We the undersigned oppose the proposed closure of the University Art Gallery (UAG) at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). UCSD Administration cites the demand of a growing student population as necessitating the closure of this historic and vital space of learning. We believe this proposed closure of the UAG is short sighted and diminishes the reputation of the University. Moreover, the process by which this proposal has been made has lacked transparency and meaningful consultation. We appreciate that the University is struggling to accommodate a huge growth in enrollments, but the UAG must not be closed because it represents a historic and internationally recognized cultural space that provides students and faculty with a distinctly valuable learning environment that is open to the public at large.           

            Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Suresh Subramani and Director of Communications for the Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities, Cynthia Dillon, concede that the UAG at UCSD was founded in 1966, and has served as a vibrant campus space for hosting student and faculty exhibitions and visiting artist lecture series. The UAG remains a cultural space that functions to give back to our local community and is recognized nationally and internationally as a vital site of cultural significance. The ongoing vitality of the UAG space is essential to maintaining the reputation of this historic program.

            The UAG is a valued and valuable cultural space, which already plays an important instructional role for the Visual Arts Department and the campus. Not only does it provide an appropriate venue for the capstone projects of both our undergraduate majors and MFA students, but by bringing the works of important artists to campus it helps education, students and teachers across disciplines.           

            With all due respect to the administrative assertion that other exhibition venues would remain on campus, we respond as follows. The Stuart Collection is a curated and privately funded outdoor sculpture collection of blue chip artists that excludes contributions of students and faculty. The gallery@calit2 in the Atkinson Engineering building, is an interdisciplinary curated space dedicated solely to digital art. The Adam D. Kamil Art Gallery, located in a hidden corner of the basement area of the Mandeville building, is not an appropriate for high profile public display. The Visual Arts Facility Gallery is needed for MFA student exhibitions required for advancing to degree.  The Visual Arts Gallery at SME, though attractive is too small for significant group exhibitions and is not well designed for its function. In sum, only the University Art Gallery provides an appropriate space for exhibiting the works of famous alumni and emerging and diverse artists as well as undergraduate & graduate students, faculty and visiting artists.. In short, we are witnessing the dismantling of art space crucial to the professional training of Visual Arts students and to the vibrancy of the arts community on campus. 

            We finally ask the administration to consult meaningfully and in good faith with faculty and students. How has this closed process undertaken by these administrators led them simply to announce the appropriation of this one site of learning and its reconfiguration into something which at present has yet to be defined? What alternatives were considered?           

            While we appreciate that the university must make difficult decisions as growing enrollment outpaces capacity, it is our responsibility to safeguard the quality and reputation of that education and what makes departments unique for the future. In other words, we ask administrators to make wise choices, not merely expedient ones.