UCLA receives $20M donation from Margo Leavin for graduate art studios
By Evolet Chiu
July 18, 2016 5:50 p.m.
The UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture received a $20 million donation to remodel its Graduate Art Studios in Culver City.
The donation, announced in May, will be part of a $31 million project to remake and expand the studios by 2019. UCLA officials will present a proposal to approve the project in the UC Board of Regents on Tuesday.
The Los Angeles architectural firm Johnston Marklee designed the project in 2011, but it failed to progress due to the lack of funding, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The new studio complex will be renamed the UCLA Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios, after the LA gallerist and UCLA alumna according a UCLA news release. The release said Leavin’s donation is the largest ever gifted by a single alumna to the arts within the UC system.
The expansion, located near the intersection of Warner Drive and Hayden Avenue, would include a new two-story building with an exhibition area and artist-in-residence studio.
U.S. News & World Report ranked UCLA’s master of fine arts program No. 2 in the nation earlier this year.
In a statement to UCLA, David Roussève, the interim dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture, said Leavin’s donation will go a long way toward ensuring the future of the arts at UCLA is strong.
Mark Lee, founder and principal of Johnston Marklee, said he hopes the project will further strengthen UCLA’s creative learning environment for graduate art students.
