Arts Walk 2019

For the second year in a row, the spotlight will shine on the visual and performing arts at UC Santa Barbara by way of the annual Arts Walk.

An open house of sorts, it will take place Wednesday, April 17, at various locations across campus. From 4:30 to 8 p.m., faculty and staff members, students and Santa Barbara area residents will have opportunities to visit galleries and artist studios, watch preview performances and behind-the-scenes rehearsals and participate in programming designed to highlight the artistic creativity and talent of the UC Santa Barbara community.

Hosted by the UC Santa Barbara Library, the Department of Music, the Department of Theater and Dance, the Department of Art, the College of Creative Studies, the MultiCultural Center and the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, all events are free and open to the public.

At the Library

Librarian curator Chizu Morihara will lead a guided tour of “In Her Own Image,” an exhibition presented in conjunction with UCSB Reads, that explores and celebrates female comic book creators and their works.

Librarian curators Annie Platoff and Kristen LaBonte will lead visitors through the exhibition “Anguish, Anger & Activism: Legacies of the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill,” which examines the connections between the oil spill that occurred 50 years ago and environmental activism in the local area.

Music

In the music building, visitors will be treated to an open rehearsal of the UC Santa Barbara Chamber Choir, conducted by Daniel Newman-Lessler, and an oboe masterclass led by guest artist Aaron Hill of the University of Nevada, Reno, and featuring performances by students from the studio of UC Santa Barbara faculty member Gabrielle Castriotta.

Undergraduates from graduate student Brandon J. Rolle’s “Composing for Videogames” course in the College of Creative Studies will host a special exhibition whereby visitors can learn about the various technologies for composing videogame music and actively play the games to hear the original scores come to life.

The music department also will host performances by members of the Flute Choir, the Middle East Ensemble, Chamber Players and Clarinet Choir, among others.

Theater and Dance

The Department of Theater and Dance offers a variety of activities, including open rehearsals for the department’s upcoming productions as well as performances by dance students in outdoor spaces surrounding the theater and dance buildings. Exhibitions showcasing the work of design students will join interactive playwright stations that allow visitors to work with student playwrights to compose novelty pieces on the spot.

Art

An exhibition in the Glass Box Gallery in the arts building, and open studios at graduate students’ Harder Stadium Studios highlight the talents of UC Santa Barbara’s art students. The open studios give visitors an inside look at the creative process and enable them to experience finished pieces alongside works in progress, amid the various tools, reference materials and ephemera of creating.

The College of Creative Studies

The College of Creative Studies (CCS) will showcase the work of the college’s art, music composition and book arts students. Activities include a performance of original works by composition students, taking place in the Old Little Theater; CCS biologist/sculptor Gil Torten’s exhibition, “How We Develop Ideas: The Intersection Between Art and Science”; and students in the CCS book arts program hosting an interactive letter press demonstration in which visitors will have the opportunity to pull their own prints on the letter press.

MultiCultural Center

The MultiCultural Center presents an exhibition and a film screening. Photographer Owise Abuzaid’s “Diversity of Arab and Muslim Diasporas in the U.S.” aims to represent the presence of Arab and Muslim American diasporas in their true diversity, uniqueness and authenticity. “The Feminist on CellBlock Y,” a film directed by Contessa Gayle tells the story of how convicted felon Richard Edmond-Vargas built a feminist movement from behind bars at an all-male prison. A discussion with Edmond-Vargas will follow the screening.

AD&AM

Finally, the Art, Design & Architecture Museum will have several exhibitions, including “Common Bonds: Artists and Architects on Community,” “A Day’s Labor: Portraits by John Sonsini,” “¡Chicanismo!: The Sanchez Collection,” “Vest Pocket Pictures: Julius Shulman” and “The Illuminated Imagination: The Art of C.G. Jung,” which contains the majority of Carl Gustav Jung’s artistic work as well as many of his annotated manuscripts and books on art.

More information about UCSB Arts Walk can be found at https://www.library.ucsb.edu/artswalk. Questions may be directed to Adriane Hill at adrianehill@ucsb.edu or Una Mladenović at una@ucsb.edu.