Students will soon be able to attend The Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA.
The institute will focus on four areas the artist and activist is most passionate about: truth in the public sphere, the impact of climate change, the dynamics of intimacy and power between women and men, and the impact of art on the culture, according to a press release. The institute’s goal involves “solving societal challenges.”
“It is my great pleasure to be able to fund an institute at UCLA, one of the world’s premier universities. This will be a place where future scholars can discuss, engage and argue about the most important issues of the day; where innovators will speak truth to power, help save our planet, and make glass ceilings for women an anachronism; and in the process give us a chance to have a brighter, more promising future,” the award-winning icon said in the release.
The institute’s four research centers will be housed in UCLA’s Division of Social Sciences.
“While it’s easy to reflect on the past, I can’t stop thinking about the future and what it holds for our children, our planet and our society. The Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA will be an exploration into vital issues that affect us all,” Streisand said in the release. “The fact that my father, Emanuel Streisand, was an educator makes this Institute even more meaningful to me.”
This isn’t the first time that Streisand has partnered with the university. She established the Streisand Chair in Cardiology at UCLA in 1984 and in 2014, the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program.