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The Arts at UC Santa Cruz is a place where world class research and creative practice transpire in a place where teaching and service matter.
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Featured In The News
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An animation breakthrough makes it possible to more accurately illustrates Black hair
Cross-disciplinary professor AM Darke breaks down her recent research on animating Black hair. Historically, character models in animation feature white hair and most of the research into animating hair is done on straighter hair patterns. Darke’s research into coily hair provides a course to better…
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UC Santa Cruz to showcase next generation of artists with Open Studios
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UC teams with Bay Area tech company for new lab that hopes to make AI work for artists
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UCSC’s annual student-run dance production beautifully answers ‘The Calling’
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Spring Arts 2025: Ruth Asawa, Colman Domingo, Bay Area Dance Week + More
News
Featured Faculty
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John Jota Leaños selected as new Interim Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the UC Santa Cruz Arts Division
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Campus secures funding for innovative research projects addressing climate action and linguistic diversity
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Professor Elliot Anderson named the inaugural director of the new AI lab for the Arts Division
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Professor A.M. Darke creates groundbreaking work in Black representation
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Arts Division Event Highlights
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
We will not experience the full power of the arts unless access to the means of representation is available to all. And we will not realize the full power of the arts if our iconographies and methodologies are dictated by the very few. So, I am driven to expand access so that authorship, critique and the shaping of what we know can be driven by all, and what we take for granted or natural can shift, and to keep our definition of the arts, fervently open.