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Arts News

December 12, 2022
UC workforce innovation internship program returns summer 2023 for its second offering
The eight-week program offers UC students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on career experience in emerging fields of innovation.
December 06, 2022
UC Santa Cruz innovators among Santa Cruz Works 2022 Titans of Tech
Aviv Elor, alumnus and co-founder of Immergo Labs, and Nada Miljkovic, alumna, entrepreneur, and UCSC educator, are among the 11 Santa Cruz Works Titans of Tech finalists.
November 22, 2022
Film by Arts Division Dean continues to gain recognition and spark conversation
Since its premiere in May, 80 YEARS LATER, a feature film by Dr. Celine Parreñas Shimizu, UC Santa Cruz’s Dean of the Division of the Arts, continues to garner praise during the 80th anniversary year of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in World War II.
November 22, 2022
Growing Our Own - From research opportunities to the professoriate
Solidifying its commitment to increasing the diversity of its faculty, both underrepresented minorities and female faculty, last year, the University of California launched the Growing Our Own initiative.
November 14, 2022
New algae exhibit in Madrid: a collaboration that inspires
UCSC Arts and Digital Arts & New Media professor Jennifer Parker is the founding director of the OpenLab Collaborative Research Center at UC Santa Cruz, and co-founder of The Algae Society. Parker along with the Algae Society opened a new exhibit in Madrid titled MIKROS: Un Mundo Oculto.
November 14, 2022
Susana Ruiz receives Hewlett 50 Arts Commission for a new media work focused on Santa Cruz's lost Chinatowns
Susana Ruiz, UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of Film and Digital Media, together with Emmy Award nominated director of photography and media artist Huy Truong have been selected as one of ten recipients of this year's Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions in Media Arts.
October 25, 2022
Social Documentation MFAs to share thesis documentaries at live screening event November 9
UC Santa Cruz’s annual Social Documentation (SocDoc) exhibition returns live and in person for the first time since 2019, free to the public this November 9th from 7-10pm at the Del Mar Theatre in downtown Santa Cruz.
October 17, 2022
micha cárdenas wins prestigious Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize from National Women's Studies Association
UC Santa Cruz Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Performance, Play and Design, and Associate Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Dr. micha cárdenas has been awarded the National Women's Studies Association’s Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize for her book Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media.
October 11, 2022
Arts convocation celebrates the courage to create and the audacity to imagine new worlds
UC Santa Cruz alumnus Rick Carter, a two-time Academy Award winning film production designer and art director, returned to his alma mater on September 28th to receive the Distinguished Banana Slug Award at the second annual Arts Convocation.
October 10, 2022
Unseen California arts initiative uses NRS reserves as canvas
A new arts initiative aims to connect both professional artists and UC students with the UC Natural Reserve System.
October 04, 2022
UCSC welcomes 41 outstanding new faculty members
With the start of the 2022-23 academic year, UC Santa Cruz welcomes 41 new senate faculty members. The research and creative scholarship and expertise brought to our campus by these new faculty colleagues will strengthen existing areas of work and open discovery opportunities.
October 03, 2022
UCSC’s Center for South Asian Studies positioned for exponential growth
Anuradha Luther Maitra and Thomas Kailath, longtime supporters and champions of the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) and the broader UCSC campus, have established the Anuradha Luther Maitra and Thomas Kailath Endowed Professorship in South Asian Studies.
September 12, 2022
UC Santa Cruz recognized for longstanding commitment to undergraduate teaching in latest rankings
UC Santa Cruz is ranked among the top 10 public universities for excellence in undergraduate teaching, according to the latest rankings from U.S. News and World Report. UCSC also ranked as a leading university for social mobility and among top public universities.
August 25, 2022
In Memoriam: Audrey Stanley, Professor Emerita of Theater Arts
Audrey Stanley was a beloved figure on campus, a pioneering faculty member closely associated with both Arts and Humanities divisions, and with Cowell College.
August 10, 2022
Incoming UC Santa Cruz class exemplifies academic excellence and diversity
UC Santa Cruz anticipates welcoming approximately 5,100 new Banana Slugs this fall, concluding an admissions cycle that reflected increased interest in the campus. Campus leaders are carefully managing student enrollment and working to provide more on-campus housing for students because of a statewide housing crisis that is particularly difficult in Santa Cruz.
July 25, 2022
Help ‘Stuff the Bus’ and get students ready for school
With the new school year just around the corner, the United Way of Santa Cruz County and Santa Cruz Office of Education are looking for volunteers to help Stuff the Bus. Come and help fill new backpacks with school supplies for K-12 students.
July 19, 2022
UCSC alum creates transformational opportunities in the Arts
Best known for producing the U.S.'s longest running daytime soap opera, “Days of Our Lives,” UCSC alumnus Ken Corday is a nine-time daytime Emmy nominated producer. Corday has ushered in new opportunities for the film department at UCSC, and has now expanded his generosity to the music department.
July 17, 2022
UC Santa Cruz’s new Department of Performance, Play & Design redefines the art of storytelling for the modern era
Earlier this year, the Department of Theater Arts and the Art & Design: Games + Playable Media Program (AGPM) within UC Santa Cruz's Division of the Arts fused to become the the Department of Performance, Play & Design (PPD). It is the only university department in the world to break the traditional silos of theater, dance, and games.
July 06, 2022
Two from UC Santa Cruz awarded Fulbright grants
Two PhD candidates at UC Santa Cruz have been offered prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants for the 2022-2023 academic year.
June 28, 2022
UC Santa Cruz celebrates innovative and dedicated teachers
The Academic Senate’s Committee on Teaching (COT) in collaboration with Chancellor Larive and CP/EVC Kletzer, Cruz celebrated UCSC’s innovative and dedicated teachers with a gathering at the Cowell Provost House in early June.
June 27, 2022
Campus recognizes innovative, dedicated teachers
The Academic Senate’s Committee on Teaching (COT) in collaboration with Chancellor Larive and CP/EVC Kletzer, Cruz celebrated UCSC’s innovative and dedicated teachers with a gathering at the Cowell Provost House in early June.
June 13, 2022
New executive leadership position for the Arts Division
UC Santa Cruz Dean of the Division of Arts Dr. Celine Parreñas Shimizu has appointed Art Professor Dee Hibbert-Jones to serve as Associate Dean of Research, Exhibition and Engagement.
June 07, 2022
Proposal for new program, Pathways to the Professoriate in the Arts and Humanities, selected for funding by UC President’s Office
A new cross-divisional initiative to prepare graduate students in the Arts and Humanities at UC Santa Cruz from historically underrepresented groups to go on to the professoriate has been selected for funding.
June 07, 2022
UC Santa Cruz Distinguished Professor of the Arts Isaac Julien knighted by Queen Elizabeth
UC Santa Cruz Distinguished Professor of the Arts Isaac Julien was granted knighthood by Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee
June 06, 2022
UC Santa Cruz named No. 2 public university for ‘making an impact’
Princeton Review has named UC Santa Cruz the No. 2 public university in the nation for students focused on making an impact on the world. The honor underscores the university’s commitment to encouraging positive social impact and is an increase from last year’s No. 3 spot.
May 31, 2022
Maxwell Ward
Maxwell Ward always wanted to be an archeologist, following tales of adventure like the search for the tomb of Genghis Khan. But he realizes now that treasure hunting is the smallest part of being an archaeologist. The biggest part today is ethics, and helping make the discipline accessible to native people who have been historically shut out of it.
May 31, 2022
Nicole Rudolph-Vallerga
Being half Latinx and half white, Nicole Rudolph-Vallerga always felt like she didn’t quite fit into either group. So she created her own community with her fall senior art show.
May 27, 2022
Year-end exhibition highlights the work of UC Santa Cruz’s 2022 Irwin Scholars
Throughout the month of June, visitors to the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery at UC Santa Cruz will have the chance to see the work of twelve undergraduate artists selected as this year’s Irwin Scholars.
May 23, 2022
A special outdoor production of The Fairy Queen celebrates the return of fully-staged, live opera at UC Santa Cruz
The UC Santa Cruz Music Department presents Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in a very special outdoor production to celebrate the return of fully-staged, live opera at UCSC on May 27 and 28, 2022.
May 16, 2022
A new class in the Arts Division aims to broaden students’ understanding of careers in the creative economy
Careers in the Creative Economy, a first-time course in the UC Santa Cruz Division of the Arts, has been introducing students to a wide array of professionals in creative fields to help them explore and prepare for arts careers.
May 06, 2022
May concerts of new work by UC Santa Cruz composers the result of residencies with leading new music artists
UC Santa Cruz doctoral students in composition will premiere several new works this May developed during two unprecedented residencies with top names in the experimental music world.
May 05, 2022
UC Santa Cruz Dean of the Arts Division Celine Parreñas Shimizu will debut her latest film at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on May 12
Filmmaker and film scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu, UCSC’s Dean of the Division of Arts, debuts her new documentary at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on May 12. The feature film 80 YEARS LATER explores the racial inheritance of Japanese American family incarceration during World War II through multigenerational conversations with survivors and their descendants.
May 01, 2022
Summer Session Invites Students to Stay for Summer
UC Santa Cruz Summer Session enrollment is underway and for the first time since 2019, students can choose to stay on campus for in-person classes, or the option remains to study online from anywhere.
April 28, 2022
Afrofuturism takes center stage in the Institute of the Arts and Sciences’ Surge series
UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences offers a month-long series of performances and discussions on Afrofuturism, a global artistic and social movement, utilizing the arts, science, and technology to imagine—and create— a world where African-descended peoples and cultures can live and flourish.
April 19, 2022
Thought-provoking new works of media art in exhibition by Digital Arts and New Media MFAs
The UC Santa Cruz Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) MFA program presents unforgetting, the culminating exhibition of its 2022 MFA cohort, on view free to the public at the Digital Arts Research Center April 22-May 1 with a special performance May 20-29 at the Experimental Theater.
April 15, 2022
Coming together to heal
UCSC Arts dean and her family establish scholarship in son’s memory
April 15, 2022
Honoring UC Santa Cruz’s 2022 Distinguished Graduate Student Alumni
Each year, UC Santa Cruz’s five academic divisions select one graduate student alumnus/a/i as their Distinguished Graduate Student Alumni honoree. The awards ceremony for the 2022 cohort will take place on April 23 of Alumni Weekend.
April 12, 2022
Watsonville Filipino history digital archive now available for public viewing
The Watsonville is in the Heart Digital Archive is now viewable online and features oral history recordings, original documents, photos, and family artifacts highlighting Filipino history in the Pajaro Valley.
April 12, 2022
I Am Here: Home movies and everyday masterpieces
I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces, a major new AGO exhibition opening in April of 2022, is a revealing look at our universal need to capture, share and cherish the everyday. Lost-and-found home movies from the Prelinger Archives, founded by UCSC professor of film and digital media Rick Prelinger.
April 11, 2022
Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu to receive prestigious award
The Association for Asian American Studies has selected UC Santa Cruz Division of Arts Dean, Dr. Celine Parreñas Shimizu, for its 2022 Excellence in Mentorship Award.
April 07, 2022
William Long named 2022 Arts Division Distinguished Graduate Student Alumnus
William Long’s (B.A. Music ’11, M.A. Music ’13) passion for music began when he was six years old. After receiving his B.A. and M.A. from UC Santa Cruz, Long went on to conduct for San Francisco Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis/St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, and the London Symphony Orchestra.
April 05, 2022
Works by some of the country’s most influential contemporary artists on view in Strange Weather
A new group exhibition presented by UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS) and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH), features contemporary artworks by some of today’s leading artists. On view April 14-August 14, 2022 at the MAH, Strange Weather: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation is co-organized by IAS director Dr. Rachel Nelson and UCSC History of Art and Visual Culture Professor Jennifer González.
March 31, 2022
Miriam Ellis, lecturer emerita (1927—2022)
Miriam Ellis an indelible mark on students and colleagues in French, theater, music (especially opera), and administration
March 28, 2022
Seed funding grants for early-stage research, creative projects given to 19 awardees
The UCSC Office of Research has awarded funds this month to 19 projects through its inaugural Seed Funding for Early Stage Initiatives program
March 24, 2022
A remarkable, first-time film course tackles the criminal justice system
UC Santa Cruz Film Professor Sharon Daniel’s two-quarter undergrad course, FILM 171S-02, is not your typical film school fare. This course, titled Reasonable Doubts: Making an Exoneree, aims for nothing less than to free wrongfully convicted persons currently incarcerated in American prisons.
March 10, 2022
UC Santa Cruz Professor Marianne Weems directs new interactive online performance I Agree To The Terms
UC Santa Cruz Professor in Performance, Play & Design Marianne Weems, Artistic Director and Founder of the award-winning performance and media ensemble The Builders Association, debuts a new interactive crossmedia performance, livestreaming online this March 25-April 3.
March 10, 2022
UC Santa Cruz to implement strategic plan for internationalization
UC Santa Cruz is advancing comprehensive internationalization to ensure that the members of the campus community are prepared and encouraged to study, teach, conduct research, and work in a global context, and that institutional policies, programs, and initiatives are aligned to achieve this shared goal.
February 24, 2022
Family-friendly opera returns to Mainstage Theater this March with My Head is Full of Colors
On March 12, Family Opera returns live to the Mainstage Theater with My Head is Full of Colors, a joyful tale of imagination composed by UCSC Lecturer Chris Pratorius Gómez, with a libretto by Nicole Paiement, and directed by Lecturer Sheila Willey.
February 24, 2022
Record applications enable UC Santa Cruz to build strong, diverse fall class
With record-breaking applications from undergraduate students, UC Santa Cruz is looking to admit students who will be ready to contribute to and benefit from a high-impact research university.
February 14, 2022
A new musical play, 'The Artificial Woman,' to receive its world premiere at UC Santa Cruz this month
The astonishing, true story of Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka’s tempestuous love affair with composer Alma Mahler and the obsession that would drive him to commission a life-size doll in her likeness after their break up is the basis for a new musical.
February 08, 2022
UC Santa Cruz announces ambitious investment to hire 100 additional faculty over decade, part of broader effort to advance student success and research excellence
To advance its place as an international leader at the intersection of innovation and social justice, UC Santa Cruz announced today its intention to prioritize faculty hiring by adding 100 additional faculty over the next decade.
February 04, 2022
Stories of Black women take center stage in upcoming performance of ''da Kink in My Hair'
The award-winning play "‘da Kink in My Hair" will be presented February 18-27 by the Department of Performance, Play & Design and the African American Theater Arts Troupe.
January 31, 2022
Hitting a high note
Music Professor Karlton Hester, named the first associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts for the Arts Division, believes all ethnicities benefit from inclusion and an increased focus on Black history, Indigenous history, and traditional knowledge.
January 20, 2022
National Endowment for the Arts award to support 'Surge,' an afrofuturism festival
Events will take place throughout the academic year, culminating in a month-long festival in May 2022 with live music concerts and dance performances.
January 06, 2022
Delaying in-person instruction until Jan. 31
After consultation with academic and administrative leaders on our campus, at other UC campuses, and with our health center staff, we have made the difficult decision to extend alternate and remote modes of instruction for two additional weeks