Arts
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Life Beyond the Redwoods: Samantha Chang at Sunblink
One year after graduating from UC Santa Cruz, Samantha (Sammy) Chang (College Nine ’25, art & design: games and playable media) is a marketing and player communications coordinator at Sunblink—a video game development studio based in Boulder, Colorado, best known for creating the critically acclaimed video game ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure’.
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More than a resume line: high schoolers build community in Art for All
With the summer rapidly drawing to an end, the Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS) has said a fond farewell to its 2026 cohort of eleven Santa Cruz County high schoolers who participated in Art for All, a summer youth program.
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Alumnus and Pixar editor Kevin Nolting empowers next-gen filmmakers at UCSC
Kevin Nolting (Porter ’79, aesthetic studies) founded Slug 48 within UC Santa Cruz’s Arts Division in 2024. The 48-hour filmmaking event empowers UC Santa Cruz students to push past creative boundaries.
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Celebrating teaching
The Academic Senate’s Committee on Teaching (COT) has selected the 2025-26 Excellence in Teaching Award recipients and the 2025-26 Distinguished Teaching Award recipient.
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UCSC faculty receive Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards
The awards reflect a renewed systemwide investment in early-career faculty at a time of increasing pressure on research funding. In total, 54 faculty were selected.
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An ancient production for the here and now
Mojada is a modern adaptation of Euripides’s 5th-century rendition of the Greek myth of Medea, exploring the tragic end to Medea’s marriage after her husband betrays her.
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On the rise: Alumna August Lee Stevens makes her way in the Bay Area music scene
August Lee Stevens’s music career has taken off since her time at UC Santa Cruz. Stevens wrote her first single in her dorm at UCSC and has gone on to perform at a Warriors playoff game, open for Smokey Robinson, and hold a residency at the SF Jazz Festival.
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Alumnus John Kim receives multiple film festival selections for his debut independent feature film Reunion
John Kim’s (Porter ’84, creative writing and literature) debut independent feature film Reunion follows an Asian American funeral home worker who attends his high school reunion hoping to jump-start his life, only to be mistaken for a successful alumnus from another school—a billionaire whom no one has seen since graduation.
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Alumna Gillian Welch brings Dead-driven Acoustic Reckoning show to Quarry Amphitheater
A packed Quarry Amphitheater was filled with fresh interpretations of songs from across the Grateful Dead’s vast catalogue with audience members singing, dancing and cheering along
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April in Santa Cruz: Experimental music festival explores new traditions
The annual April in Santa Cruz Festival of Creative Music (AiSC) returns this year with UC Santa Cruz faculty and graduate students, renowned guest artists, and several visiting artists.
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Art, ecology, and interconnection: UC Santa Cruz launches inaugural Earth Day festival
Professor Jennifer Parker organized the April 22 Arts & Ecology Festival as a space for gathering, exchange, and collective inquiry, bringing together interdisciplinary research, visual and sonic practices, and performance to engage the urgencies of the environmental crisis through shared experience and collaboration
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Finding direction through creativity: The Arts Division’s Find Your Path! creates career pathways for students
Arts Division students are invited to presentations and networking sessions that will guide them on how to pursue a successful career.