Every fall since 2017, Harvard-Westlake has brought an artist to exhibit work at the Arlene Director Schnitzer ’47 Art Gallery as part of the Visiting Artist Program. Made possible by an endowment from Arlene Director Schnitzer ’47, who was a prominent philanthropist and patron of the arts until she passed away in April 2020, the program is intended to showcase art that shines a light on equity and identity.

Thanks to the generosity of the UCLA Department of Art Graduate Studies program and the Charlie James Gallery, the middle school visual arts faculty selects each artist and organizes each year’s show in the Arlene Director Schnitzer ’47 Art Gallery in Wang Hall at the middle school.

“Artists are the chroniclers of our time,” says Jordan Schnitzer, Arlene Director Schnitzer’s son and a leading philanthropist and art collector in his own right. “They’re at the forefront, fostering discussion about issues in our communities. And just as we have a diverse population, we need art from diverse voices on diverse themes. That’s important for Harvard-Westlake students—for all of us—to experience. People think of art as an elitist thing, but my mother’s philosophy was that art is for everyone. She felt Westlake was a special place, and she wanted to do her part to make it even better for future generations.”

The artist opening, talk, and artist challenge (where students are challenged to respond to the work with their own artwork) are shared with students on both campuses, and students, faculty and staff, families, and alumni are invited to come to the exhibit’s opening, view the artwork, and hear the artist speak. 

In 2020, due to COVID, the opening and talk were broadcast via Zoom. In addition to the Harvard-Westlake community, students from Humanitas Academy of Art and Technology, a public high school in East Los Angeles, were invited to virtually attend and ask questions of the featured artist. An audience of over 500 participated in the event. This fall, Harvard-Westlake will record the live on-campus talk and share it with the Humanitas Academy.

The Visiting Artist Program exposes students to thought-provoking artwork and artists from diverse backgrounds, challenging assumptions and building empathy.