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Arts and Community Engagement

What is Arts and Community Engagement?

Founded in December 2018, the Arts and Community Engagement initiative seeks to build community through the arts.

The initiative offers unique collaborative activities and opportunities to members of our campus community and beyond. It aims to place the arts at the center of essential conversation, sparking broader cultural dialogue and civic engagement.

Community Connections Fellows

Read more about the Community Connections fellows and their work, including the third cohort who are completing their work during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Meet the fellows

Tiffany Wai-Ying Beres showing art in a gallery, with audience

Opera and Social Justice: How can opera give voice to a new historical narrative?

Recorded March 6, 2021, watch this conversation about an imagined future — one in which many of the conventions, practices and prejudices inherent in the field of opera led to a transformation of the genre.

All Events

March 6, 2021: Opera and Social Justice: How can opera give voice to a new historical narrative?

  • Opera and Social Justice: How can opera give voice to a new historical narrative?” is a conversation about an imagined future — one in which many of the conventions, practices and prejudices inherent in the field of opera led to a transformation of the genre. Moderated by Mark Swed, Chief Music Critic of the Los Angeles Times, guests included Anthony Davis, John Adams, Thulani Davis, Michael Korie and Daniel Bernard Roumain.

May 13, 2019: Catalyst Series: Anthony Davis and The Central Park Five

  • Featuring performance excerpts from Davis’s opera in a “working rehearsal” format and conversation between Long Beach Opera Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek and UC San Diego Distinguished Professor of Music Anthony Davis, with members of the cast of the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera. The intimate group discussed the creative process and impact of performing such a timely, socially conscious work.

Nov. 14, 2019: The Future of the University Art Gallery

  • This event featured five renowned guest panelists for a presentation and discussion on the impact of campus art galleries at the local, regional and national level, along with suggestions for what the future holds for UC San Diego.
  • Panelists: Allyson Unzicker, associate director of University Art Galleries at UC Irvine, Elizabeth Chodos of Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, Henriette Huldisch of the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Alessandra Moctezuma of San Diego Mesa College gallery, and Lawrence Rinder of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley.

Feb. 7 and 12, 2020: VAPA High School Campus Visits

  • The UC San Diego campus welcomed more than 50 high school students interested in theater and dance, offering a campus tour led by current students, hands-on classroom experience and attendance at a campus productions of “Much Ado About Nothing.”

March 3, 2020: “Inventing Tomorrow” film screening and discussion

  • The work of UC San Diego Department of Visual Arts alum Laura Nix ‘03 was highlighted with the screening of her award-winning documentary “Inventing Tomorrow,” which follows the story of teenagers who create cutting edge solutions to challenge environmental threats.