In light of health concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and to safeguard the health and security of our entire community, this year’s commencement ceremony will be held on a virtual platform.

We are committed to holding an in-person celebration for the UCLA Arts Class of 2020 when it is safe to join together again and we are permitted to do so. Notifications will be sent to all graduates and this website will be updated once we are able to confirm a date for an in-person celebration.

We’re thrilled you would like to submit a congratulatory message to the Class of 2020! You can submit a brief message via audio, video, or text at the following location:

Great question! You can learn more about the graduates and see some of their work by visiting the departmental pages for this year’s graduates:

• Architecture and Urban Design
• Art
• Design | Media Arts
• World Arts and Cultures / Dance

"Memento Vivere" began as a project to re-imagine the form a contemporary public artwork might take in a contemporary world. In December of 2019, 60 students participated in an improvisational video shoot at UCLA. All were asked to perform a physical gesture that was in some way related to their own relationship to time. The intent was to assemble a clock that would celebrate the UCLA's Centennial. 

As the project evolved, the world changed with the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic. At that point, whatever our own personal sense of time might have been, we all have had to acknowledge that it, along with everything else in our world has changed radically. The intent to project the clock at a variety of sites around the UCLA campus has had to be put on hold, and the clock has shifted to become a living memento, marking not only the 100th birthday of the University, but a time when the ground has shifted beneath our feet. The students who participated in the project were generous and exuberant collaborators and contributed to this snapshot of a profound moment of cultural and economic upheaval and for that I am deeply grateful. I hope that when you look at this piece, whatever the platform where you may view it, the students who made it will help you to remember that movement is possible in every moment. 

"Memento Vivere" was commissioned by UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance, conceived and created by the artist, Chris Doyle, and developed as part of a class in the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts with Jade Box, Stephen Heo, Kai Watanabe and Tina Wen. Special thanks to Casey Reas. Photography by Matthew Miller.

Students pictured in the clock:
Brendan Thompson, Sahej Verma, Carl Hatch, Kiani Wish, Kennedy Hill, Leah Stofko, Sonia Hauser, Urna Bajracharya, Kai Watanabe, Marissa Perez, Sangmi Lee, Dario Apodaca, Lauren Mitchell, Kamilla Collins, Danielle Koenig, Emmet Abrams, Sruchi Patel, Paulina Panas, Natalia Trejo, Nolan Kim, Tyler Chiu, Luis Cortes, Hamidreza Sanjabi, CJ Zepeda, Gavin Aleshire, Audrey Ruiz, Jade Box, Max Gordy, Rebecca Tokofsky, Keanu Balani, Isabella D’Agnenica, Ruby Lake, Scott Schweitzer, Isabella Bustanoby, Andrew Lee, Daniel Leka, Tianyi Song, Fiona Hsu, Aldo Schwartw, Jess Grimes, Bingyu Jiang, Rachel Liu, Elias Hernández, Valentine Salomone, Rebecca Chhay, Isabelle Smith, Sally Hinckley, Nia McClinton, Gabby Morie, Chaya Borison, Torres Li, Arshia Yousefian, El Gomez, Amy Fang, Jack Feder, Michelle Pham, Isabelle Von Lockner, Iris Gur, Jesus Arriola, Divya Narayan