Arts Immersion

In this travel course, students will explore the dynamic histories of Black and Latino artists across the Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles. Students will visit museums, galleries, and community centers dedicated to nurturing, showcasing, and archiving the work of artists of color; meet artists, directors, curators, and collectors; participate in private tours to view historical sites and contemporary art; and engage in art-making workshops. The course is largely experiential in format with limited traditional classroom time. Nonetheless, students are expected to participate fully in daily activities, which are likely to require a lot of walking and/or standing. Past cohorts have visited ICA San Jose, MACLA, San Jose Museum of Art, LACMA, The Broad, The Getty Center, Watts Towers Arts Center, Charlie James Gallery, Crenshaw Dairy Mart, and the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture among other venues. Guest speakers and workshop hosts have also included award-winning and inspiring art professionals, including Autumn Breon (multidisciplinary artist), Def Sound (musician and writer), Jimeno Sarno (visual, sound, and installation artist), Rita Gonzalez (curator), and Dr. Joy Simmons (art collector). SFxLA students have gone on to enter the Inter-Arts Minor program, adopt majors and minors in art and art history, become research assistants, and have returned to the AI program as course assistants.