCLA Chancellor
Franklin D. Murphy
Franklin David Murphy (January 29, 1916 – June 16, 1994) was an American administrator, educator, and medical doctor. During his life, he served as Chancellor of the University of Kansas (KU) and Chancellor of the University of California, Los ...
as the Museum and Laboratories of Ethnic Arts and Technology.
Its first home was in the basement of Haines Hall on the UCLA campus. The goal of this new museum was to consolidate the various collections of non-Western art and artifacts on campus. In addition to active collecting, the museum initiated research projects, fieldwork, exhibitions and publications.
In 1971, the name was changed to the Museum of Cultural History and by 1975, its collections, in numbers and in quality, ranked it among the top four university museums in the country, a stature it retains to the present day.
In 1981, UCLA Chancellor
Charles E. Young, along with museum director,
Christopher B. Donnan Christopher B. Donnan is an archaeologist. He has researched the Moche civilization of ancient Peru for more than fifty years, conducting numerous excavations of Peruvian archaeological sites. Donnan has traveled the world photographing Moche artw ...
, developed a vision for a new building that would fully exhibit the immense collection. The $22-million structure, designed by architects Arnold C. Savrann and
John Carl Warnecke, was funded by both private gifts and state resources. The large facility called the Fowler Museum of Cultural History opened on September 30, 1992, named in recognition of lead support by the Fowler Foundation and the family of collector and inventor Francis E. Fowler Jr., former owner of
Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort (often abbreviated SoCo) is an American, naturally fruit-flavored, whiskey liqueur with fruit and spice accents. The brand was created by bartender Martin Wilkes Heron in New Orleans in 1874, using whiskey as the base spirit. W ...
. In 1996,
Doran H. Ross became the director of the Fowler. In 2006, the name of the museum was formally changed to the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
Fowler at Fifty
In the fall of 2013, the museum launched its fiftieth anniversary celebration with a night of festivities and the opening of eight special exhibitions from its global collections. The eight exhibitions, which ran through winter and spring of 2014, were:
*From the
Sepik River
The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...
to Los Angeles: Art in Migration
*Double Fortune, Double Trouble: Art for Twins among the Yorùbá
*Powerful Bodies:
Zulu Arts of Personal Adornment
*
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
Cloaks, Māori Voices
*The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth: Ancient Threads/New Directions
*New World
Wunderkammer: A Project by
Amalia Mesa-Bains
Amalia Mesa-Bains (born July 10, 1943),Telgen, page 272-273 is a Chicana curator, author, visual artist, and educator. She is best known for her large-scale installations that reference home altars and ''ofrendas''. Her work engages in a conceptu ...
*Chupícuaro: The
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles.
Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...
Gift of Ancient Mexican Ceramics
*From X to Why: A Museum Takes Shape
In addition to these exhibitions, the Fowler also exhibited new and promised gifts of art inside the rotating Fowler in Focus gallery, and presented ''Walk among Worlds'', an installation by artist Máximo González, composed of thousands of beach ball globes.
Collections
The Fowler's collections comprise more than 120,000 art and ethnographic and 600,000 archaeological objects representing ancient, traditional, and contemporary cultures of Africa, Native and Latin America, and Asia and the Pacific. From
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
beaded arts of Southern Nigeria, to pre-Columbian ceramic vessels of Peru, to elaborate
batik textiles of Indonesia and the vibrant papier-mâché sculptures of Mexico, the Fowler's collections offer a comprehensive resource for exhibitions and scholarship central to the museum's mandate.
The majority of the Fowler's holdings have been acquired via the generosity of individuals — researchers, scholars, and dedicated collectors — who have enabled the Fowler to build its world-class collections. The Sir Henry Wellcome Collection of 30,000 objects, assembled early in the 20th century by
Sir Henry Wellcome
Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (August 21, 1853 – July 25, 1936) was an American pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He founded the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Company with his colleague Silas Burroughs in 1880, which is one of the fo ...
and given to the museum in 1965, forms the core of its African and Pacific holdings and represents the single largest gift. More than 15,000 textiles trace the history of cloth over two millennia and across five continents.
Objects from the Fowler Family Silver Collection include 400 works representing 16th- through 19th-century Europe and the United States. Among these are vessels from the renowned workshops of
Paul de Lamerie
Paul de Lamerie (9 April 1688 – 1 August 1751) was a London-based silversmith. The Victoria and Albert Museum describes him as the "greatest silversmith working in England in the 18th century". He was being referred to as the ‘King’s si ...
,
Karl Fabergé, and
Paul Revere
Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.)May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, Sons of Liberty member, and Patriot and Founding Father. He is best known for his midnight ride to a ...
. In 1969, Hollywood actress
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles.
Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...
donated a remarkable collection of ancient
Chupícuaro Mexican ceramics to the Fowler Museum. In 2013, the Fowler Museum received several gifts in honor of its fiftieth anniversity. One gift was estimated to be worth around $14 million, from collector and Silicon Valley pioneer
Jay Last and his wife, Deborah. As reported by the
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
, the gift consisted of 92 wood and ivory objects from the Lega people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Most of the holdings have been collected in the field and systematically documented, providing essential contextual information. Maintaining geographical scope and artistic variety and building on existing strengths continue to be guiding principles in acquisitions decisions. For example, as the museum augments its programming to meet the interests of the city's growing Latin American population, collection activities in this area have increased. An exceptional collection of more than 900 Mexican works was donated in 1997 by the Daniel Family and includes magnificent ceramic Trees of Life,
Day of the Dead figurines, and masks from Metepec, Oaxaca, Michoacan, Jalisco, Puebla, and Guanajuato.
Public programs
Offered throughout the year, the Fowler's public programs are designed to reflect and complement its dynamic exhibition program, as well as highlight the museum's world-renowned collection of art from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas. Public programs at the Fowler Museum are typically free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.
Conversations and lectures
Current and ongoing exhibitions provide the starting point for programming that touches upon scholarly as well as general interest topics. The signature series, Fowler OutSpoken, features speakers in a lecture, conversation, or panel format, and provides audiences with access to emerging and established artists, curators, scholars, performers, and other cultural figures.
Concert and performances
The Fowler offers educational and entertaining events throughout the year showcasing world music and performances by local and international artists. Fowler Out Loud is the museum's performance series that takes place on Thursday nights throughout the academic school year and features international music, dance, poetry, theater, and performance art by UCLA students.
Events and tours
From artist walkthroughs to monthly Culture Fix gallery chats, the Fowler offers numerous opportunities to engage with its exhibitions. In-depth study programs and the museum's signature Fowler on the Town series feature site visits to places of interest in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.
Film screenings and workshops
The Fowler presents film screenings throughout the year. The Fowler offers documentaries and features that relate to current exhibitions. Cooking programs, hands-on demonstrations, and dance and yoga are offered on occasion.
Education
The primary mission of the Fowler's Education Department is to strengthen global arts and humanities education by helping to increase understanding of our world's cultural and artistic traditions.
School Visit Program
The Fowler Museum invites K-12 students to experience global arts during self-guided and guided tours. This program serves students of all ages and abilities.
Professional Development Opportunities
The Fowler Museum also presents diverse professional development offerings and resources for teachers, including curricular materials, professional development workshops, and intensive Teacher Institutes.
University Programs
A dynamic center for research and dialogue, the Fowler Museum serves as a cultural gateway linking UCLA to the world beyond. The Fowler Museum's university programs offer many opportunities for UCLA faculty, staff, and students to engage with global arts. Such programs range from student internships, to interdisciplinary class visits, to student-led performances.
Family Programs
Family programs at the Fowler Museum are designed to encourage families of all types to slow down, look closely at original works of art, and work together to engage with global arts.
Exhibitions
*Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives
*Reflecting Culture: The Francis E. Fowler, Jr. Collection of Silver
*Plus several changing exhibitions
*
Continental Rifts: Contemporary Time-based Works of Africa, 2009
Selected collection highlights
File:Chief’s Mask from Haida peoples.jpg, ''Chief's Mask'', Haida people
Haida (, hai, X̱aayda, , , ) are an indigenous group who have traditionally occupied , an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years.
The Haida are known for their craftsmanship, trading skills, and ...
, British Columbia, 19th century,
File:Buddha from Sagaing, Burma.jpg, ''Buddha'', Sagaing, Burma, 17th century
File:Bamileke Mask (tsesah).jpg, ''Mask (tsesah)'', Bamileke people
The Bamileke are a Central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau of Cameroon.
Languages
The Bamileke languages belong to the Grassfields branch of the Niger-Congo language family, which is sometimes labeled as a " Bantuoid lan ...
, Bamendjo, Cameroon, Late 19th century
File:Headdress from Efut peoples.jpg, ''Headdress'', Efut peoples, Calabar, Nigeria, 19th century
File:Hornbill Figure from Borneo.jpg, ''Hornbill figure'', Iban, Borneo, 19th century
File:Moche portrait vessel from Peru.jpg, ''Portrait vessel'', Moche style, north coast Peru,100–800 C.E.
File:Ornament for a sacred flute from Mundugumor peoples.jpg, ''Ornament for a sacred flute'', Mundugumor people
The Mundugumor Biwat are a tribe of Papua New Guinea. They live on the Yuat River in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, and speak the Mundugumor language.
Anthropological studies by Margaret Mead
The Mundugumor tribe was first studied by a ...
, Yuat River, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, 19th century
File:Yombe Power Figure (Nkisi).jpg, ''Power figure'' (nkisi nkondi), Yombe peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 18th–19th century
File:Odundo Ceramic.jpg, ''Ceramic'', Magdalene Odundo
Dame Magdalene Anyango Namakhiya Odundo (born 1950) is a Kenyan-born British studio potter, who now lives in Farnham, Surrey. Her work is in the collections of notable museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, The British Museum, The Met ...
(Kenya, b. 1950)
File:Puppet the Blind Scholar.jpg, ''Hand puppet, the Blind Scholar'', Chinese, Taiwan, Early–mid-20th century
File:Santo, Virgin of the Rosary from Guatemala.jpg, '' Santo, Virgin of the Rosary'', Guatemala, Early 20th century
File:Mask (amiilk) from Tsimshian peoples.jpg, ''Mask (amiilk)'', Tsimshian peoples, British Columbia, Canada, 19th century
Leadership
Marla C. Berns has served as the director of the Fowler Museum at UCLA since 2001. Previously, Doran H. Ross, who succeeded Christopher B. Donnan (1981-1996), served as the museum director from 1996 to 2001. One of the most significant initiatives that Berns has launched as director came to fruition in 2006 with the opening of ''Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives'', the museum's first long-term exhibition of highlights from its renowned permanent collection. The exhibition features a unique thematic and cross-cultural approach and incorporates a wide range of technologies, and has become a staple for K-12 and college-level multicultural education in the Los Angeles area, as well as a favorite stop for general museum visitors interested in world arts.
In addition to continuing the Fowler's pioneering work in the presentation of global arts and cultures, Berns has encouraged the presentation of the work of contemporary artists in exhibitions that speak to both the ongoing dynamism of world cultures and to the resonances between contemporary art and traditional practices. To that end, the Fowler has presented several much-praised solo exhibitions, including the work of the celebrated Ghanaian artist
El Anatsui
El Anatsui ( h-nah-ch-wee born 1944) is a Ghanaian sculptor active for much of his career in Nigeria. He has drawn particular international attention for his " bottle-top installations". These installations consist of thousands of aluminum piec ...
(2007), Cuban-born artist
José Bedia (2011), San Francisco-based performance and photo-conceptual artist
Allan deSouza
Allan deSouza (born 1958) is a Kenyan-born American photographer, art writer, professor, and multi-media artist. He is of Indian descent and his work deals with issues of migration, relocation, and international travel. He works in the San Franci ...
(2011), and the riotous ''
Soundsuits of Nick Cave'' (2010), one of the Fowler's most popular exhibitions to date.
In 2007, Berns' position was endowed by a $1 million donation from Los Angeles philanthropists Shirley and Ralph Shapiro in recognition of her outstanding contributions to UCLA and the community.
In 2013, Berns received the medal of
Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters
The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and letters, Arts and Letters) is an Order (distinction), order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Ministry of Culture (France), Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the w ...
of the French Republic in a ceremony conducted by Stéphane Martin, president of the
Quai Branly Museum
A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...
. The ceremony took place at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris on Tues., Nov 12, at the opening of
Secrets d'ivoire: L'art des Lega d'Afrique centrale', an exhibition of the Fowler Museum's unparalleled collection of African artwork by the
Lega people
The Lega people (or Warega) are a Bantu ethnic group of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In 1998 their population was about 250,000.
Location
By the 1970s Lega people were mostly living in the middle and upper Elila River, Elila valley and ...
s of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was donated to the Fowler by collectors Jay T. and Deborah R. Last.
References
External links
Fowler Museum WebsiteFowler Museum Facebook PageFowler Museum Overview of CollectionsFowler Museum Collections Online
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Museums in Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles buildings and structures
University museums in California
Ethnographic museums in California
Art museums and galleries in California
Art museums established in 1963
1963 establishments in California
Pre-Columbian art museums in the United States
Asian art museums in the United States
Mesoamerican art museums in the United States
African art museums in the United States