100 for 100: Marla C. Berns
On the occasion of UCLA’s Centennial, UCLA Arts is proud to present 100 for 100—a collection of stories that celebrate the rich history of the arts at UCLA over the past century. Each monthly newsletter throughout the yearlong celebration will feature a new story by a member of our community that reflects on our past and imagines what’s possible for our future. We invite our community to explore these stories and contribute their own to the collection. This month's contribution comes from Marla C. Berns, Shirley & Ralph Shapiro Director of the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy presided over UCLA during one of the most tumultuous decades of its history and that of the world at large—the 1960s. While addressing its reverberations—especially the new liberal consciousness rooted in the Civil Rights and antiwar movements that shook the foundations of many university campuses—Murphy made an indelible mark on UCLA’s and Los Angeles’s cultural landscape. He established what is now called the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden (1967), helped create the new Los Angeles Music Center (1964) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1965), and founded a new campus museum, originally called the Laboratory of Ethnic Arts and Technology (1963). The museum’s creation and focus on the arts and material cultures of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the indigenous Americas were tied to Murphy’s vision of an internationally-oriented, interdisciplinary institution responsive to national liberation movements around the world. It coincided with new centers of study at UCLA—Latin American, Near Eastern, European, and African—as well as Ethnic Studies Centers reflecting Los Angeles’ growing diversification. The remarkable legacy of Murphy’s brief tenure (1960-68) is memorialized in the naming of UCLA’s administrative hub, Murphy Hall, and the art-filled garden sanctuary on north campus. Less well known is his imprint on the 57-year history of the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
