• Exhibition—The One with the Manes, works by Yasmine Benabdallah

    Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    A multimedia exhibition by Yasmine Benabdallah, Film and Digital Media PhD candidate, explores a shared history between Morocco, Brazil, and Portugal through video installations, photographs, and watercolors. More information about […]

    FREE and open to the public
  • Random With A Purpose (RWAP) XXXlV—The Experiment

    Random With A Purpose (RWAP) XXXlV
    Second Stage Second Stage, Santa Cruz, CA

    Random With A Purpose is a popular annual student-directed and -choreographed dance showcase. Per directors Lydia Wallman and Brennah Lyons, this year’s production, The Experiment, “serves as a platform for collaborators to develop work that does not yet exist in the physical world and to investigate elements of community and features a cast that reflects UC […]

    Free – $20
  • The Trial of Spock—An Opera Workshop

    The Trial of Spock
    Music Center Recital Hall 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    The creators of The Trial of Spock—An Opera In Three Acts present concert performances of five scenes from an opera-in-progress at the UC Santa Cruz Music Center Recital Hall.  Captain Christopher Pike is gravely injured. Lieutenant Spock is behaving strangely. Charged with protecting Pike in his state of extreme need,Vulcan Commodore T’or suspects that Lieutenant […]

    FREE and open to the public
  • “The Cigarette Surfboard” screening with filmmaker Ben Judkins (Kresge ’17)

    Join Banana Slug alumni filmmaker Ben Judkins (Kresge ’17, film and digital media) and “ciggy board” creator Taylor Lane for a screening of their award-winning documentary, The Cigarette Surfboard (presented by the California Coastal Commission’s Whale Tail Grant). 5:00-6:00 PM | alumni meet & greet with light refreshments 6:00-7:35 PM | film screening 7:35-8:30 PM | filmmaker discussion 8:30-9:00 PM | mingle REGISTER ABOUT […]

    Free
  • A Musical Journey with UCSC Music Ensembles —Percussion, Celtic, Classical Guitar, Horns, Central Asian, Experimental

    Music Center Recital Hall 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    Audiences are invited to the free winter quarter chamber concert at the Music Center Recital Hall at UC Santa Cruz to hear selections from multiple ensembles, including the following: UCSC Percussion Ensemble William Winant, director UCSC Celtic Chamber Music Ensemble Bill Coulter, director UCSC Classical Guitar Ensemble Christopher Mallet, director William Coulter, steel string guitar […]

    FREE and open to the public
  • UCSC Jazz Combos

    Music Center Recital Hall 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    UCSC Jazz Combos present a fall quarter concert

    Free – $12
  • Winter 2026 Open Studios

    Elena Baskin Visual Arts Center Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    Art Department students exhibit their art work throughout studios and classrooms at the Elena Baskin Visual Arts Center at UC Santa Cruz. The Open Studios event features student art work in a variety of media, including: – Drawing – Painting – Print media – Sculpture – Photography – Environmental art – Electronic art/new media — […]

    FREE and open to the public.
  • UCSC Concert Choir

    Music Center Recital Hall 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    UCSC Concert Choir

    Free – $12
  • UCSC Chamber Singers

    Music Center Recital Hall 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    UCSC Chamber Singers

    Free – $12
  • The Art of Spontaneous Creativity

    Porter/Kresge Dining Hall 411 Porter-Kresge Rd, Santa Cruz, CA

    Come and enjoy a winter concert by the spontaneous composition and improvisation, MUSC 150J ensemble. You’ll be able to experience the art of spontaneous creativity in action. — ADMISSION – FREE and open to UCSC affliates – Located in Porter Dining Hall — PARKING – Lot 124 & 125 are the closest parking lots to […]

    FREE and open to the public
  • Drop-in Figure Drawing

    Drop-In Figure Drawing
    Elena Baskin Visual Arts Center Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    Drop-In Draw provides a live model and room monitor. There is no formal lesson and only dry media is allowed (no paints). — ADVISORIES – These events contain mature content and nudity. – Drop-In Draw is subject to the possibility of last-minute cancellation without notification, and sessions are not guaranteed. — ADMISSION – FREE and […]

    FREE and open to the public.
  • M.F.A. Exhibition for Environmental Art & Social Practice (EASP)—”Picking up Shells Amid a Tsunami”

    Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    The culminating exhibition of the Environmental Art and Social Practice (EASP) M.F.A. program at UC Santa Cruz presents new projects—Picking up Shells Amid a Tsunami 쓰나미가 밀려오는데, 조개나 줍고 있네—developed through concentrated inquiry over a two-year period and offers a window into the artists’ unique long-term research projects that expand beyond the gallery space. — FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS […]

    FREE and open to the public
  • Opening Celebration for EASP M.F.A. Exhibition—”Picking up Shells Amid a Tsunami”

    Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    The culminating exhibition of the Environmental Art and Social Practice (EASP) M.F.A. program at UC Santa Cruz presents new projects—Picking up Shells Amid a Tsunami 쓰나미가 밀려오는데, 조개나 줍고 있네—developed through concentrated inquiry over a two-year period and offers a window into the artists’ unique long-term research projects that expand beyond the gallery space. — FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS […]

  • Arts Internship Scholarship Info Session

    Digital Arts Research Center 407 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz, CA

    UC Santa Cruz students are invited to an info session to review the Arts Division’s internship scholarship application process and address frequently asked questions. More information about the scholarship here. […]

  • Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences

    Institute of the Arts and Sciences 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States

    Visit the IAS, UCSC’s premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10–August 16, 2026 are three diverse and interdisciplinary shows: Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right, the first US solo exhibition by the Colombia-based artist and medical doctor; Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj, a site-specific and immersive exploration of the Haitian […]

  • Visualizing Abolition Screening Series: Beyond Access

    Visualizing Abolition
    Institute of the Arts and Sciences 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States

    On view in the IAS Screening Room is a selection of short films curated by Visualizing Abolition Visiting Faculty Fellow Dr. Pooja Rangan. Prisons deny and censor the access of those trapped inside them—to information, to intimacy, to community, to meaningful work, to nourishment of all kinds, and perhaps most cruelly, to care. This program […]

  • Celebration of Spring Exhibitions at the IAS

    Institute of the Arts and Sciences 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States

    Join us to celebrate the opening of three new exhibitions at the IAS: Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right, the first US solo exhibition by the Colombia-based artist and medical doctor; Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj, a site-specific and immersive exploration of the Haitian kreyol conception of rasanblaj; and Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But […]