UCLA Arts ArtsBridge
School of the Arts and Architecture
University of California, Los Angeles
Broad Art Center, Room 2101
Los Angeles, 90095-1620
Amy Shimshon-Santo, Ph.D.
ArtsBridge Director
Interim Director of Community Partnerships
Tel: (310) 294-4358
Fax: (310) 206-9129
capoeira@ucla.edu
Etsu Garfias
Administrative Coordinator
Tel: (310) 206-5185
egarfias@arts.ucla.edu
Program Staff
Shimshon-Santo is a movement artist and educator whose interests include community arts, arts education, and social justice with special emphases on the transnational aspects of gender, race, place, and community. As ArtsBridge Director she cultivates and sustains community partnerships between UCLA Arts, Los Angeles County schools, and neighborhood community arts centers. With a Professional Designation in Arts Education, she is a veteran dance educator with the LA County Music Center Education Division, and has served as a choreographic consultant to LAUSD. Her experience in arts education includes work with emotionally and physically challenged youth. Shimshon-Santo came to arts education from a background in performance and arts activism. She has both performed and created choreography for venues throughout the United States and abroad from the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to school cafetoriums in rural Alaska. As the U.S. partner to the Viva! Project, Shimshon-Santo works closely with community artists and popular educators throughout the Americas including Panama, Canada, Mexico, and Nicaragua. She has been recognized as an Arts Leadership Fellow (CAC/CORO), a Dana Foundation Arts Education Fellow (2004, 2006), and served on the California Arts Council’s Multicultural Advisory Board. She holds graduate degrees in Urban Planning (UCLA; Ph.D. 2003, M.A. 1991), and Latin American Studies (UCSC; B.A. 1988).
Ms. Garfias has worked with the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture as a special projects coordinator for several years. Her projects have a broad range – music festivals, student film festivals, theater and ethnomusicology conferences, opera production and art exhibition. Her experience with ArtsBridge these past 3 years has been gratifying -witnessing how the arts can motivate our youth and enrich their lives.
2005-2006 Support Staff
In 2005-2006, ArtsBridge received generous support for Teaching Assistants from UCLA’s Center for Community Learning, and, also, welcomed an international intern from York University in Toronto, Canada.
Jaynie Ali Aydin is a PhD Candidate and Lecturer in the World Arts and Cultures department. She is an ethnographic filmmaker and dance researcher focusing on media ecology and traditional folk performance. As a videographer and editor, she has conducted extensive field research in Polynesia and Micronesia, Europe, and Turkey visually documenting traditional dance performance at contemporary festivals and celebrations.
John Wesley Days, Jr. is a PhD. candidate in the Department of World
Arts and Cultures where he writes, studies and performs conflict transformation through music, movement and ritual theater. He explains, “I got involved in ArtsBridge because my family caste is public education. Grandparents, parents, aunt, uncles and cousins, most are educators in the public school system. It is what we believe we were born to do in this world.”
Lisa Campbell is an Independent Studies major at the University of Waterloo with a special focus on Community Arts and Media. Campbell was awarded a York University International Internship to live in Los Angeles and work with ArtsBridge for three months. She is a multimedia artist, and uses media as a probe for people to ask deeper questions of themselves about political issues and culture. In her travels she has worked as a community animator conducting popular education workshops, and participating in local solidarity campaigns.
