Barbara Fuchs, Ursula Heise and Danny Snelson, 2023 Chancellor’s Arts Initiative Grantees
Congratulations to Professors Barbara Fuchs, Ursula Heise and Danny Snelson, whose projects were selected to receive a 2023 Chancellor’s Arts Initiative grant. The 2023 recipients of UCLA’s Chancellor’s Arts Initiative grants take up important issues of cultural visibility and responsibility. The program is administered by the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts and the office of the vice chancellor for research and creative activities and is applied annually to foster the advancement of the arts and arts-related scholarship at UCLA.
Professors Heise and Snelson will use the funds from the grant to develop their project, “Grand Theft Eco: Environmental Futures of Los Angeles,” an animated video series modeled on the storyworld of the video game “Grand Theft Auto V.” The three “machinima” episodes invite reflection and discussion on the entanglements of social justice and environmental crises and push back against wide-spread pessimistic visions of urban climate futures. Read more about this project here, which forms part of the Lab for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS).
Professor Fuchs will use the funds from the grant to develop her project, “Voicing Diversity: Radio Comedia Theater Podcasts.” Radio Comedia, a new podcast initiative by UCLA’s Diversifying the Classics project combines innovative audio theater, cutting-edge scholarship, language justice, and public outreach to L.A.’s diverse communities. Read more about this project here.