In my two years in the Honors program and at CSULB, I have taken two Honors classes. The first one was UHP 100, which I enjoyed immensely. The class was titled “Angles of Vision” and it was taught by Idalith Bustos. We studied our world through different theories and lenses. That class prepared me for other classes, as an Honors class is supposed to, so I appreciated it and wished more students had access to it. I decided to take another Honors class this semester and I chose UHP 101 with Professor Rafel Nieto.
UHP 101 is Art, Community & Place: The Los Angeles Interchange. When I first registered for the course I had no idea what the class was going to be like. Most professors make each class different. When registering for classes I saw “art” and immediately chose the class. Rafael Nieto, the professor for UHP 101 this semester, has an interesting background that has led him to his current position.
Nieto is a Mexican-American, Long Beach native and a second generation Cal State Long Beach alumni. His mother, Olivia Nieto, received a degree in social work from Long Beach in the 60s. Interestingly, Nieto volunteered at CSULB while he was a high schooler at the KSUL radio station on campus. This led him to the Radio/TV/Film Department for his undergraduate degree. Additionally, in 1973-1974, he volunteered with the United Farm Workers Security Detail.
With more than thirty years of television and film production experience and an appreciation for higher education, UHP 101 Art, Community & Place: The Los Angeles Interchange seemed like a good fit for Nieto. The class is interesting and something I haven’t really done. For example, this entire semester is dedicated to working on a research portfolio. We are tasked with researching a certain aspect of southern California artifacts. It could be paintings, ceramics, music, film, dance, anything. Nieto shared “I work with them to make some sense of their universe by breaking their studies down into ‘THESIS + ANTITHESIS = SYNTHESIS,’ applying the Scientific Theory to Arts, Culture, History and other seemingly unrelated concepts.”
Combining art with other concepts is fun and exciting, it is also something we often do not see in our classrooms. In college, you only see STEM majors researching art in the one required art class for general education requirements. Art and humanities majors only take the STEM classes required. I am one of those students. The combination of the arts and STEM is common in everyday life, even more than we think. These concepts can be seen in the class when we were left to brainstorm ideas and some students decided on researching amusement park rides, Bollywood, ceramics, vinyl records, and so much more.
The research element of the class is interesting and was difficult at some points. For the project we must interview two artists from our chosen medium. We research why they make their art and their methodologies. Contacting local artists was intimidating. I was stressed about the deadlines, what I would ask, and how I would connect with them. I chose to do my research portfolio on the murals from the Santa Ana Art Walk. Although I grew up in Santa Ana, I had so much to learn and explore. This assignment had me branch out of my comfort zone. In the end, we must connect the art back to us and our community and culture in our portfolio. That is the purpose of this class and Nieto’s overall goal.
I’d recommend every Honors student take UHP 101 Art, Community & Place: The Los Angeles Interchange. It isn’t too time consuming and you get new experiences out of it and learn a lot from what Professor Nieto shares with the class. Because of this class, I know more about my hometown and its artists.
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