UCR ARTS

UCR ARTS, Gluck Fellowship host Family Fun Day for 30th anniversary

kelvin — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:28:51 +0000

UCR ARTS, Gluck Fellowship host Family Fun Day for 30th anniversary kelvin Thu, 03/12/2026 - 09:28 More Press Releases Jeremy Gutierrez, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications March 12, 2026

On Sunday, Mar. 1, UCR ARTS celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts with a community, family-oriented day held at the museum in downtown Riverside. The Gluck Fellows Program awards funds to graduate students to support their education through community outreach. Fellows go to schools throughout the Inland Empire and lead classes or engage with institutions such as UCR ARTS or the California Museum of Photography (CMP). Gluck Fellow and master's student of art history Nicholas Barlow has been collaborating with both museums as part of his work with the Fellows Program.

“For today's activity, I've made a selection of photographs from the California Museum of Photography,” Barlow said. “And the theme I selected was landscape photography — “What is a landscape?” This includes materials from our Keystone mass stereoscopic collection. A holding of Mexican photography, fine art photography, California photography, and contemporary artists from the 70s until now.”

The event, which began at 12:30, featured several arts-and-crafts stations, catering, art exhibitions, and more. Many current UCR graduate students supported the event: running booths, helping kids, performing, and even leading group workshops. Gluck Fellow and second-year PhD candidate in critical dance studies, Sriradha Paul led one group in dance.

“I was here to teach an Odissi workshop,” Paul said, “which is a South Asian dance form, which has a lot of storytelling and a lot of movement techniques that I shared with the participants.”

Paul led her group — which included children, UCR community members, and other guests — through various dance forms, including several that emulated the appearance and behavior of animals such as deer and lions. Paul improves her pedagogy by developing her own teaching curriculum. She observes the response students have to her teaching, and thinks about how else to apply it. Community outreach is a way for people to gain experience in these arts that they might otherwise be unable to access.

“Dancing is a tricky thing; some people want to do it, but it requires a lot of visibility — a pressure — and courage to come up,” Paul said. “So I think in that way, [the Gluck program is a] really an interesting program, because it gives them that platform to try it out. So some people want to imagine how monkeys walk, or how deer run. So I think it gives them a push towards their imagination and to be able to think how they can be creative, and how they can create, build their own story through bodies, without verbal communication.”

Other activities included a button-making station led by Gluck Fellow Maya Salem and collage-making, as well as performances and workshops by the UCR Taiko ensemble and Gluck Fellows Amelia Lee, Cal Plett, Fabiola Ochoa Torralba, and Jorge Calaf. The Gluck Fellows Program is dedicated to diversity and represents a broad spectrum of cultures and art forms that the community can engage with.

FEATURED PHOTO. UCR families embrace as they enjoy the musical entertainment.

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UCR Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts

VAIN showcases creative opportunities with CHASS support

kelvin — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 22:02:35 +0000

VAIN showcases creative opportunities with CHASS support kelvin Tue, 08/13/2024 - 15:02 More Press Releases Alejandra Prado, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications August 13, 2024

At UC Riverside, creative opportunities and student success are at the heart of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS). VAIN, a student-led fashion editorial club at UCR, held its spring 2024 runway fashion show at UCR ARTS which was co-sponsored by the Office of the Dean.

Held on April 5, VAIN’s spring quarter fashion show, themed “fairy/futuristic,” featured models from UCR and other Southern California universities and attracted an audience of more than 250 attendees. Three brands — HighPriestess Beads, Damned Los Angeles, and Lastly Girly Grime — participated in the fashion show to showcase their designs.

“With every event we do, we aim to grow and be better than our last,” said Austin Laniyi, VAIN’s founder, co-president, project manager, and fourth-year business economics student at UCR. “The spring runway show itself is a testimony to our progress.”

The success of the runway show was supported by the Office of the Dean and Assistant Dean of Student Success Ryan Lipinski who connected VAIN with UCR ARTS. According to Lipinski, in his initial meeting with Laniyi and Williams, he noticed VAIN’s potential to do great things.

“I struggled initially with finding how CHASS could significantly impact VAIN’s runway show given budget limitations,” he said. “It wasn’t until a few months after the initial meeting, when I attended a team meeting at UCR ARTS, that I saw the atrium and knew this was where the fashion show has to be!”

“[Lipinski] saw what we do is an art and a community,” Gabby Williams said, a fourth-year theatre, film, and digital production student minoring in media and cultural studies who also serves as co-president of the club. Williams previously served as the club’s events director and co-vice president after joining VAIN during her second year at UCR. “He fully believed in us, and it made us feel empowered as a group, and CHASS definitely helped us stand out,” she said.

Both Laniyi and Williams, along with VAIN board members, toured UCR ARTS and met with Amy Metcalf, the senior public events manager, and the staff at UCR ARTS. According to Williams, VAIN initially struggled to find the right venue for the Spring fashion show.

“Without CHASS, we would not have gotten the building, the connections we formed with UCR ARTS, and the relationships we formed with them,” Williams said. “We’re grateful for [CHASS].”

VAIN’s spring fashion show was the first project supported directly by the Office of the Dean following CHASS’ significant efforts over the past year to invest in student success, according to Lipinski.

“I couldn't be happier about how the entire process went — Austin and Gabby were great partners,” he said. “I hope this is the first of many student-led activities that CHASS is able to facilitate.”

According to Laniyi, the fashion show also required extensive planning and collaboration, involving task coordination with the board, rehearsals, and event promotion. For each fashion show, VAIN aims to showcase three to five brands focusing on streetwear and couture, and a “wildcard” brand such as HighPriestess Beads. A large focus in preparation for the fashion show involves outreach to local brands and exploring local swap meets to discover and connect with small businesses for the opportunity to showcase their designs through VAIN.

“It’s about open conversations and how we can uplift each other with this event,” Williams said.

For VAIN, the biggest challenge to hosting and planning a fashion show involves the participation and attendance of models during rehearsals. In the weeks leading up to the event, Williams often taught runway routes to a full house of 90 models or even for the first time to a few participants who weren’t able to attend each rehearsal.

“The models are still here and wanting to learn, so I will teach them a million times if I have to,” she said. “I am so appreciative.”

The night of the fashion was filled with memorable moments, but one standout was when a model showcased a couture look that left the audience gasping in awe. According to Williams, the model, unable to visibly see the audience’s reaction due to wearing opaque sunglasses, wore a fur coat with padded shoulder peaks, a black skirt, and black platform boots.

“The crowd went crazy, taking pictures and video, and so many people came up to me afterward saying [that moment] was amazing,” Williams said.

“How can I not give someone the stage and the opportunity to [express themselves]?” Williams said. “That is the center of VAIN — to be able to express yourself unapologetically, in complete whole with zero judgment.”

Founded in August 2022, VAIN evolved from UCRFITS, which shared photos of what UCR students were wearing in their everyday life on Instagram and is managed by a 17-member board focusing on social media, event planning, public relations, and graphic design. The club’s inclusive approach means anyone involved in its events or following on social media is considered a member.

“VAIN is a community,” Laniyi said. “We contribute to fostering a sense of belonging for individuals by creating a community in which we advocate for acceptance of all individuals and identities.”

Beyond fashion shows, VAIN organizes bi-weekly meetings, trips, collaboration events, photoshoots, and newsletters, providing a platform for students interested in exploring and pursuing the art of fashion. VAIN also collaborates with other UCs by co-hosting events with fashion clubs across universities such as UC Irvine’s fashion and sneaker club.

“We serve as an example of opportunity and success because we have been able to build a bridge for student creatives and anyone in the space of fashion,” Laniyi said. “This bridge we have built has allowed for a plethora of opportunities to spawn from the connections people have made within VAIN.”

Looking ahead, both Laniyi and Williams envision VAIN becoming a fully-fledged organization that helps student artists and creatives turn their talents into careers. VAIN also plans to expand its events, currently planning for its fall fashion show scheduled for October 2024 and gearing up to host an open market during the winter quarter.

“I hope that this year for VAIN is the most eventful, the most successful, and the most creative we’ve ever been,” Williams said.

“I'd love for VAIN to make the fashion scene at UCR more prominent,” Laniyi said. “I hope the impact VAIN has is one that leaves a mark on UCR.”

To become a member of VAIN, sign up here.

To connect with VAIN on social media platforms, please visit linktr.ee/vainfashion.

FEATURED PHOTO. A model wearing a shoulder peak-structured fur coat for VAIN's spring fashion show.

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UCR ARTS

"We make bridges between people"

kelvin — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 01:25:32 +0000

"We make bridges between people" kelvin Wed, 11/08/2023 - 17:25 More Press Releases Alejandra Prado, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications November 08, 2023

The Public History Program at UCR welcomed “Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice,” a public initiative years in the making to Southern California, with installations of the traveling exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles in September and at the Riverside Art Museum in October through November. This project marks the third exhibition in a series of traveling exhibitions, initiatives, and public programs that the Public History Program has actively engaged in with the Humanities Action Lab (HAL), a collaboration between students, faculty, and issues-based organizations, since 2011.

A robust set of public programming accompanied the exhibition at each of the regional stops. For the Riverside presentation, programming launched at UCR ARTS with a film screening and continued with all-ages events at the Riverside Art Museum, from Oct 14 through Nov 5.

The funded project, which began in fall 2017, is a joint effort involving HAL, UCR, the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, and 21 other organizations across different localities. Led by Rutgers University-Newark, HAL collaborates with universities and issue organizations to create traveling public projects addressing pressing social issues.

“Climates of Inequality” is a participatory public memory project that unites students, educators, and community leaders to highlight the experiences of "frontline" communities disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. Over 500 students–from UCR and elsewhere–worked on the exhibition and programs.

Gudis joined “Climates of Inequality” with HAL alongside UCR history professor Megan Asaka in 2018. In their classes, Asaka and Gudis worked with students alongside community partners such as East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Warehouse Worker Resource Center, and the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice. They conducted extensive research and oral history interviews, shedding light on the impact of environmental injustices in Southern California, particularly within communities affected by the logistics industry. The project aimed to amplify these stories, inspire change, and foster resilience among these frontline communities. (Frontline communities are those that live in proximity to warehouses, railroads, and truck traffic, who are first and worst hit by impacts of related pollution and other harms.

“We focus on local stories that connect with global issues of climate and environmental justice,” said Catherine Gudis, a professor of history at UCR and director of the Public History program. The local focus, on the Los Angeles and Inland Empire sectors, went under the name “Witnessing the Slow Violence of the Supply Chain.”

Public programs galvanized dialogue among community members, who addressed the impacts of logistics, especially the encroachment of warehouses in residential neighborhoods and larger health concerns, and the advances they have made in coalition building and fostering intergenerational advocacy.

According to Gudis, the exhibition showcases the historical disparities in how climate change has impacted communities of color and the working class, while also highlighting how communities have used art, music, and storytelling to make change and start conversations and efforts for a more equitable future. This was conveyed by participants in public programs held at Riverside Art Museum such as “Environmental Justice in the I.E.: Community-based Practice in Art, Activism, and Community Journalism,” “Cultures of Environment,” and a workshop for educators from community groups, K-12, colleges, and universities to build pathways for students of all ages to enter Environmental Justice work.

The Climates of Inequality exhibit was launched at Rutgers University–Newark in 2019. Community partners and UCR students attended and presented at the symposium in Newark, with funding secured by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

In 2020, the Mellon Foundation awarded HAL $500,000 over three years to support “Climates of Inequality and the COVID Crisis: Building Leadership at Minority Serving Institutions.” This supported regional partners, grad students, and faculty involved in the project, to build climate leadership in the region and advance ongoing public engagement efforts.

In August 2023, the NEH awarded HAL $498,000 to support the “Climates of Inequality” Discussions initiative as part of the traveling exhibition to foster nationwide humanities-based conversations led by “frontline” or “environmental justice” communities, which bear the most significant climate change burdens due to enduring environmental racism. The humanities-based conversations will build upon the past two months of programming at JANM and RAM, to include additional community and educational workshops and another exhibition scheduled for April to August 2024, entitled LAND USE(D), co-curated by Gudis and RAM.

As an endowed term chair appointed in 2018, Gudis supports interdisciplinary research and learning within the humanities and social sciences disciplines as part of a $1.5 million donation by UCR alumni, Teresa and Byron Pollitt.

“I was lucky to hold a Teresa and Byron Pollitt Endowed Term Chair which allowed me to offer paid internships to students over the years, and present the exhibition last month in downtown Los Angeles at the Japanese American National Museum,” she said.

“Funding also ensured that all public programs were free to the public,” Gudis said. “This broadened our audience base, because we created different modes of expression and engagement: through film, conversation, art, teaching workshops, family-friendly activities, and bilingual presentations. This allowed us to foster our relationships with different community organizations and individuals--which we aim to continue in the coming months.

“What’s great about talking and learning from community members affected by this—including all of us, as students and faculty at UCR—is that we make bridges between people,” Gudis said.

To learn more about “Climates of Inequality” please visit climatesofinequality.org/.

For more information about the spring LAND USE(D) exhibit and public programs, please visit events.ucr.edu and riversideartmuseum.org/.

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Department of History

Lights! Camera! Action!

kelvin — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 23:59:29 +0000

Lights! Camera! Action! kelvin Thu, 08/25/2022 - 16:59 More Press Releases Alejandra Prado, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications August 25, 2022

Introducing students to the world of filmmaking is only a small part of the OFF THE BLOCK program at UCR ARTS. Run by Nikolay Maslov, Curator of Film & Media Projects at UCR ARTS, the award-winning, filmmaking summer program helps high school students create and release their own documentary short films while developing skills such as problem-solving, team building, and storytelling.

Marking its 13th year anniversary, Conserving California is a “direct response to the profound need for youth arts initiatives in the Riverside area,” according to Maslov.

This year’s program was held in-person at UCR ARTS July 5-29 with no cost to the students and filmmaking tools and equipment provided. Open to high school students, ages 13 to 18 in the Inland Empire, participants did not need prior experience in filmmaking or the arts.

“Students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, collaborative and team building skills, as well as positive self-expression through the arts,” Maslov said. “Past students have won awards and received recognition from several film festivals and media organizations such as Sundance, PBS SoCal, the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Adobe Youth Voices.”

“My experience in the program was fantastic,” said Andrea Gomez, a student filmmaker who participated this summer. “[I] loved meeting new people, learning their story, and finding creative ways to share it with others.”

Gomez created a student film, Planta Man, which focuses on the story of Jesse Aleman, a Tiktok star, influencer, and artist. “I thought it'd be incredible if I could actually learn how to create my own documentary,” she said.

Ellamarie Ferreira-Copat’s student film, Made with Love, focuses on the struggles and experiences of a Punjabi family. “Watch for a heartwarming story about family food and overcoming hardships,” Copat said.

“I will take with me the knowledge I gained from my mentors, guest speakers, and hands-on experience working with Adobe Premiere Pro that helped me develop my newfound interest in film,” she said.

“It’s always incredible to work with students and hopefully inspire the next generation of filmmakers,” Maslov said.

On Saturday, August 27th at 5 p.m. all four short documentaries from the OFF THE BLOCK program, including Made With Love and Planta Man, will premiere at UCR ARTS and are free to attend.

To learn more about the OFF THE BLOCK program, please visit https://ucrarts.ucr.edu/off-the-block/.

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UCR ARTS Goes Virtual!

kelvin — Fri, 29 May 2020 07:50:32 +0000

UCR ARTS Goes Virtual! kelvin Fri, 05/29/2020 - 00:50 More Press Releases Devany Harden, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing & Communications May 29, 2020

A month after COVID-19 temporarily closed UCR ARTS to the public, its employees launched a new website to bring art into your home. With the Culver Center’s 10th anniversary approaching, it serves as a place to celebrate art at UC Riverside and the city of Riverside.

VirtualUCRARTS.ucr.edu features online exhibitions, a virtual cinema, activities for kids, artist interviews, and performances. It includes objects from the collections and exhibitions of the California Museum of Photography and Culver Center of the Arts.

“Like every other institution, we were unable to have any patrons inside our actual museum” said Nikolay Maslov, curator of Film and Media Projects. “The Virtual UCR ARTS project started as a way to supplement our existing website with something that could support more dynamic content.”

One highlight of the site is 360-degree virtual tours of current exhibitions. These tours give site visitors the experience of walking through the gallery with an expert in the field by their side.

Facing Fire, a fire-inspired exhibition that opened at the California Museum of Photography in February, just a few weeks before the closure, is one of the featured tours. The Facing Fire tour includes commentary by UCR ARTS Senior Curator Douglas McCulloh. Visitors can also get a closer look at some of the art objects in the exhibition and watch an interview with one of the artists, Stuart Palley, on the same webpage.

Frequent UCR ARTS visitors will be excited to know that Virtual UCR ARTS is also bringing back several exhibitions from the past, in time for the Culver Center’s 10th anniversary. Also returning is UNCAGED: Hero for Higher, a 2018 Culver Center exhibition that examined Marvel’s comic book character Luke Cage as a representation of black masculinity. UNCAGED was organized by one of UC Riverside’s Media and Cultural Studies professors, John Jennings. Jennings can also be found on the website speaking with his curating colleague, Stacey Robinson, about their 2019 exhibition, Reflection Eternal: The Candyman Illustrated Syllabus. Other interviews include the artists of 2015’s Second Wave and 2017’s Mundos Alternos.

Visitors who miss weekend screenings of independent, international, and documentary films at the Culver Center can rent a movie on the site. Fifty percent of all proceeds go towards supporting UCR ARTS.

“Through partnerships with a number of film distributors, we've been able to bring online films that we otherwise would have screened in our theater,” Maslov said. “We also have cat videos!”

At this time of year, the Manager of School & Volunteer Docent Programs, Lindsey Hammel, would typically be organizing in-person tours and events for students. With the closure, Hammel is working from home producing content for a new series called “UCR ARTS for Kids.”

“We knew that this time is difficult for families and educators, and wanted to provide resources for them,” Hammel said. “Parents are juggling working from home and helping their kids with school work while many educators are pivoting to teaching virtually.”

With her own son’s help, she creates videos with art history lessons, storytimes, and demonstrations of art activities that families can do using materials they can find at home. “Even with summer approaching, parents will still likely scour the internet for ways to keep their children engaged and entertained with many summer camps closed,” Hammel said.

UCR ARTS also plans to continue the “Virtual Family First Sundays” program, making puzzles and games inspired by artworks, creating Animal Crossing patterns, and providing photography and art lesson plans for teachers and families.

“The Virtual UCR ARTS site allows us to keep engaging with our community and to really think about what we can do as an institution online,” Maslov said. “We're planning on expanding our online presence in the coming months and keeping that going post-COVID.”

Support UCR ARTS

FEATURED PHOTO. Courtesy of Ratkovich Properties
By Devany Harden, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing & Communications

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Outpost Concert Series returns to Riverside

kelvin — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 23:35:09 +0000

Outpost Concert Series returns to Riverside kelvin Wed, 10/30/2019 - 16:35 More Press Releases Devany Harden, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing & Communications October 30, 2019

Outpost Concert Series is back for its seventh season at the Culver Center of the Arts in Riverside, with five concerts between November 2019 and April 2020.

Each concert features a different artist or group with a commitment to playing contemporary classical music in new, adventurous ways. All performances are free and open to the public. Community members, families, and students are encouraged to spend a weeknight enjoying free music they’ve likely never heard before.

One of the goals of the concert series is to “bring new musical experiences to the Riverside community,” according to UC Riverside music professor, composer, and Outpost curator Ian Dicke.

Many Outpost artists this year will showcase a specific kind of instrument in their performances, while others use multiple instruments and blur genres. This year’s performers include ~Nois, a saxophone quartet, as well as Panic Duo, which pairs violinist Pasha Tseiutlin and pianist Nic Gerpe.

In addition to playing virtuosic music, many of the artists are also interested in experimental improvisation and performance.

“It’s not in a record store or even on streaming services,” Dicke said. Music in the series “all stems from classical music, but reflects the modern world we live in today” and fearlessly explores groundbreaking territory.

Living Earth Show performs Jan. 28 and is self-described as “pushing the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility.”

“They have a piece where they actually use the kitchen sink with a bunch of glass in it.” Dicke said. “It’s pretty wild, interesting stuff. They wear these costumes and have a big theatrical presence.”

Every concert is different, and even songs within each concert experiment with genre and style by multiple composers.

“They’re interpreting the scores of these composers and they can be really different compositions,” Dicke says, “If you don’t like one piece, you might love the next piece. It can be quite rewarding and fun.”

“Outpost Concert Series has been a vital part of UCR ARTS’ programming and collaboration with campus for a number of years now,” said Nikolay Maslov, Curator of Films & Media Projects at UCR ARTS. “The musicians that Dicke brings to the Culver as part of Outpost showcase the forefront of contemporary music and add a rich contribution to the downtown arts scene.”

According to Dicke, he tried to select artists from a wide variety of places to “connect Riverside’s musical culture with the wider national scene.” Mobius Trio and Living Earth Show are from San Francisco, Panic Duo is from Los Angeles, ~Nois is from Chicago, and Mivos Quartet is from New York. All of the groups travel throughout California and the United States, but some also perform internationally. Before coming to Riverside for Outpost, Mivos Quartet will have already performed in Germany, Finland, and Luxembourg during their 2019 - 2020 season.

“This series provides a nexus of performance venues where we’d be one of the stops,” Dicke said. “A performer could play San Diego, and they’d play Los Angeles, and in between those two, they take a stop [at Outpost].”

To view more information about upcoming or past concerts, visit outpost.ucr.edu.

Outpost Concert Series 2019 - 2020 Season

Wednesday, Nov. 6, 7 - 8:30 pm
Mobius Trio, electric guitar trio

Tuesday, Jan. 28, 7 - 8:30 pm
The Living Earth Show, percussion and guitar

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 7 - 8:30 pm
~Nois, saxophone quartet

Monday, March 9, 7 - 8:30 pm
Panic Duo, violin and piano

Tuesday, April 7, 7 - 8:30 pm
Mivos Quartet, string quartet

FEATURED PHOTO. Nikolay Maslov/UCR ARTS

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An alumna at work

kelvin — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 23:27:16 +0000

An alumna at work kelvin Wed, 10/30/2019 - 16:27 More Press Releases Devany Harden, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing & Communications October 30, 2019

Curator and writer Sara Bay Gachot returns to Riverside with a new photo exhibition, Robert Cumming: The Secret Life of Objects on display at UCR ARTS Sept. 26-Feb. 2, 2020.

Gachot, a 2012 graduate with a Master of Arts in Art History, wrote her graduate thesis on photographer, sculptor, painter, and printmaker Robert Cumming. Seven years later, as a working curator, she has teamed up with Cumming and the George Eastman Museum to bring to life the first major museum survey of the artist’s work in nearly twenty years: The Secret Life of Objects. The exhibition includes Cumming’s earliest photographs, documentary-style photos from the Universal Studios backlot during the 1970s, and commissions for the 1984 Olympics and MIT.

Discovering Robert Cumming

Gachot first learned of Cumming’s work in 2009 as a research fellow in the department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

“I looked Cumming up and the first image I saw was ‘Theater for Two, Easy Analogies’ and was instantly taken with it,” she said. “It was enigmatic and funny.”

Gachot said she appreciated how Cumming played with perception and the camera. “He realized early on that the camera disrupts how we think we see,” she said. “When an object is frozen on the page, it seizes the mechanics of our perception.”

Life at UCR

Gachot graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Arts from Temple University. In 2012, she went back to school for her master’s in Art History at UC Riverside.

Gachot was inspired by the development of a new film museum. “I gravitated towards the cinematography aspect of film,” she said. “It combined my love for the visual arts - both moving and still. I wanted to get back into it, and that’s why I came back to get my master’s.”

Gachot chose UCR for several reasons. “I liked the history of the professors who taught there. There was a photography museum, it was close to Los Angeles, and it seemed really photo-centric. It had this really strong Creative Writing program too.”

Gachot was grateful for the influence of History of Art Professor Susan Laxton, who supported Gachot’s interests. Gachot also took creative writing classes which helped to prepare her to write her graduate thesis and taught her how to write for the arts.

Meeting Robert Cumming

Gachot chose to make Cumming the subject of her master's thesis.

“I felt like I had this problem to solve,” she said. “Nobody had done a book on [Cumming] in a really long time. There was a lot of potential to get his name back out into the public. From the beginning, I thought about doing an exhibition and a book.”

Before her second year at UCR, Gachot contacted Cumming and arranged a time to meet him at his home in Massachusetts.

“He gave me a tour of his studio out back in an enormous old barn,” Gachot said. “We stopped at various sculptures he’d made that I had seen in his photographs. Nearly every wall displayed his work, photographs, wood block prints, ... and that same cactus from “Theatre for Two”, this time in color — which is the first image people will see in this show.”

“We talked about his work and all kinds of other things — his love of history, teaching photography in the 1970s, riding bikes in Massachusetts, and the really great bookstore just ten miles north of town. After 4 1/2 hours, I told him I might be bothering him some more, and he was OK with that.”

Since graduating from UCR, Gachot has written an essay for the 2016 Aperture book Robert Cumming: The Difficulties of Nonsense and curated The Secret Life of Objects. The UCR alumna is also organizing the programming for an art book fair in Los Angeles called Acid-Free. The book market takes place November 1-3. She is also working on a project that transforms an unpublished book she wrote into shorter essays and stories.

About the Exhibition

Beginning this Fall, The Secret Life of Objects will stretch across two floors of the California Museum of Photography. The exhibition follows Cumming’s journey as an artist, with a focus on the 1970s. Guests will see his early exercises in photography, as well as his evolution into a mail artist and photographer who moved from the Midwest to Southern California with “an eye for the peculiar.”

“The disparity between first impression and the dissolution of illusion is a phenomenon very particular to the medium of photography,” Gachot said, “and through Cumming’s camera eye, it becomes a rich field of play”

Highlights of the exhibition are rarely-seen sketches by Cumming, objects from his exploration of nautical architecture, a collection of Hollywood studio continuity stills (photos which studios used to maintain continuity between non-chronological scenes), mail art postcards, and photographs of sculptures that Gachot calls “perceptual puzzles.”

Much of Cumming’s work intends to portray the physically impossible so that it appears visually accurate. In an interview with Richard Armstrong for the book Robert Cumming: L'oeuvre photographique, Cumming said of his art, “There are always clues in the pieces; a means by which one can unravel the fabrication.”

A Few Words of Wisdom

Gachot gives aspiring curators the same advice she received from curator and writer Charlotte Cotton.

“Just start making shows,” Gachot said, “It can be in your living room, or at an abandoned building, or smaller galleries. Just start putting things together.”

The Secret Life of Objects is on view September 26th, 2019 through February 2nd, 2020.

Visit ucrarts.ucr.edu for more information.

FEATURED PHOTO. Robert Cumming, "Reverse Refraction," 1974. Inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist. © Robert Cumming

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