• 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
  • 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 […]

  • Student Recital—Maddison Ramirez, soprano

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

    Maddison Ramirez, soprano, presents their Bachelor of Music (B.M.) recital, with music from Renaissance, Romantic, and Modern eras. Accompanied by Luke Shepherd, piano; Faith Lanam, harpsichord, Denali Zia, cello, and various additional vocalists. Download and share the event flyer here. — ADMISSION – Attend in person at the Music Center Recital Hall at UC Santa […]

    FREE and open to the public
  • Creative Interventions: Technology + Organizing for Women in Hip Hop

    Creative Interventions (CI) Series
    Digital Arts Research Center 407 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz, CA

    Azmera Hammouri-Davis, akua naru, and Edd Wheeler come together in conversation, offering a critical and creative dialogue that sets the stage for the evening ahead. This talk precedes the live NOIZ performance. — ADMISSION – FREE and open to UCSC affiliates – IN PERSON at DARC 108 – VIRTUAL OPTION: must RSVP HERE — PARKING […]

    FREE and open to UCSC affiliates
  • Emeriti Faculty Lecture, Spring 2026

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

    As the West Coast exploded with the Summer of Love and Vietnam War protests, the Center for World Music’s concept of “bimusicality” brought Asian performance masters and American avant-gardists to train American students. Join Distinguished Research Professor Emerita Kathy Foley for the Spring Emeriti Lecture.

    FREE and open to the public
  • NOIZ—April in Santa Cruz festival opening

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

    NOIZ: An Evening of Words, Sounds + Ideas is a live gathering at the intersection of Hip Hop, activism, and the spoken word—a space where music meets testimony. Hosted by assistant professor and hip hop artist akua naru, the evening features live student performances, a DJ set, and an intimate conversation with guest artist/performer Edd […]

    FREE and open to UCSC affiliates
  • 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.
  • 2026 Spring (all-majors) Career & Internship Fair

    Colleges Nine and John R. Lewis College Multi-purpose Room 615 College Nine Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    Undergraduate and graduate students and recent alumni interested in pursuing careers in business, arts, social sciences & humanities industries are welcome to attend. Get the chance to meet recruiters from many industries/firms seeking to fill internship, full-time, and part-time roles. Come take essential steps toward laying the foundation for your future career and potentially even land an interview!

  • Night of Ideas 2026

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

    Enlightenment, Now! Join us for a nocturnal celebration of art, philosophy, and activism! Enlightenment, Now! As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its independence, the 2026 Santa Cruz Night of Ideas invites us not to celebrate the Enlightenment, but to interrogate it. Long associated with democracy, progress, and universal reason, the Enlightenment’s legacy […]

  • The Tallest Dwarf—film screening and talk with Julie Wyman

    Communications Building 7487 Red Hill Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    UC Santa Cruz affiliates are invited to a screening and discussion with filmmaker Julie Forrest Wyman. The Tallest Dwarf charts the filmmaker’s quest to find her place within the little people (LP) community at a moment when dwarf identity is poised to radically change. Wyman’s work engages issues of embodiment, body image, and the possibilities […]

    FREE and open to UCSC affiliates
  • Arts & Ecology Festival: Creative Resistance

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

    On Earth Day, UC Santa Cruz launches the inaugural Arts & Ecology Festival: Creative Resistance, a campus-wide gathering that refuses to treat climate change as a problem of carbon alone. Instead, it brings together artists, scientists, students, and community partners to engage the deeper conditions of the crisis, and to open space for cultural, political, […]

  • Artist Roundtable 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 […]

  • Artist Talk with Federico Cuatlacuatl

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

    We invite you to join us for a film screeening and discussion with artist Federico Cuatlacuatl. This will be the west coast premiere of  QUEMAR LAS PATAS DEL IMPERIO (to burn the feet of the empire), Cuatlacuatl’s newest work. Federico Cuatlacuatl (b. San Francisco Coapan, Cholula, Puebla -México) is Horace W. Goldsmith Distinguished Teaching Associate […]

  • Alumni Reunion Weekend 2026

    Join your classmates back at UC Santa Cruz for Alumni Reunion Weekend, April 24–26, 2026. This annual celebration honors the pioneering classes of 1965–1976 and the mark you have left on our campus and the world. Reconnect with classmates, celebrate your achievements, and enjoy time among the redwoods. Whether you never left or you haven’t […]

  • Slug48—Student Film Competition, Screening, and Awards Ceremony

    The third annual Slug48 returns with a 48-hour film competition—open to all UC Santa Cruz students. A 48-hour film is one that is written, shot, edited, and all music composed within a 48-hour time period. Teams and strategies for filming may be formed ahead of time, but nothing can be written, and no footage can […]

    FREE and open to UCSC affilates
  • Harriet: Performing an Archive

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

    Through motion capture, immersive sound, and real-time digital systems, CHARI performs alongside Harriet, a life-scale avatar carrying a living archive of Black sonic and vernacular memory. Drawing from Black archival traditions rooted in call-and-response, improvisation, and communal stewardship, the performance understands memory as relational and alive. Together, our movements shape the environment as the performance […]

    FREE
  • Artist Tour with Libia Posada

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

    We are thrilled to invite you to join Libia Posada, a multidisciplinary artist as well as a physician, for this artist-led tour of Everything is Going Right, the premiere solo exhibition of her work in the United States. With artworks influenced by her medical training, Posada will discuss how she engages the body as a […]