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University of California, Riverside

University of California, Riverside

Change Things arts installation at UC Riverside

Arts and Culture

Ray of Light

Immerse Yourself in Our Arts and Culture

At UC Riverside, we pride ourselves on our multicultural roots — and that extends to the richness of our arts and culture scene. In fact, we’re known as the City of Arts and Innovation. Both on campus and off, we offer everything from the visual arts to literary works and musical performances. So prepare to be immersed — and inspired!

Head downtown to stimulate your senses through the array of art exhibitions, films, events, and performances at UCR ARTS. Here, you’ll find the Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts and the California Museum of Photography. With more than 500,000 pieces in its collection, the museum is the largest photographic center in the western United States, housing the region’s most comprehensive public camera collection.

Interior of The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture

On the corner of Mission Inn Avenue and Orange Street, you can check out our newest high-profile museum, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture — better known as The Cheech. The museum, which opened in June 2022, is a public-private partnership between the Riverside Art Museum, the City of Riverside, and comedian Cheech Marin. Visit to view, celebrate, and learn more about Chicano art!

Photo Credit: Riverside Art Museum

Students practice “Mountain and Water Remembrance Ritual” during their class, Dance as Ritual

UCR offers a variety of dynamic performing arts programming — including dance, theater, and music — on campus and in downtown Riverside. First in the nation to offer a PhD in dance studies, today UC Riverside is the only University of California campus with PhD programs in dance and music.

UCR Writers Week

At UCR’s annual Writers Week, the longest-running free literary event in California, you’ll hear from renowned and upcoming authors. Students can also improve their literary skills through our Department of Creative Writing — home to the only Bachelor of Arts in creative writing in the UC system and an MFA in creative writing and writing for the performing arts. Tom Lutz, award-winning author and founding editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, is on the faculty!

Looking for more ways to engage?

Our Center for Ideas and Society — an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research support center — offers fellowships, research workshops, and public events to strengthen the academic, social, and creative life of the university and beyond. And through our Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts, UCR students share their talents with our community via free arts outreach experiences in select schools, eldercare facilities, museums, and libraries.

On our vibrant campus, there are always opportunities to celebrate the arts and culture — from showcases by the Department of Dance to music festivals, film screenings, and other special events coordinated by our Associated Students Program Board (ASPB).

And if you make it out to our annual Block Party, Spring Splash, or Homecoming concerts, be sure to bring your Highlander pride. You never know… at some of these events you may even catch a performance by our very own UCR Pipe Band.

 

Arts and Culture News

A scene from UCR's performance of Macbeth
February 12, 2025
UCR Theatre Presents 'Macbeth'
The first performance of UCR's staging of “Macbeth” will be Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. in the Studio Theatre. Additional performances of the play, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Miles Anderson, will run through Feb. 22.
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open-access photo archive will hold 35mm color images that are being preserved by UC Riverside’s Department of the History of Art in collaboration with the Society of Architectural Historians, or SAH. (UCR/Sandra Baltazar Martinez)
January 29, 2025
Project helps preserve architectural photographs 
A National Endowment for the Humanities grant will facilitate an online database showcasing images from communities around the world.
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UCR Orchestra
January 29, 2025
Orchestra to host 'extroverted' weekend concerts
Join the UCR Orchestra under the baton of Ruth Charloff for a concert on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. or on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m., at the University Theatre on the UC Riverside campus. “We’re playing some pretty extroverted repertoire,” Charloff said. The concert will begin with a short suite of instrumental music from the American composer Gian Carlo Menotti’s one-act opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors.”
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Florence Bayz music series artists
January 15, 2025
On Wednesdays, a music series for community & campus
Students, faculty, and visitors can attend the Florence Bayz Music Series every Wednesday during the academic year at Noon. The events are free and held in the Arts Building, room 157.
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Events