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Terry Tempest Williams and President Karen R. Lawrence on Attention, Revision, and the Open Space of Democracy.
Read “This Land Is Alive” or watch a video of the event.

President of Caltech Thomas F. Rosenbaum discusses science and the humanities with Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence as part of The Huntington’s Founders’ Day program on Feb. 12, 2026. Photo by Sarah M. Golonka. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
As part of Founders’ Day 2026, Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence and Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum discussed the shared history of the two institutions and the role of science and the humanities in a rapidly changing world.
Read “A Mile Apart, A Century Together” or watch a video of the event.

Award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay discusses historical research and storytelling with Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence as part of The Huntington’s Why It Matters conversation series event on Oct. 22, 2025. Photo by Linnea Stephan. | The Huntington, San Marino, California.
A Conversation Between Ava DuVernay and President Karen R. Lawrence at The Huntington
President Karen R. Lawrence and award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay engage in a conversation about how storytelling influences public understanding of America’s history and its possibilities for the future.
This special program kicks off THIS LAND IS… an institution-wide initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, with a discussion highlighting the essential role of the humanities in interpreting our past.
Read “The Courage to Tell the Story” or watch a video of the event.

As part of Founders’ Day 2025, a panel of community leaders and scholars discussed themes of resilience, community, and social change in science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler’s eerily prescient Parable novels. The discussion continued among guests at a post-program reception featuring offerings from local small businesses. Read “Octavia E. Butler’s Seeds of Change” or watch a video of the Founders’ Day event in its entirety

Charles Elachi, former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence during the “Why It Matters” event on Oct. 9. Elachi screened a NASA video of the Perseverance rover’s landing on Mars in 2021. Photo by Linnea Stephan.
| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.Charles Elachi, the former director of NASA and Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, talked with Huntington President Karen Lawrence about the importance of daring to take risks, environmental stewardship, and the mutually enriching interactions among the arts, humanities, and sciences. Watch a video of the “Why It Matters” event in its entirety, or read “Daring Mighty Things with Charles Elachi.”

In addition to stressing the relevance of the humanities for students of both sciences and arts, Christ emphasized the importance of pursuing courses of study for love of the subject. Photo by Linnea Stephan.
| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.The importance of empathy and the power of language were recurring themes in a wide-ranging conversation between Carol Christ, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and Huntington President Karen Lawrence. Topics addressed included the Pac-12 collegiate athletic conference, the impact of digital technology on education, and free speech. Watch the full recorded program or read “Why It Matters: A Conversation with Carol T. Christ.”

In addition to revisiting the past five years of her tenure, Lawrence also spoke of promising future projects. Photo by Linnea Stephan.
| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.On Feb. 22, 2024, Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence sat down with Lori Bettison-Varga, president of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, for a conversation that looked back at The Huntington’s past five years under Lawrence’s leadership and forward at the institution’s strategic aspirations. Watch the full recorded program or read “The Huntington’s Foundations and Futures.”

On Nov. 20, 2023, digital democracy advocate Ramesh Srinivasan and digital humanities scholar Todd Presner joined Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence in a conversation about the rise of generative AI, focusing on the ethical implications of its aggregation of data at an unprecedented scale. Watch the full recorded program.

The tone of the evening was lively and compelling. Photo by Linnea Stephan.
On Sept. 28, Hilton Als joined Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence for a lively conversation about his career, the relationship between visual and textual forms, and the endless inspiration found in The Huntington’s collections as part of the “Why It Matters” series.

Ford Foundation President Darren Walker and Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence engaged in a compelling examination of the relationship among the arts, humanities, and philanthropy.
| Photo by Sarah M. Golonka.On May 31, 2023, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker joined Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence in a conversation about the shifting landscape of charitable giving, the role of art in the pursuit of social justice, and the importance of hope to civic engagement.

In honor of Founders’ Day 2023, The Huntington and The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West presented a mix of serious and quirky stories—inspired by Eve Babitz’s archive, The Huntington’s Montezuma cypress, portraits by Laura Aguilar, the Horatio Nelson Rust collection, and glass plate photographs of 1890s and 1900s Chinatown—demonstrating the broad range of The Huntington’s collections and the rich history of the institution’s location in the San Gabriel Valley.

Architect Billie Tsien joins Erin Chase, assistant curator of architecture at The Huntington, for a behind-the-scenes visit to see some of the architectural materials in the library archives. This video was produced as part of the Why It Matters program, sponsored by the Office of the President.

Karen R. Lawrence, president of The Huntington, in conversation with architect Billie Tsien during the “Why It Matters” event in Rothenberg Hall on Nov. 7, 2022. Photo by Sarah M. Golonka.
Nov. 7, 2022 - Architect and educator Billie Tsien joins Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence to discuss how the built environment shapes individual and communal experiences, the interplay between design and purpose, and how architecture can empower future generations. Read Making a Better World through Architecture, or watch the recorded event.

Hear President Karen R. Lawrence speak about Butler’s literary collection at The Huntington in this clip from the recorded ceremony. Additional inductees honored this year include Judy Chicago, Rebecca Halstead, Joy Harjo, Emily Howland, Katherine Johnson, Indra Nooyi, and Michelle Obama. View the full program.

In the first episode of U22 The Centenary Ulysses Podcast, we talk about how Ulysses begins. We’re joined by Karen Lawrence, President of the Huntington Library, John Higgins of the University of Cape Town, and Jamie Salomon, leader of the Bloomsday Ulysses Reading Group for the Montreal Literary Festival. We hear their thoughts on everything from style to playing amateur archeologists.