Events

Carlos Motta: When Time Stands Still
2027-02-24 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-02-25 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-02-27 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-02-28 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-03-03 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-03-04 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-03-06 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-03-07 12:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) and 6 more dates | Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States
Carlos Motta’s When Time Stands Still, the artist’s second solo show with the IAS, features new and recent installations, videos, and sculptures highlighting the artist’s preoccupation with the historical and aesthetic productions of difference and marginalization that shape the present.
The selection of artworks in the exhibition explore the unsettling experience of living in a time that seems violently stuck on repeat. Archetypal figures from art history (a fool, a siren, a witness, a victim) reappear in the current moment as containers of time, bringing the past of imperialism, colonization, and displacement into a present marked by the rise of anti-immigration politics, climate injustice, and other forms of disposability. Some works challenge this violent repetition of time. The clock moves, if gruelingly, in an endurance-based video performance, No One, 2025. For forty-six minutes, the artist undertakes to keep his eyes open, witnessing, withstanding, confronting, and resisting the bombardment of images, both historical and otherwise, that normalize harm. In another video work, Gravity, 2024, performers enact rescue carries, supporting each other until they can’t bear the weight. Together, the artworks act as a proposal about how to rethink time—how to slow time—with a poetic and aesthetic cadence that might counter the numbing reverberations of living in the present.
When Time Stands Still is organized as part of Visualizing Abolition, an arts-based initiative that reaches across prison borders to create a future free of prisons.

Carlos Motta (b. 1978, Colombia) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been shown widely nationally and internationally. Solo exhibitions venues include the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen; Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH ; Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg, Sweden; Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo; Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM); Tate Modern, London; and New Museum, New York (2012). He has also participated in major biennials, including the Venice Biennale; Berlin Biennale; Bienal de São Paulo; and the Gwangju Biennale. Motta is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Art, Fine Arts Department, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn.

Victor ‘Marka27’ Quiñonez: Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá
2027-02-24 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-02-25 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-02-27 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-02-28 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-03-03 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-03-04 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-03-06 12:00 - 17:00, 2027-03-07 12:00 - 17:00 and 5 more dates | Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States
Organized in partnership with the Center for Art and Advocacy, located in Brooklyn, New York, Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá (Not From Here, Not From There) by multidisciplinary artist Victor ‘Marka27’ Quiñonez features a wide range of artworks that issue a bold declaration of dual belonging, including altars, an elaborately immersive botanica, paintings referencing visual symbolism drawn from textiles, graffiti and community traditions, and, in a series called I.C.E. Scream, large, brightly colored resin sculptures in the shape of melting Mexican paletas (popsicles). As the exhibition title suggests (a phrase widely used in bilingual and bicultural communities), these artworks reflect the artist’s interest in the experience of living between worlds even as violent notions of nationalism and identity pervade.
Accompanying the exhibition, Elevar la Cultura, an immersive sculptural installation featuring a twenty-two-foot-tall pyramid built from ice coolers adorned with ancestral textiles, sacred symbols, and mural work will be on view at Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos (1817 Soquel) November 7, 2026- March 7, 2027. As Quiñonez explains, this sculpture epitomizes the contradictions of living—and laboring—as an immigrant in the United States:
“Most people see the cooler as a tool for leisure…for barbecues, tailgating, and celebrations. But for immigrant communities, the cooler is a tool and symbol for opportunity and independence. In every major city, you see families and vendors selling fruit, food, and water out of these coolers on the streets and in subway stations. They’re a necessity for survival and a way to start an honest living,” the artist shares.
The Institute of Arts and Sciences will be the second venue to successfully present Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá to the public. First organized by Boston University Art Galleries and curated by Kate Fowle in September of 2025, the exhibition debuted to critical acclaim before gaining national attention after its abrupt removal from its second venue, the University of North Texas, where it had been installed just one week prior to it being censored.
Victor ‘Marka27’ Quiñonez is a renowned international visual artist who is known for his diverse works that intersect contemporary art, graffiti, vinyl toys, fashion and design and art activism. Quiñonez has exhibited globally and collaborated with major brands while creating landmark public art in cities across the U.S. He is a Frieze Los Angeles Impact Prize winner (2025) and a Right of Return and Art for Justice Fellow (2023, 2024).

First Saturday Tour at the Arboretum
2027-03-06 11:00 - 12:00 | Arboretum, 122 Arboretum Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
First Saturday Tours are a wonderful way to introduce yourself to the Arboretum or to deepen your knowledge of the Arboretum’s plant collections. Each tour is a little different depending on the time of year, the interests of the tour guide, and the people who join in. For example, you might learn about the birds and mammals that make this land their home or about the amazing physical adaptations that plants have evolved to better deal with our extreme weather and climate conditions. Tours are free with paid admission.

Seymour Center's Seaside Storytime
2027-03-13 10:30 - 11:30 | Seymour Marine Discovery Center, 100 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
Get ready to set sail on a storybook adventure! 📚 ✨ It’s the ultimate weekend treat to spark big imaginations, foster a love for nature, and nurture the next generation of ocean heroes! 🌊 🐚 📖
Our friends at Bookshop Santa Cruz have hand-selected a collection of books about the environment that are perfect for young readers. We hope to see you there!
Join Seaside Storytime on the second Saturday of every month!

Summer Live in the Schedule of Classes
2027-03-15 00:00 - 23:59
The Summer Session Schedule of Classes goes live today. Explore course descriptions, prerequisites, and meeting times to start planning early for summer enrollment. Email summer@ucsc.edu with questions or call 831-459-5373.
