UCLA Gets $18-Million Gift to Build a Future for Dance

Philanthropist Glorya Kaufman has donated $18 million to UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture to help renovate its historic Dance Building, the university announced Monday. It is the largest individual gift the university has received outside of the health sciences area, and the largest arts donation ever in the University of California system.

“Support for the arts continues to diminish so we’re totally dependent on philanthropy,” said UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale. “This gift will preserve and reinvigorate one of the original buildings on campus, creating a magnificent place for the study and performance of dance.”

Dance has long been a passion of Kaufman, an adept ballroom dancer and longtime supporter of UCLA and a variety of fine arts and medical institutions. Kaufman, who declines to give her age, says her activism dates back to 1983, when she inherited a sizable estate from her husband, Donald, who, with Eli Broad, co-founded the home construction and financing firm Kaufman & Broad. Kaufman, a private plane pilot, died in a flying accident.

“That year, I donated money in Don’s name to the Brentwood library and I’ve had hands-on involvement in causes ever since,” said Kaufman, an elegant, soft-spoken woman with four children and 10 grandchildren. “After touring the Dance Building, I pledged $100,000 to spearhead improvements. I had no idea what I was getting into. Eighteen million wasn’t my idea--they took a while to do their calculations,” she says with a laugh. “I was led down the yellow brick road.”

Seventeen million and nine hundred thousand dollars later, Kaufman says, she’s focusing more on the “opportunity” than the sum--the largest single donation she’s made.

“I see this building as a creative hub for a fantastic school that’s not strong in the arts, and a shot in the arm for L.A. dance,” Kaufman says. “The global approach adopted by the Department of World Arts and Culture [into which the dance department was absorbed in 1995] is particularly close to my heart. It breaks down the cubicles we all inhabit and is a way of reaching out.”

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The Dance Building, a 1932 Italian Romanesque-style structure, was originally the women’s gymnasium. Peeling plaster frames the Judy Baca murals in the lobby--testament to a face lift long overdue. Along with Kaufman’s $18 million, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state and UCLA will contribute $17 million for the building’s seismic retrofitting. Renovation is expected to begin summer 2001 and be completed spring 2003. It is designed by the Santa Monica-based Moore Ruble Yudell under the direction of principal architect Buzz Yudell. The firm was also responsible for the renovation of the university’s historic Powell Library.

The locker room, which is now two-thirds of the main floor, will be downsized to make room for new classrooms, offices and improved facilities for the video documentation of dance. The second-floor gymnasium, currently a rehearsal and performance space, will be converted into a state-of-the-art theater with computerized lighting and a digital sound system. A new outdoor amphitheater is also planned, adjoining the swimming pool out back.

“We’ll have a program revolutionary on the national level in an environment with the latest technology,” said Daniel Neuman, dean of the Arts and Architecture School.

The building, to be called Glorya Kaufman Hall, is the first of the campus’ original core academic structures to be named for a woman.

“This hall has always been the center of focus for women on campus,” said Christopher Waterman, chair of the Department of World Arts and Cultures. “And since men are generally in the great minority in dance programs, naming this building for a woman makes historical sense. It’s exciting to think that this dilapidated grand dame of the campus will, once again, be a queen.”