Roski Talks: Debra Scacco

Event details Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026 Time: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Location: Roski Graduate Building - 1262 Palmetto Street, Los Angeles CA 90013 Type: Arts Campus: Other Location Department: Roski School of Art and Design Audience: Students, Alumni, Faculty/Staff About this event Join us for Roski Talks with Debra Scacco on September 15 at 7 p.m. at the Roski Graduate Building. Through installations, sculptures, drawings, paintings and cultural happenings, research-based artist Debra Scacco studies the ecological and cultural impacts of human-induced change. By blending academic research with personal narratives, her work highlights histories of land and water and the beings most affected, creating pathways and platforms for public engagement and action. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Getty Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, and many others. In 2023-24 she was awarded a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Fellowship. She is the first civic-appointed artist-in-residence embedded in the City of Santa Monica’s Water and Waste divisions (2023-25), and was the inaugural artist-in-residence at Ellis Island Museum and Statue of Liberty National Monument in conjunction with New Jersey City University (2012). Scacco is the co-founder of the Getty PST ART Climate Impact Program (2022-25), a groundbreaking integration of climate action, community building, and data reporting as part of Getty’s landmark recurring arts event, PST ART, was co-director of Getty PST ART project Brackish Water Los Angeles at California State University Dominguez Hills, and is featured in the corresponding PBS documentary Art & Science Collide. Scacco has held teaching positions at Pitzer College, Occidental College and California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she invites students into a research and process-based approach to creating interdisciplinary work. ROSKI TALKS: Debra Scacco September 15, 2026 | 7 p.m. Roski Graduate Building 1262 Palmetto Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013 Free and open to the public #USCRoski #RoskiTalks Official event details: https://calendar.usc.edu/event/roski-talks-debra-scacco