What's Brewing at UCLA

Artisan(s) unknown, Italian teapot, circa 1840. Courtesy of the UCLA Fowler Museum.

According to the H-AfrArts Discussion Network (as well as Culture Monster), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has decided to shutter its Arts Library--permanently. Effective as early as January 2010, the decision stems from a shortage of nearly $2 million, ostensibly a result of the continuing recession. In addition to having one of the nation's strongest collections of materials pertaining to Africa and its diasporas, the library holds more than 270,000 books in the fields of architecture, architectural history, art, art history, design, film, television, photography, theater, and allied disciplines. Faculty and others rallying against the library's closure have created a Facebook page, and an online petition that has acquired 2,139 signatures in just four days (the benchmark is 2,500).

Masayuki Shinsai, Japanese color woodblock print depicting two women at a tea ceremony; one woman teaching the other the serving of tea, no date (1760-1848). Ink on paper. Scripps College Collection. Courtesy of Scripps College.

While things are heating up with the library, a new exhibition--Steeped in History: The Art of Tea--has opened at the UCLA Fowler Museum. The exhibition explores the world's second most consumed beverage through Chinese ceramics and paintings, 18th- and 19th-century Japanese ceramics and prints (like the one pictured here), English and Colonial American paintings, historic photographs and documents, tea-serving paraphernalia and furniture. Steeped in History is on view through November 29.


Find a good place for tea in Los Angeles. Follow Alton Brown's recipe for Sweet Tea. Check out this mossy slice of Green Tea Cake on Flickr.