Zócalo Public Square

Just as the UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies released its 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report, Black List founder and CEO Franklin Leonard, Black-ish executive producer Brian Dobbins, Bunche Center director Darnell Hunt, and Creative Artists Agency agent Christy Haubegger talked with Hollywood Reporter executive editor Matthew Belloni about why the people Americans see onscreen don't look more like the rest of us. At an event co-presented by UCLA and UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, the panelists agreed that diversity sells, but studio executives are still playing catch-up with the nation's demographics and tastes.

What inspires artists as they grow older? Do they approach their work in new ways? Do they see the world differently? Painter Charles Garabedian, muralist Judithe Hernández, and musicologist Karen Painter tackled these questions at an "Open Art" event co-presented by the Getty. It was inspired by the Getty exhibition "J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free," which features works from the final years of Turner’s life, and was moderated by Los Angeles Times arts reporter Mike Boehm.

What inspires artists as they grow older? Do they approach their work in new ways? Do they see the world differently? Painter Charles Garabedian, muralist Judithe Hernández, and musicologist Karen Painter tackled these questions at an "Open Art" event co-presented by the Getty. It was inspired by the Getty exhibition "J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free," which features works from the final years of Turner’s life, and was moderated by Los Angeles Times arts reporter Mike Boehm.

Who or what creates and builds a city’s arts scene? How can a flourishing arts community advance to the next level? At a "Living the Arts" event co-presented by the James Irvine Foundation at the Riverside Art Museum, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival director Bill Fold, UC Riverside historian Catherine Gudis, Downtown Riverside Arts Walk co-founder Cosme Cordova, and Ken Vincent, KVCR news director and the evening’s moderator, tackled these questions.

Who or what creates and builds a city’s arts scene? How can a flourishing arts community advance to the next level? At a "Living the Arts" event co-presented by the James Irvine Foundation at the Riverside Art Museum, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival director Bill Fold, UC Riverside historian Catherine Gudis, Downtown Riverside Arts Walk co-founder Cosme Cordova, and Ken Vincent, KVCR news director and the evening’s moderator, tackled these questions.

For centuries, the best college education has been the one that costs the most and is accessible to the fewest people. But what if anyone, anywhere, could take classes with the best professors, without paying a dime? According to Kevin Carey, author of The End of College and education policy program director at the New America Foundation, this is the future of higher education. At an event co-presented by Arizona State University, Carey discussed whether new technology will make some of America's oldest institutions obsolete.

After decades of building prisons and increasing the number of people behind bars, the pendulum of California’s criminal justice system has swung away from incarceration. Among the policies and laws that are changing the way offenders are sentenced is Proposition 47, which was passed in November 2014, and redefines six nonviolent felonies as misdemeanors. About 1 million Californians are being affected by this legislation -- getting felonies cleared from their records, being resentenced, and in some cases getting out of prison earlier than expected. At an event co-presented by the California Endowment, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen V. Manley, Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership Executive Director Peggy Edwards, and Project Rebound Director Jason Bell told a full-house crowd at the Endowment’s downtown L.A. headquarters how Proposition 47 is changing the state’s approach to criminal justice and, more broadly, the challenges faced by prisoners upon reentry to society.

After decades of building prisons and increasing the number of people behind bars, the pendulum of California’s criminal justice system has swung away from incarceration. Among the policies and laws that are changing the way offenders are sentenced is Proposition 47, which was passed in November 2014, and redefines six nonviolent felonies as misdemeanors. About 1 million Californians are being affected by this legislation -- getting felonies cleared from their records, being resentenced, and in some cases getting out of prison earlier than expected. At an event co-presented by the California Endowment, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen V. Manley, Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership Executive Director Peggy Edwards, and Project Rebound Director Jason Bell told a full-house crowd at the Endowment’s downtown L.A. headquarters how Proposition 47 is changing the state’s approach to criminal justice and, more broadly, the challenges faced by prisoners upon reentry to society.

For centuries, the best college education has been the one that costs the most and is accessible to the fewest people. But what if anyone, anywhere, could take classes with the best professors, without paying a dime? According to Kevin Carey, author of The End of College and education policy program director at the New America Foundation, this is the future of higher education. At an event co-presented by Arizona State University, Carey discussed whether new technology will make some of America's oldest institutions obsolete.

Don’t sell your car just yet -- but be prepared to get to where you’re going in a lot of different ways. This was the conclusion of a discussion about car culture co-presented by Metro. Petersen Automotive Museum executive director Terry Karges, DUB Magazine founder Myles Kovacs, Drexel University Center for Mobilities Research and Policy director Mimi Sheller, and architect Deborah Murphy, founder of Los Angeles Walks, talked about everything from how cars bring us together and whether mopeds are cool to why millennials are more car-averse than previous generations and how technology is changing transportation.