Japanese Garden

LA City Councilman Paul Koretz, whose district includes UCLA and the surrounding area, has written a letter to Chancellor Block opposing the sale of the Japanese Garden. The letter is reproduced below. By way of further historical background, the photo at the right appears in the new history book on UCLA, “UCLA: The First Century,” in a section entitled “Artful Transformation” dealing with Chancellor Franklin Murphy’s interest in campus beautification during his regime.  The caption to the photo reads in part: Murphy had long wanted to acquire a Japanese garden in neighboring Bel-Air, and in 1965, it was donated to…

The photo on the left shows UCLA students in the Japanese Garden in 1965. It has been reported to yours truly that there will be a meeting about the proposed sale of the garden next week, possibly including UCLA officials.  Below in italics is the announcement I received: Tuesday, January 31 5-7 p.m. Auditorium Community Magnet School  11301 Bellagio Road Los Angeles, CA 90049 Garden lovers, neighbors, and the interested public are invited to a meeting in Bel-Air on Tuesday evening, January 31, to discuss the future of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden. UCLA has announced plans to sell the…

OK. It appears – after the embarrassing LA Timesarticle yesterday on the Japanese Garden proposed sale by UCLA – that the ship has run aground.*  We have angry heirs of a donor, a major Regent of his time.  We may discourage future donors because of this episode.  We have a statement that it was not the intent to destroy the garden, but – in contrast to that statement – the removal of objects from it in an amateur way.  And it is unclear that folks at the Fowler Museum want those objects.  There are angry neighborhood groups and concerned preservation…

Excerpts from the LA Times article below and link to the full article: For nearly half a century, the UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel-Air has served as a serene stopover for visitors from locations as varied as Newhall, Nashville and the Netherlands.  But the decision by UCLA to sell the steep hillside property and an adjoining house to raise money for endowments and professorships has the garden world in an un-Zen-like uproar.  The Garden Conservancy, an organization based in New York and San Francisco, has lambasted the university’s transfer to the Fowler Museum of a five-tiered stone pagoda…

In a previous blog entry, we published photos by astronomer R. Michael Rich showing the removal of art objects from the UCLA Japanese garden which is proposed for sale.  I invited Dr. Rich to write up his version of what occurred when he visited the Garden area where the removals are taking place.  It might be noted that the UCLA Faculty Association has taken no position on this action by UCLA.  But blog readers will have an interest in recent events.  Below is Dr. Rich’s report: ================= R. Michael Rich I am writing concerning my encounter with Brad Erickson and reporters…

UCLA Research Astronomer R. Michael Rich took these two photos of an object being removed from the Japanese Garden today.  He reports that non-expert personnel are involved in the removals.  He identifies the object as follows: Japanese Square Stone Water Basin, a Buddhist carving dating from the 15th or 16th Century, Object #19 in the catalog you can find an earlier post on the Garden issue.  See the catalog at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/01/info-on-plans-for-japanese-garden.html UPDATE: The Daily Bruin picked up the story http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2012/01/ucla_moving_toward_sale_of_hannah_carter_japanese_garden_in_bel_air

UCLA provided a listing with pictures of various objects – with valuations – located at the Japanese Garden to the California Garden & Landscape History Society.  The first page of the listing is shown above.   Apparently, the original plan was to remove and perhaps sell all the objects.  Now it appears that three objects will be removed and put in the Fowler Museum collection on campus.  Numbers 11, 21, and 22 on the listing (see link below) are definitely to go to Fowler.  Numbers 2 and 19 will, for the moment, remain in the garden and might later be removed…

Update from our prior post: Things on the Internet don’t completely die.  Above is an image of the first page of the now-removed UCLA website for the Japanese Garden.  Below is a link where you can see other parts of the website: Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla