VAPAE Media Coverage

The arts are an essential part of UCLA. They inspire dialogue, encourage creativity, and drive real lasting change, across disciplines, borders, and backgrounds. They also create opportunities for increased engagement with our surrounding communities. 

Kevin Kane, director of the Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) Program, has curated a diverse selection of things to see and do in Los Angeles.

UCLA Arts alumna and lecturer Davida Persaud Ph.D. ‘22 joins Works In Progress to discuss her passion for community-based work, activism, and the arts; her experience in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance Ph.D. program; and the origin and future of MuralColors, a company she co-founded that produces, preserves, and restores public artworks.

Works In Progress is the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture podcast. It's available everywhere you listen to podcasts: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Pandora.

Works In Progress is the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture podcast.

UCLA Arts alumna, emerging researcher, and education evaluation specialist Lindsey Kunisaki ‘15 joins Works In Progress to discuss what initially drew her to the arts, what she gained from her time in UCLA’s Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) program, the importance of culturally sustaining pedagogy, and California Proposition 28, the largest investment in arts and music in our nation’s history.

Lindsey is the Research and Evaluation Specialist for VAPAE, which is situated in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. VAPAE provides undergraduates with the option to minor in arts education. Its mission is to prepare the next generation of culturally equitable arts educators, bringing inclusive arts education to Los Angeles schools and communities.

Each year, VAPAE’s undergraduate student teachers provide arts instruction for about 600 local K-12 students. To date, over 200 emerging teaching artists have graduated with a VAPAE minor to pursue a range of creative careers.

Every Tuesday evening throughout Winter Quarter 2024, students congregated in a dance studio in Kaufman Hall for Arts Education 101: Facilitation Methods. Shoes were removed, school bags were left near the door, and students moved freely with the only two things they needed: their body and their voice.

The class was taught by Christine Suárez, a veteran choreographer, educator, and UCLA Arts alumna, alongside Teaching Assistant Sonia González. Unlike a typical public speaking course, Facilitation Methods is grounded in the belief that “communicating effectively” means finding your Voice (with a capital V), according to Suárez.

For the day, VAPAE invited music, theater, and dance students from Grand Arts High School, a public arts high school in Downtown Los Angeles, to UCLA Arts. The students toured the campus, seeing the Sunken Gardens, Royce Hall, and the UCLA Department of Art undergraduate scholarship award exhibition at New Wight Gallery. The visiting students received firsthand insight into the college experience from VAPAE student guides.

“Studying arts education research and pedagogical theories are both crucial in becoming an effective mentor and an educator,” said fourth-year theatre major and VAPAE student Cortunay Minor, “but getting to apply your knowledge and artistry to real-life interactions with current K–12 students has been a great opportunity, especially when those students are as brilliant and inspired as the ones from Grand Arts.”

VAPAE is committed to community engagement through the arts. The evening provided a vital opportunity for student artists and future teaching artists to share their passions and exchange ideas. The Grand Arts students learned more about the college arts experience, and the VAPAE students gained knowledge on how to support young artists in various settings.

“It's always lovely to share space with a group of people who value and adore the arts as much as I do,” concluded Minor.

To maximize the efficacy of the [Prop 28] funding, panelists discussed the hiring roadblocks and even some of the stigma surrounding arts education.

“When I started my career, there was a common and sadly negative idea about majoring in the arts and also being interested in teaching. I don't see that stigma anymore with our students,” said Kevin Kane, director of UCLA’s Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) Program.

VAPAE is situated in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture and provides undergraduates with the option to minor in arts education. Its mission is to prepare the next generation of culturally equitable arts educators, bringing inclusive arts education to Los Angeles schools and communities. Since its founding in 2010, VAPAE’s courses and community arts programs have impacted over 30,000 community members in the Los Angeles area. Among them are UCLA undergraduates, K-12 students, classroom teachers, families, and partner organizations whose collaboration has been key to VAPAE’s growth during this time. Each year, VAPAE’s undergraduate student teachers provide arts instruction for about 600 local K-12 students. To date, over 200 emerging teaching artists have graduated with a VAPAE minor to pursue a range of creative careers.

“Our current generation of students are deeply committed to their arts practice, but they’re equally committed to their social practice and community engagement. They don’t necessarily think of these practices and skills as separate,” continued Kane.

Kevin Kane runs a UCLA program that encourages performing artists to work in local classrooms. He says in his line of work, the conversation around arts education has progressed from just access to the arts.

KANE: What we've really been leaning into is culturally sustaining. It does involve immigration or migration stories or exile stories, does involve what it means to be a marginalized or underrepresented person, historically-discriminated-against person. It involves all of that.

Advocates like Kevin Kane are optimistic this money will usher in a new era of arts education in the state, hopefully setting a precedent for the rest of the country.

The elementary schoolers’ presence marked the return of the Hammer’s Classroom in Residence program, which has been on hold since pandemic closures of 2020 cut short the last iteration. The free, innovative program is a collaboration between Hammer Museum, the Visual and Performing Arts Education Program (VAPAE) in the UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture, and selected Title I public school teachers… “It’s a very special and unique model that goes beyond the types of interactions that many museums are able to have with young learners,” said Ann Philbin, Hammer Museum director. “Often museums are able to host a group of K-12 students for a tour or a short time, but this really operates as an immersive residency. We hope it might serve as a model for other institutions, as the teachers and students consider it nothing less than transformative.”

Current and former VAPAE students were part of the teaching program, offering gentle guidance and encouragement. Bailey Davies Mahaffey, a fourth-year UCLA VAPAE student majoring in dance, served as movement instructor, spending several days teaching the sixth graders bursts of choreography based on their own body language… “We have found that one of the initial challenges for arts educators is to demystify what an artist is, and what is a ‘good’ artist,” Kane said. “I like to think of it as inspiring us all to think of ourselves first as creative beings and then slowly think differently about what we perceive as art and how we perceive ourselves and others.

Yesterday, 30 sixth grade students from the UCLA Community School joined VAPAE educators in the Broad Art Center Untitled Gallery space, as part of the Hammer Museum's two-week long Classroom in Residence program. The students made cyanotype photo prints using materials they found outside the gallery.

I make it clear to my students that they matter. Their words, their feelings, their opinions, their silence, their outrage, it all matters. They know that my classroom isn’t a place of judgment but rather a playing space to be brave, take risks, and try things out…Dr. Cameron’s insights into best practices and guiding questions for facilitators provide an additional framework for practitioners and educators who want to explore this work in their own communities.

[VAPAE lecturer] Felix Quintana, who works with the mediums of photography, poetry, drawings and sculpture, often asks a compelling question in his work: “How can we visualize the past in the contemporary moment?

While studying studio art and photography at Cal Poly Humboldt, he experimented with self-portraits. “I was doing a lot of interior work,” he says. “It was rare to photograph brown male bodies.” Quintana recorded himself performing free-flowing dance movements — stacking long-exposure photos of light to create a mark. He found that each image revealed further proportion and depth. “The camera was like a paintbrush or pen,” he says. “It was very abstract.”

Quintana has long been thinking about how we consume images, not just how we make them, and what tools youth are equipped with when interacting with portrayals of themselves. That’s part of what drives him to teach digital photography at Cerritos College and arts education at UCLA. “Above all else, I lean on breaking ceilings for the next generation who follows me,” he says.

Read the full LA Times article featuring VAPAE Arts Ed 101 lecturer Felix Quintana below!

The creative and scholarly contributions of the UCLA Arts community mine the complexities of the human condition, ask essential questions of our time, and expand the potential of creativity. Read more for a list of recent accolades and current and upcoming virtual and in-person exhibitions, performances, lectures, and events.

Kevin Kane, director of the Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) Program, co-authored (with Karen Hunter Quartz and Lindsey T. Kunisaki) the research article “Multigenerational Art Making at a Community School: A Case Study of Transformative Parent Engagement” in the Harvard Educational Review’s Winter 2021 issue.

This fall, the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture presented 10 Questions: If not now, when?, the fourth installment of the annual event series that invites the public to join UCLA students, faculty, alumni, and community members in the virtual classroom to engage in vibrant conversation in response to fundamental and timely questions. Building on the success of last year’s program, UCLA Arts again extended the 10 Questions conversations deeper into the community through a partnership with its Visual and Performing Arts Education program. As part of the 10 Questions series, VAPAE collaborated with a range of participants, including middle and high school students from public schools across the city as well as cohorts of local senior citizens and families. Each group generated their own classroom and program conversations and created artwork in response to select questions.

“By extending this conversation into our communities, UCLA is putting inclusivity into practice. These younger, and in this case elder, generations of artists have much to teach us. Their perspectives and creativity are paramount as we make sense of the world we are living in and seek ways to address the challenges ahead,” said Kevin Kane, director of VAPAE.

Learn more about the 10 Questions/VAPAE partnership, view the extraordinary responses from our five partner cohorts, and consider feedback from the community leaders who played key roles in producing this work.

“I have learned that artists and educators must double-down, re-group, re-arm, and re-deploy when the currents of hate and division try to wipe us out.”

—Raymundo Baltazar, community engagement coordinator for UCLA Arts’ Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) program

How did you discover your interest in art and how did you know that it was something that you wanted to pursue professionally as an artist or as an art teacher?

“It all started when I was a child living in Cuautla, Morelos, a small town about a two hour drive south of Mexico City. I had an inquisitive mind, and Cuautla was a magical town that provided me with endless opportunities to not only learn from its rich cultural traditions, but also get into beautiful trouble. I was always asking everyone questions, and though it was exhausting for some, my family encouraged me to never stop. Perhaps it was the convergence of my childhood dreams and teenage angst that pushed me to follow my passion: to become the representation I sought after my family immigrated to the United States. Initially the lack of representation discouraged me, but once I learned to speak English, there was no turning back. I decided to become the teacher I needed when I first enrolled in an American school.”

“10 Questions,” a cornerstone of UCLA’s annual calendar, is returning for its fourth iteration in an effort to consider the actions we can take to address the kinds of personal, familial, communal and global healing that is called for in this moment. The interdisciplinary public program of conversation and reflection will bring together some of the most compelling thinkers from UCLA and beyond.

This year, UCLA Arts will once again extend these conversations deeper into the community through a partnership with its Visual and Performing Arts Education program. As part of the “10 Questions” series, VAPAE will collaborate with a range of participants, including middle and high school students from public schools across the city as well as cohorts of local senior citizens and families. Each group will generate their own classroom and program conversations and create artwork in response to select questions. They will then have the opportunity to share their artwork as part of the public program.

“By extending this conversation into our communities, UCLA is putting inclusivity into practice. These younger, and in this case elder, generations of artists have much to teach us. Their perspectives and creativity are paramount as we make sense of the world we are living in and seek ways to address the challenges ahead,” said Kevin Kane, director of VAPAE, who was a panelist in 2019’s “10 Questions” discussion “What is community?”

If you attend UCLA, you know how overwhelmed you can feel when hunting for helpful resources, especially if you’re a student artist. Luckily, these students have a multitude of opportunities at their fingertips to pursue their art. Whether you’d like to find a group of fellow student artists to collaborate with or you need other resources to support your work, UCLA has a lot to offer you.

Many student artists major in a non-arts field and instead opt to minor in the arts, including ethnomusicology, music industry or film and television. Unfortunately, though, not many students know about the Visual and Performing Arts Education minor.

Students interested in teaching art find this minor to be extremely fulfilling, as it involves working directly with your community. For those interested in Arts Education, but would rather not commit to the minor, you can still get involved with different VAPAE community programs, like the Classroom in Residence Program at the Hammer Museum.

Each year, UCLA Arts hosts the 10 Question Series, an initiative that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries through a series of conversations that engage multiple viewpoints. This year the public lecture-academic class will virtually bring together 30 leading minds to attempt to answer some of the most meaningful questions of today. […]

This year, UCLA Arts is extending these conversations deeper into the community through a partnership with its Visual and Performing Arts Education, or VAPAE, program that will engage middle and high school students from five public schools from across the city in “10 Questions.” […]

“By sharing the artwork of local middle and high school students with our community, UCLA encourages their creative expressions, while at the same time expanding our community and deepening our consideration of these important investigations,” said Kevin Kane, director of VAPAE, who was a panelist in last year’s “10 Questions” discussion “What Is Community?”

Continuing her longtime commitment to supporting the arts and music at UCLA, the late visual artist and philanthropist Elaine Krown Klein has made a $2.9 million gift to a scholarship fund in her name. Krown Klein died on Jan. 5.

VAPAE Director Kevin Kane writes: “I feel indebted to Elaine and other philanthropists who allowed me to pursue my graduate studies in dance without an enormous amount of worry or debt,” said Kevin Kane, director of the UCLA Visual and Performing Arts Education program. Kane received a Krown Klein scholarship while pursuing his M.F.A. in dance choreography.

In this edition of You See LA, VAPAE’s Director Kevin Kane is featured suggesting things to do and see during the time of physical distancing.

In UCLA Arts’ new podcast, VAPAE Director Kevin Kane is interviewed for the episode “Making Art in the Virtual Classroom”.

VAPAE Director Kevin Kane discusses the shift to remote learning for a class based upon community engagement. In the article, Kevin and his students are interviewed by Avishay Artsy as part of UCLA Arts' new podcast, Works in Progress.

Students share their experiences during the switch to remote learning, featuring VAPAE Student Gustavo Tepetla.

VAPAE Lecturer and Deputy Director of 18th Street Arts Center Sue Bell Yank discusses launching Arts Learning Lab @ Home, a mini-semester of virtual art school for children from toddlers to teenagers.

VAPAE Director Kevin Kane sat on a panel alongside Ananya Roy, activist scholar and Jennifer Ferro, President of KCRW to discuss “What is Community?” as part of the UCLA Centennial Campaign’s edition of 10 Questions.

VAPAE Graphic Designer and alumna Jane E. Kim is the focus of this article on the Daily Bruin. Click here to read more.

UCLA Arts staff share their favorite things to do around LA, featuring VAPAE’s Program Coordinator Amorette Muzingo.

Reflections from students and alumni of the UCLA Visual and Performing Arts Education Program, reported by UCLA Arts.

Favianna Rodriguez originally created an artwork of monarch butterflies to advocate for freedom of migration back in 2012.

Seven years later, her butterflies are the namesake for an on-campus panel discussion.

“The Butterfly Effect: Activism & Transformation through the Arts” will be hosted by the Visual and Performing Arts Education Program in Kaufman Hall on Wednesday, with Rodriguez, an artist and cultural creator, as the featured guest. Drawing on the goal of bringing diverse backgrounds into the conversation surrounding the arts, the event features panelists, ranging from a mother who doubles as an artist to a principal at an arts-focused public school, who encourage expression in various ways.

Read about Phil & Monica Rosenthal and their philanthropic endeavors, including the Visual and Performing Arts Education Program.

Barbara Drucker, Founding Director of VAPAE and Associate Dean of Community Engagement and Arts Education, collaborated with fellow professors in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture to develop FORM Academy - meeting the need for high quality summer arts experiences for students in low-income communities of Los Angeles.

The Catalyst Award recognizes a Program that has made a significant impact in the communities it serves.

Read about the Sound Bath Under the Stars, hosted by VAPAE on Monday, May 9.

UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture program has partnered with UCLA Ed & IS to bring art education to the UCLA Lab School and UCLA Community School.

The Superintendent's Award for Excellence in Museum Education recognizes the outstanding achievements in California museum programs that serve K-12 students and educators.

The Classroom-in-Residence at the Hammer Program (CRH) is an on going collaboration between VAPAE and the UCLA Hammer Museum.

Sixth graders were immersed in the Hammer's environment to learn learn links between art and academic subjects, careers in the museum world.

The Classroom-in-Residence project is a collaboration between UCLA's Visual and Performing Arts Education Program and the Hammer Museum.

This dialogue traces the relationship between Jackie Lopez and Kevin Kane both artists, teachers and community visionaries.

Read about VAPAE's Afterschool Arts Programs in the Los Angeles Community.

AcademiCamp is the first-ever collaboration between the K-12 pilot school and the UCLA student-run service project.

During summer 2013, 3rd-5th grade students participated in a unique workshop, "Inside the Atelier- Book Arts Program."

UCLA Arts lecturer Tom Skelly spent 30 years in the state prison in Chino, and he's never regretted it for a minute.

Undergraduate education minors teach art at schools throughout Los Angeles, including UCLA Community School.