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Where artists, designers, architects, performers, & scholars come together.

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259 graduates. One incredible day at UCLA Arts.
Caps off to the Class of 2026. 🎉🎓💙💛

Watch the full ceremony now on YouTube. Link in bio.

[Video description: A trailer video featuring clips from the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture's 2026 Commencement Ceremony. Dean Lionel Popkin, keynote speaker Refik Anadol, and graduate and undergraduate student speakers Hunter Blackwell and Sarah Lustgarten addressed the Class of 2026, along with footage of graduates and their families celebrating throughout the ceremony.] by @uclaarts

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Closing out our commencement speaker series with Undergraduate Student Speaker Sarah Lustgarten, a student in the Department of Art.

She addressed her fellow graduates at Saturday's commencement ceremony, with a message about the curiosity, beauty, and individuality her classmates will carry with them into whatever comes next.

[Video description: Undergraduate Student Speaker Sarah Lustgarten, wearing cap and gown, speaks from the podium on stage at the UCLA Arts commencement ceremony. She reflects on the creativity and individuality her fellow graduates will carry forward, and expresses confidence that they will thrive.] by @uclaarts

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Another round of applause for the Class of 2026. 💙🎓🎉💛

Graduate Student Speaker Hunter Blackwell, a student in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, had this to say to his fellow graduates: a reflection on the rare opportunity UCLA Arts students have to shape the cultural direction of their fields through purposeful, intentional making.

[Video description: Graduate Student Speaker Hunter Blackwell, wearing cap and gown, speaks from the podium on stage at the UCLA Arts commencement ceremony. He reflects on the unique opportunity graduates have to shape the cultural direction of their fields and bring new things into the world.] by @uclaarts

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Congratulations to the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture Class of 2026. 💙🎓🎉💛

Dean Lionel Popkin addressed this year's graduating class at Saturday's commencement ceremony, reflecting on the uncertainties every generation faces and the creativity and perseverance required to meet them.

[Video description: Dean Lionel Popkin, wearing cap and gown, speaks from the podium on stage at the UCLA Arts commencement ceremony. He reflects on the uncertainties and possibilities facing each new generation, and closes with a message of pride and confidence in the Class of 2026.] by @uclaarts

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On Saturday, the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture gathered to celebrate the Class of 2026 🎓💙💛

Congratulations to our graduates! by @uclaarts

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UCLA Architecture and Urban Design is ready to Rumble at its 60th anniversary celebration!

[Video description: A UCLA Architecture student welcomes viewers to experience “Rumble,” the department’s end of year celebration and 60th anniversary. Clips show models and drawings.] taken in UCLA by @uclaarts

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Meet the undergraduate student speaker for this year's UCLA Arts commencement ceremony: Sarah Lustgarten (Art).

Lustgarten didn't arrive at UCLA thinking she would become an artist. She enrolled as a global studies major, though she had always been drawn to art from a distance. That changed in high school, when a ceramics class introduced her to structured studio practice for the first time. At UCLA, she began approaching professors at the start of each quarter, asking to be admitted into art courses. Eventually, those requests led to a turning point.

"I fell in love with it," Lustgarten said.

She applied to the UCLA Department of Art, got in, and never looked back. She later added a second major in communication, seeing it as a natural complement to her practice. One operates through visual language; the other through written and spoken systems. Together, she said, they continue to shape how she thinks and makes work.

Lustgarten describes her practice less as a fixed discipline and more as a process of exploration, moving freely between materials and treating each project as an experiment. Color, particularly pink, plays a significant role. It's a choice that carries tension: for some viewers, soft or joyful; for others, slightly unsettling. She is drawn to that range and how a single visual decision can hold conflicting responses at once.

Much of her recent work incorporates small, overlooked objects from everyday life: a discarded lip liner, a cigarette butt, fragments that hint at an unseen story. She recreates these remnants in ceramic and other materials, placing them in new contexts that ask viewers to see the mundane differently.

"I feel like what's been successful for me so far is just trying everything," she said.

Lustgarten will deliver the undergraduate student address at Saturday's 2026 Commencement Ceremony. by @uclaarts

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Meet the graduate student speaker for this year's UCLA Arts commencement ceremony: Hunter Blackwell (Architecture and Urban Design).

For Blackwell, the road to UCLA ran through the Rhode Island School of Design and a digital fabrication shop in Los Angeles. He earned his B.F.A. in glass from RISD, where his work grew in scale and ambition until it caught the attention of visiting architecture critics, planting a seed that would take years to grow. After completing his undergraduate studies, he spent four years managing RISD's Glass Department before relocating to Los Angeles, where he worked at a digital fabrication shop whose work spanned engineering projects, sculpture, furniture, and architectural fabrication.

"I realized I could actually bring all of my skills and interests into one place with architecture," Blackwell said.

He enrolled in AUD's M.Arch. program, where the rigor of the discipline and the city of Los Angeles itself transformed how he sees the built environment. His art background hasn't faded; it's become a lens.

"In art, ambiguity is essential. The openness of its interpretation is integral to the work." Architecture demands something different: clarity, precision, consequence. Blackwell finds productive tension in navigating both.

"It's a very rule-based field. But having that art training lets me strategically critique or challenge some of those rules."

Looking ahead, he hopes to keep developing his creative practice and pursue teaching, bringing the same cross-disciplinary thinking that brought him to UCLA Arts into the next generation of artists and architects.

Blackwell will deliver the graduate student address in Saturday's 2026 Commencement Ceremony. by @uclaarts

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One wouldn’t think that a student of education who moved to the United States from Japan and has two grown children would share core personal values with an 18-year-old professional actor from Ventura County on a pre-law track. 🎓 ✨

But as it turns out, one of the youngest and one of the most senior graduates going through the Class of 2026 commencement ceremonies at UCLA have more in common than meets the eye.

Mayu Sasame and August Maturo both came to UCLA as transfer students two years ago and will earn bachelor’s degrees in education and social transformation and English, respectively.

Learn more about their story at the link in our bio.

#UCLA2026 #BruinProud Mayu Sasame and August Maturo stand against brick wall, each smiling and holding up four fingers to signifies the UCLA eight-clap cheer by @uclaarts

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On June 20, downtown Los Angeles gets the world's first museum of AI arts, created by UCLA Department of Design Media Arts alumnus Refik Anadol.

When Anadol arrived at UCLA in 2012 to pursue his MFA, he had a vision for what art and machine intelligence could do together. This month, that vision opens to the public. DATALAND, located within Frank Gehry's Grand LA complex, is the culmination of more than a decade of work by Anadol and his co-founder, artist and cultural researcher Efsun Erkılıç.

Its inaugural exhibition, Machine Dreams: Rainforest, spans five galleries across 25,000 square feet and is powered by the Large Nature Model — the world's first open-access AI system trained entirely on environmental data. The dataset encompasses over 500 million nature images, 50 million bird songs, and field recordings gathered across 16 rainforests worldwide, sourced through partnerships with the Smithsonian, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, London's Natural History Museum, and iNaturalist, and through sustained collaboration with the Indigenous Yawanawá community of the Amazon. The system runs on 87% carbon-free energy, and the power required to generate each visitor's experience is roughly equivalent to a single smartphone charge.

Visitors have the option to wear a medical-grade biometric device that feeds heart rate and physiological responses into the museum's AI systems in real time, allowing the art to respond to the presence of the people inside it.

Debate about AI's role in art and culture is ongoing; what Anadol and Erkılıç have built is a direct and considered response to that conversation. Their work is grounded in ethical data collection, Indigenous collaboration, environmental stewardship, and a genuine argument for what machine intelligence can do in the hands of artists who take the responsibility seriously. Coverage in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times explores that argument in depth.

This Saturday, Anadol joins UCLA Arts to deliver the keynote address at our 2026 Commencement Ceremony, and next week, DATALAND welcomes its first public visitors.

Links in bio. by @uclaarts

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Meet Philip Soderlind, Shop Supervisor in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design.

At UCLA Arts, lab area supervisors are the behind-the-scenes artists, makers, and educators who make creative exploration possible. They keep our shops, studios, and labs running safely and smoothly—mentoring students, maintaining equipment, and fostering the environments where ideas take shape.

In AUD, Philip helps students transform ambitious concepts into built realities. He oversees the department’s expansive fabrication shop, which includes traditional woodworking equipment, CNC routers, laser cutters, thermoformers, spray booths, photography spaces, and a 3D printing lab with dozens of machines. But beyond maintaining the shop, Philip guides students through the practical and creative challenges of material selection, fabrication processes, and production timelines—supporting projects from conception to completion.

“It’s satisfying working with our students, many of whom come from completely different backgrounds,” Philip said. “They bring their own ways of thinking and problem-solving, and my job is to help them understand new tools and processes. In doing this, I get to know them well, and these relationships often don’t end at graduation.”

During midterms and finals, the shop processes hundreds of jobs each day, often with machines running around the clock. Through it all, Philip balances technical expertise with patience and mentorship, helping students navigate intense production schedules while maintaining a supportive environment where experimentation and collaboration can thrive.

Trained as a sculptor at CalArts and with years of experience running a fabrication and cabinetry business in Los Angeles, Philip brings the perspective of an artist, builder, and problem-solver to his work with students and faculty alike. Over time, he becomes a steady presence throughout students’ academic journeys—watching confidence grow, skills sharpen, and ideas evolve into fully realized projects.

Stay tuned as we highlight more of the skilled staff members whose care, creativity, and expertise shape the learning experience at UCLA Arts every day. by @uclaarts

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Meet Gareth Walsh M.F.A. ’07, Experimental Digital Arts Supervisor in the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts.

At UCLA Arts, several staff members are the behind-the-scenes artists and educators who make creative exploration possible. They keep our shops, studios, and labs running safely and smoothly—mentoring students, maintaining equipment, and fostering the environments where ideas take shape.

As supervisor of the Experimental Digital Arts (EDA) space, Gareth helps students and faculty bring ideas at the intersection of art and technology to life. From immersive projections to interactive sculptures, he provides hands-on technical guidance and creative problem-solving, mentoring students as they move from learning how to set up a projector to independently producing complex, multi-technology installations.

“As a practicing artist, I’m able to share and apply the knowledge I’ve developed over the years—both from my own practice and from working with so many talented students and faculty,” Gareth said. “In their first year, some students don’t know how to set up a projector or audio system. Three years later, they’re creating immersive installations that integrate multiple technologies.”

Collaborating closely with faculty and fellow supervisors, Gareth helps cultivate a studio culture rooted in curiosity, experimentation, and collaboration. His leadership also extends through UCLA’s XR Initiative, contributing to campus-wide explorations of virtual and augmented reality. As a media artist, his work explores perception—challenging viewers to pause and reconsider how they see the world around them.

Stay tuned as we highlight more of the skilled staff members whose care, creativity, and expertise shape the learning experience at UCLA Arts every day. by @uclaarts

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