The Roski School of Art and Design’s graduate student facility in the Los Angeles Arts District will be expanded to house all three graduate programs and the current facility near USC will be repurposed.
The currently 15,000-square-foot facility will increase 10,000 square feet to house the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Art program and the Masters in Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere (MA) program in addition to the MFA Design program, which is already housed by the facility, according to a news release from Roski. The expanded site will have an opening reception in December to celebrate an annual Roski MA project. All three graduate programs will be occupying the site beginning January 2020.
The idea of having a combined space for all graduate programs is an intentional effort to promote cross collaboration.
Dean of Roski Haven Lin-Kirk explained that placing the programs in the same space was something she always wanted to do. “It made sense pedagogically for them to be together.” Lin-Kirk also emphasized the importance of collaboration in art and design. “I think that when you have communities that are together like this, they learn how to work together, and true interdisciplinary work is when you put people in the same vicinity together, and they're trying to curate something that you know, may or may not work,” she said.
The At Mateo complex where the facility is located is “arguably the hottest neighborhood right now in downtown LA,” according to Lin-Kirk. USC Roski acquired the space through two phases — the initial obtainment and then expansion. The complex is located in the heart of the arts district which is home to many art galleries and businesses including Lyft, Spotify and Warner Music, which recently opened buildings in close proximity.
Opportunity wise, Sebin Song, a Roski MFA student majoring in design, believes that the area will be beneficial to students due to its location. Because the building is located in the downtown art district, she said graduate students will be able to “visit galleries” and “talk about art instantly” with strangers on the street.
“Environment wise, it's a perfect space for designers, at least, because of the open tables,” Song said. “We all can share our theses of what we’re doing. It's very open and there's no competition inside of it at all.”
The Graduate Fine Arts Building, located near the USC University Park campus, that currently houses the MFA Art and MA programs will be repurposed into shared studios for undergraduate student use throughout this academic year. This is the first time that Roski will have studio space available for its undergraduate students. Until now, undergraduate students worked in classrooms or labs in which classes were not taking place.
“I think the expansion is necessary,” said sophomore Olivia LiCalzi, a Roski student with a focus in photography. “We all work in different mediums and a lot of them take up a lot of space.”
LiCalzi said that in a woodshop class she took last semester, the class had to work both in the studio and outside with portable equipment because “there were so many students trying to use the same machines,” and some students were working with large planes of wood.
Lin-Kirk does recognize some concerns over the relocation, “I think the anxiety about leaving 30th and Flower Street is because the space is familiar.” However, she explained that “since we started talking about the expansion, especially with outside entities, arts organizations, there’s been a lot of interest and doing more with graduate programs. So I think their opportunity for exposure should ease any anxiety [about moving out of the original space].”