Note from the Director
Depending on the circumstances, a four-year term can feel painfully long (politics) or surprisingly short (an undergraduate degree). In my case, the past four years as the Director of the Arts Research Center have flown by, filled with delights, inspiration, and profound intellectual interventions. I am proud of the work we have accomplished together in creating programs to support our vibrant community of artist/critics, such as The Loft Hour and the LIFT and LOFT grants for student and faculty arts development projects; offering a slate of visiting artist programs across fields, some through co-sponsorship with campus partners; and highlighting the work of Indigenous artist/critics through regular programing and our signature partnership with Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency.
It has been a particular joy to support arts programming by working with professors to bring arts practitioners into their classrooms, and to collaborate with campus entities such as BAM/PFA, Berkeley Center for New Media, Cal Performances, and the Doreen B. Townsend Humanities Center. Through everything, we have been guided by the commitment to center arts practice as/and critique, or the critical work of thinking through the arts.
In 2022, our campus and the wider world were still emerging from the lockdown of the pandemic. That summer, ARC had just moved to our current location, a major undertaking beautifully coordinated by Associate Director Laurie Macfee. It was a great opportunity to establish our new home as a place for arts creation, engagement, and community. We conceptualized the space, with its high ceilings and exposed ductwork, as an artist’s loft, a place for work and life. We have sought to create a welcoming home for artist/critics to use the space in myriad ways—for writing workshops, lectures, dance performance, plays, music, and all kinds of experimentation—and always with food, drink, and good vibes. At the same time, the website was completely overhauled and our curated social media became its own expression of art. None of it, from the moveable furniture to the gluten-free cookies, could have been accomplished without the phenomenal team of Laurie Macfee; Lily Gee, program and communications coordinator; and our various student assistants over the years. With grace and fortitude this wonderful staff conscientiously attended to every detail of sponsoring events, and always with positive energy and kindness.
I offer my thanks to the staff for their hard work and devotion, to Dean Sara Guyer for the opportunity to serve, and to all of the Berkeley faculty, students, staff, and community members who contributed their time, creativity, and critical work to sustain the vibrant and vital intellectual community at the Arts Research Center. It’s my pleasure to welcome the new director, Prof. Fumi Okiji.
Beth Piatote
Director, Arts Research Center (fall 2022 - spring 2026)
Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and English
