Director Sasha Anawalt on the arts program's goals and innovations

Current student and visual arts archivist, Donna Granata, talks to Sasha Anawalt in Studio A about the driving impetus behind the MA program, now in its eighth year. What are its goals? How does it work? 

Creativity is strongly emphasized and artists are "at the center" of the program's mission. To illustrate these values in action, Granata leads Anawalt -- and you! -- through Ampersand, the program's online arts & culture magazine. 

Anawalt wants her students to be "as creative as the artists they cover." So, they look at an interactive dance review that two current students made in response to choreographer Rebecca Bruno. They also click through Corinne DeWitt's, '16, mapping of the original opera, "Hopscotch," which was this year's new music sensation in L.A. 

Granata is part of Ampersand's 12-member staff. With a substantial background in visual arts, Granata distinguished herself with interviews with Edythe and Eli Broad, a visit to Jasper Johns' home on the occasion of Gemini Gel's 50th anniversary, reviews of shows by artists Ruth Pastine and Cynthia Minet, radio segments with composer and cellist Miguel Del Aguila, and conversations with actor Bryan Cranston and director Jay Roach about the film, "Trumbo."

Her stirring interview with the late Christopher Trumbo can also be heard on Ampersand, here.