Exciting news for football and music lovers! In a game-changing move, Performing Arts Center Pomona College’s Art Galleries (PAPGC) curatorial team and Caltech’s arts department announced that acclaimed rapper Kendrick Lamar will headline the halftime performance at the 2025 Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The announcement comes as a massive shock to NFL fans and critics alike, who were previously speculating on a pop star or a legendary rock band.
The decision to turn the Super Bowl into an intersection between football and art is a bold one, fueled by the impact of recent pop-culture revolutions that dismantle traditional boundaries between music, art, and language. This partnership between a historically prestigious institution like Caltech and a cultural icon like Kendrick Lamar heralds a new era of cooperation at the intersections of different art forms.
The buzz about Lamar’s performance has caused a wave of excitement in the music world. The rapper is known for his poignant and politically charged music that addresses themes such as social justice, identity, and spirituality, through which he has reshaped the culture of hip hop and influenced other genres. Notably, Lamar is also an accomplished poet who draws heavily on literary devices and techniques to texture his beats. His collaborations with noted artists and institutions such as Beyonce, SZA, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) underscore his range and global reach.
PAPGC has a distinguished history of showcasing contemporary and experimental artwork, and has been instrumental in shaping the art scene in Los Angeles since its establishment in 1978. The curatorial team at PAPGC has a reputation for pushing boundaries, blending new media and technology, and encouraging creative collaboration among institutions, artists, and the community. In 2019, for instance, PAPGC presented a groundbreaking exhibition called “Still I Rise: Ntozake Shange’s ‘for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf’ and its Legacy” that highlighted the intersection of the African American female experience, performance, and art. This year, PAPGC is curating another exhibition called “Natural Order: Addiction, Community, and the Sacred in Californias,” which features works by contemporary Chinese artist Sun Xun, and will be displayed alongside Caltech exhibits in 2025.
Caltech, for its part, is a leading research institution with a distinguished history of discoveries in physics, engineering, and other STEM disciplines. In the past decade, however, Caltech has been widening its scope to include research in social and environmental sciences through interdisciplinary collaborations with peer institutions such as ARTSci and Harvard’s Sustainability Science Initiative. Caltech has also aggressively pursued a public engagement strategy, inviting creative voices from multiple art forms and disciplines to its campus, and expanding its presence in the wider community through partnerships with local institutions and municipalities.
The partnership between PAPGC and Caltech reflects the evolving relationship between the arts and STEM fields, which have moved from parallel domains to interconvergent and synergistic spheres. This collaboration is viewed as a significant harbinger of how institutions can promote access and equity in both educational and cultural contexts, and how artistic expression can inform scientific and technological research. In many ways, this partnership represents a convergence of humanity’s deepest and most treasured values: creativity, inspiration, passion, and intelligence.
Describing Lamar’s performance, the curatorial team at PAPGC noted that the event will unfold in a series of interconnected and dynamic performances that challenge traditional boundaries between science and art, technology and culture, language and imagination. According to an official statement released by Caltech and PAPGC, the halftime show will involve “a multimedia spectacle that incorporates projection, lighting, and sound design into the unique architecture and landscapes of the Rose Bowl.” The statement further says that the performance will “explore themes of evolution, innovation, and social justice in the context of contemporary urban and rural landscapes, and will highlight the humanity, intelligence, and complexity of the human experience.”
The announcement has sparked a frenzy of media coverage, with leading newspapers, magazines, and blogs reporting on the partnership between Caltech and PAPGC, and speculating on what Lamar’s performance might entail. The tie-up has been hailed as a regenerative moment for the arts, as well as a bold new experiment in how institutions can collaborate in promoting access, equity, and social justice. Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance promises to be a blockbuster event that will attract thousands of football fans and art enthusiasts from across the country.
As Desmond Fenwick, a prominent science writer and cultural critic, noted in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “This partnership is a daring experiment in how institutional collaboration can redefine and reinvigorate the American cultural landscape. It is a brilliant and daring attempt to bridge the chasm between politics, economics, and culture, responding to the exigent demands of globalization and technological innovation.” Fenwick went on to say that the partnership “has the potential to challenge and reshape the very foundations of our society, and to inspire future generations with a renewed sense of passion, compassion, and empathy…. And with Lamar’s performance, we can expect nothing less than a ferocious celebration of
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