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...
From the Director:
Looking back on the last 12 months, the second full academic year in our galleries on the westside of Santa Cruz, it is amazing to see how much the IAS has grown. Our galleries are kept lively our groundbreaking exhibitions, events, and education programs, creating a community that continues to expand with each year that passes. With four exhibitions and thirty nine public events, our attendance numbers surpassed 10,000 guests in AY 2024-2025. Over 40 students, including high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, gained hands-on experience through paid internships and fellowships at the IAS. We continue to be an integral part of education at UCSC, with 64 classes from across the divisions at UCSC visiting the galleries for tours led by IAS staff. Additionally, neighboring colleges and high schools, including Cabrillo College, CSU Monterey Bay, and Pajaro Valley High, took part in class tours, taking advantage of our program to supplement transportation costs for regional students to participate in IAS education programs. And, our support for artists also keeps expanding, with 26 artists commissioned for the creation of new work in the last year.
The IAS is unusual in that it combines the attributes of a university art museum with those of an interdisciplinary research institution. Through multi-year collaborations with faculty and other scholars, curators, and artists, we develop exhibition and programming to creatively engage students and audience in art and research about the critical issues of our times. These initiatives are thriving. Visualizing Abolition, established in 2020 with Professor Gina Dent, humanities, marked its five year anniversary with renewed funding from the Mellon Foundation and a major group exhibition with related catalog, Seeing Through Stone, as well as an expansion of its support for formerly incarcerated artists. Weather and the Whale, the first exhibition for An Aesthetics of Resilience (established in 2023), our art and science initiative directed with Professor Ari Friedlaender, Ocean Sciences, is now on view on our galleries, with a book forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press in February 2026.
And, this is just the beginning. As you scroll through the images and information that follows, you’ll get a glimpse of how else the IAS has flourished . You’ll see details about education and research drives our work. You will learn about the budget and critical fundraising that is ongoing to make this work possible. You’ll also see the people who are the makers– the artists, musicians, staff, postdoctoral fellows, students, faculty, donors, and other collaborators– who are together dreaming and creating the IAS. We are nothing without our community, and I am grateful to you.
Rachel Nelson, PhD
Director and Chief Curator
Institute of the Arts and Sciences at University of California, Santa Cruz
Located in the city of Santa Cruz, the Institute of the Arts and Science is an experimental and vital hub for art and ideas at UC Santa Cruz and the region. Through dynamic exhibitions, events, public scholarship initiatives, and education programming, we support and promote art and research which can illuminate the complexities of our times and help create a vibrant and just world. We are committed to providing transformative cultural experiences that question and inspire.
The IAS is always FREE and open to all.
The IAS provides a platform for established and emerging artists engaging the most critical issues of our time with thematic shows, single artist exhibitions, and newly commissioned projects highlighting the transformational potential of the arts. In 2024-25, two major group exhibitions and two solo exhibitions introduced students and regional audiences to important artworks and ideas engaging issues including climate change, mobility, and incarceration.
Seeing Through Stone, the largest exhibition organized to date for the Visualizing Abolition initiative, took place simultaneously at three venues: the IAS, SJMA, and Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos. Curated by Prof. Gina Dent, director, Visualizing Abolition, Lauren Dickens, chief curator, San José Museum of Art, and Rachel Nelson, director, IAS, the wide-ranging exhibition brought together artwork by 85 contemporary artists from around the globe, inclinding artists who are currently or formerly incarcerated. With an orientation towards artists who help provide a vision—and a model—of abolition in practice, Seeing through Stone showed art and the core of abolitionist world-building. A catalog for the exhibition, the first book published through Visualizing Abolition, features texts by Robin D.G. Kelley, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and the curators.
Seeing Through Stone
April 12, 2024 – January 5, 2025
Featuring eighty-five artists and collectives, including currently and formerly incarcerated artists, Seeing Through Stone celebrates the organizing, dreaming, and world-making of abolition.
Mia Rollow and Caleb Duarte: EDELO
January 25 – April 30, 2025
The new and existing works featured in EDELO explore the artists’ fifteen-year explorations into the roles art can play in radical modes of community building and social, political, and economic change.
Levester Williams: Our Bedrock
January 25 – April 30, 2025
The artist’s west coast premier exhibition, Our Bedrock excavates the histories of the marble was used to make the columns of the U.S. Capitol Building and the Washington Monument.
Weather and the Whale
May 29, 2025 – March 8, 2026
Emerging at the intersections of art and science, immersive displays of original science research and new artworks immerse viewers into the impacts of climate change in the sea and on land.
Events at the IAS create community, provide insight and connection, and foster conversations. Our galleries are a gathering space for the university and the region, offering free artist talks, workships, performances, panel discussions, community-outreach initiatives, and First Friday events.
In 2024/25, the IAS organized 39 public events, bringing together the campus community and regional public to experience art, music, films, lectures, and other cultural offerings.
SEPTEMBER 2024
September 6 – First Friday: Curator-led tour of Seeing through Stone with Rachel Nelson
September 26 – Screening and Discussion of “Plantations & Prisons: a History of Forced Labor in Louisiana” with Sara Gozalo, Engrid Hamilton, and Willow Katz
OCTOBER 2024
October 2 – Virtual Conversation: the Tea Project and Guests
October 4 – October First Friday: Party with Performances by Caleb Duarte and Guillermo Galindo
October 18 – In Conversation: Rebecca Belmore and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
October 19 – Exhibition Walk-through: Imani Jacqueline Brown
October 22-October 24 – Translating (as) Freedom: Abolition and the Power of Words (three-day workshop)
NOVEMBER 2024
November 1 – First Friday: Student-Led Exhibition Tours
November 2 – Solitary Garden 5-Year Anniversary
November 7 – Explode! Platform’s “Passagem” Activation: Exu, Orality and Ritual with Moisés Patrício
November 9 – Alumni & Family Day
November 10 – Abolitionist’s Tea Party: Plant Alchemy as Community PracticeNovember 13 – Screening & Discussion: Paint Me a Road Out of Here (at the Landmark’s Del Mar Theatre)
November 15 – Seeing through Stone Catalog Launch with Performance and Panel Discussion
November 22 – Webinar: Abdias Nascimento and Abolition
November 22 – Artist Talk: Art, Technology, and Activism in Brazil: 20 years of Frente 3 de Fevereiro
November 23 – Block Party at Barrios Unidos: Frente 3 de Fevereiro
November 25 – Webinar: Performative Meetings: Social and Artistic Movements in Brazil
DECEMBER 2024
December 3 – Webinar: Cian Dayrit and Neferti X. M. Tadiar
December 4 – Artist Talk: Cian Dayrit
December 6 – First Friday: Celebrating Freedom with Ilê Aiyê
JANUARY 2025
January 4 – Exhibition Walk-through: Tea Project (Amber Ginsburg & Aaron Hughes)
January 5 – Exhibition Walk-through: Sherrill Roland
FEBRUARY 2025
February 4 – YINTAH: Jennifer Wickham and Tsakë ze’ Sleydo’ Molly Wickham
February 7 – Exhibitions Opening : “EDELO” and “Our Bedrock”
MARCH 2025
March 4 – Paso Seguro/Safe Passage (choreography performance)
March 4 – Towards a Just Transition: Conversation with Claudia Gimena Roa Avendaño, Diana Alexandra Bernal Arias, and Diana Figueroa
March 7 – First Friday – Community Voices: The Sound of Abolition
APRIL 2025
April 4 – Night of Ideas 2025
April 19 – Closing Celebration: Our Bedrock and EDELO (Artist performances/curator-led tours)
MAY 2025
May 8 – The Strike: Film Screening and Q&A
May 29 – Opening Celebration: Weather and the Whale
JUNE 2025
June 6 – First Friday: IAS After hours
The IAS serves as a classroom, partnering with faculty and other organization to provide students of all ages opportunities to learn through art encounters. We offer class tours, paid internship programs in art and education for high school students and undergraduate students, curatorial fellowships for graduate students, and more.
Representing our largest cohort ever, 27 undergraduate students were awarded paid internships in the last academic year, gaining experience in gallery operations, installation, exhibition research, art education, and more. Our interns go on to do great things. We are excited to announce Camilla Alvarado ’24 is a PhD Student in at UT Austin; Ben Banuelos’ 24 is a gallery guide at Los Angeles MOCA, and, Hayley Sanchez ’24 is now staff at the IAS.
In July 2024, the IAS launched Art for All, an annual paid summer internship program for high school students in Santa Cruz County. With pilot program funding from Monterey Peninsula Foundation, 10 high school students from Watsonville High, Pajaro Valley High, and Santa Cruz High spent four weeks working with IAS staff and UCSC undergraduate students and visiting regional arts organizations to learn about art and education careers.
From year-long research positions to shorter fellowships, the IAS provides select MFA and PhD students at UC Santa Cruz experience in curation, arts education, and arts administration. This year, Mirra-Margarita Ianeva, PhD student, visual studies, received a 12-month curatorial fellowship while Chloe Kanani Lew, PhD student, bio-telemetry and behavioral ecology, received a 9-month research fellowship.
The IAS has a unique focus and approach to research. We partner with faculty across the disciplines, organizing major public scholarship initiatives that include art exhibitions and educational outreach programs to elevate the research and creative work being done on campus generated to broad audiences. Since 2020, the IAS has worked with over 70 faculty members across the university, including the arts, biological and physical sciences, humanities, and social sciences, on a range of events, exhibitions, workshops, and other public outreach programs.
An Aesthetic of Resilience, a multi-disciplinary initiative focused on art, science, and climate change, is directed with Professor Ari Friedlaender, ocean sciences. With support from the Coha Nowark Art and Sciences Residency Program and the Yosemite and Climate Change Fund, the initiative fosters new collaborative methodologies for research, education, and public outreach about the climate crisis.
Weather and the Whale
The first exhibition for An Aesthetics of Resilience, Weather and the Whale, May 25, 2025- March 4, 2026 draws in two years of multi-disciplinary art and science research. The exhibition features displays of newly collected science data about the impacts of climate change on whales and contemporary artworks by 9 artists, most created for the project.
Coha Nowark Art and Science Residency
The Coha Nowark Art and Science Residency brings leading artists into conversation with scientists at the Friedlaender Lab to engage with issues of climate change impacting our oceans. We are pleased to announce Los Angeles-based artist Suné Woods and Courtney Leonard, a Shinnecock artist and filmmaker, are 2025-2026 artists-in-residence.
Yosemite and Climate Change
Yosemite and Climate Change is an education-based project launching in 2025/26. With support organized by Jock Reynolds, Stevenson ’69, undergraduate students will engage in field study and other research and plan an exhibition considering visual culture as it intersects with current changing climate in Yosemite National Park.
Directed with Professor Gina Dent, humanities, Visualizing Abolition is a major force in research and education. Working across prison borders and in collaboration with current and formerly incarcerated people, the initiative creatively elevates research about the histories, economics, and injustices of prisons while also supporting the alternative work underway to create a future free of prisons.
Exhibitions and Events
Since 2020, Visualizing Abolition has presented 11 exhibitions and 132 public events, as well as a music series curated by Terri Lyne Carrington. In 2024, the largest Visualizing Abolition exhibition to date, Seeing Through Stone, featured 85 artists and collectives from around the globe, including 16 new commissions.
Visualizing Abolition Studies
Visualizing Abolition Studies (VAST) offers undergraduate students a curriculum in critical studies of incarceration that develops skills in analyzing art and visual culture. Since established in 2023, over 400 students have taken VAST classes and 43 students have completed the program.
Transitions Fellowship Program
In partnership with Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos, the Transitions Fellowship program supports recently incarcerated artists and others with stipends, housing support, and mentorship. Continuing fellows Sonny Trujillo and Anthony Alejandrez have been joined by Elizabeth Lozano for 2025/2026.
With faculty providing leadership and research expertise, staff managing the curatorial and education programs, students serving as interns and gallery guides, and a mulitude of partnership and support, we are proud of the community that makes the IAS.
Rachel Nelson, Director and Chief Curator
Alexandra Moore, Curator and Head of Academic Programs
Louise Leong, Head of Exhibitions
Tam Welch, Program Coordinator
Hayley Sanchez, Administrative Coordinator
Veriche Blackwell, Art Handler
Gina Dent, IAS Research Director; Director, Visualizing Abolition
Ari Friedlaender, Director, An Aesthetics of Resilience
Chair: Gina Dent, professor, humanities
Claudio Bueno, assistant professor, art
Sharon Daniel, professor, film and digital media
John Jota Leanos, professor, film and digital media
Guillermo Delgado-P., emeritus faculty, anthropology
Ari Friedlaender, professor, ocean sciences
Laurie Palmer, professor, art
Kailani Polzak, assistant professor, history of art and visual studies
Zac Zimmer, associate professor, literature
Friedlaender Lab, UCSC
Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos
San José Museum of Art
Museum of Art and History (MAH)
University Library Special Collections, UCSC
Mary Porter Sesnon Galleries, UCSC
Kresge College, UCSC
The Humanities Institute, UCSC
Arts Research Institute, UCSC
Postdoctoral Fellows
Logan Pallin, PhD, 2023-2025
Natalia Botero-Acosta, PhD, 2023-2025
LuLing Osofsky, PhD candidate, visual studies
Mirra-Margarita Ianeva, PhD student, visual studies
Chloe Kanani Lew, PhD student, bio-telemetry and behavioral ecology
Lupin Amstutz
Brenda Alvarez
Ben Banuelos
Sami Elfiqhi
Island Gutierrez
Abby Luciano
Aiko- Bliss Ponce
Iggy Quibilan
Hayley Sanchez
Alexandra Singer
Emily Tran
Tyana Tran
Malia Reid
Diego Macedonio Andres
Maya Mendoza
Danny Moshayedi
Abby Abalos
Juiliana Alban
Lily Chen
Vanessa Duarte
Esa Gerardo
Beatrice Griffiths
Linn Kyaw
Estaban Salinas
Ousseynou Ndoye
Victor Acevedo
Raul Castro-Hernandez
Rebecca Oregal
Jon Carnero (Kresge, ‘94)
Jennifer González (Grad Division ’96)
Herman Gray (Grad Division, ’83)
Erin O’Toole (Kresge, ’92)
Jock Reynolds (Stevenson, ’69)
Keith Muscutt
John Weber
Randy Wedding
University of California Office of the President Climate Action Initiative
Terra Foundation
Mellon Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation
Ford Foundation
UC Humanities Research Institute
Arts Research Institute, UCSC
Porter College, UCSC
UCCS Foundation Board Opportunity Fund
Scotty Brookie and Andrew Purchin
Dan Epstein
Herman Gray and Rosa-Linda Fregoso
Lewis Watts
Wendy Flagon
Tabitha Doniach and Daouda Traore
Lorraine and Nicholas Carpou
Steven and Linda Folkman
Bala Parthasarathy
Luke Fidler
Alan DeYoung and Galina Valyayeva
Annette Marines
Felicia Rice
Emmet Gowin
Roger Lebow and Wendy Schorr
Adrienne Terrass
Maria Yap and Mark Sangster
David and Charlotte Wittenkamp
Eric Pierce
John MacMillan
Mark Ober
Sarah Malashock
Renate Kupke
Gina Dent
Queenie Taylor
Anna Friz
Mark and Anne-Marie Cappellano
Jackson Malle
Sarah Schuster Kudela
David Korduner and Joan Krimston
David Taritero and Mitchell Claspy
Betsy M. Andersen
David Berger and Holly Maxson
Eileen Blood-Golden
Spencer Brownstone
Thomas Burns
Anne- Marie and Mark Cappellano
Jon Carnero
Janey and Michael Cloud
Peter Coha and Vicki Nowark
Bill Dickinson
Ann Hatch and Paul Discoe
Elliot Fruchtman and Alan Fong
Jennifer González and Warren Sack
James Gunderson and Valerie Boom
Jock Reynolds and Suzanne Hellmuth
Celeste and William Hughes
Nancy and Peder Jones
Wanda Kownacki
George Kraw
Kaitlyn Krieger
Nion McEvoy Family Trust
Joanna Miller
Richard and Bettina Moss
Keith Muscott
Pamela Pierson
Pat and Rowland Rebele
Alan Ritch
Kathleen Rose
Julia and Greg Schechter
Jane Watkins
John Weber and Leila Whittemore
Celia and Randy Wedding
Terri and Rusty Witek
