Filter by category, date, or area. Everything listed is in person, county-wide.
📍 Institute of the Arts and Sciences
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · See listing
Visit the IAS, UCSC’s premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10–August 16, 2026 are three diverse and interdisciplinary shows: Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right , the first US solo exhibition by the Colombia-based artist and medical doctor; Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj , a site-specific and immersive exploration of the Haitian kreyol conception of rasanblaj; and Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But Melodies , a mixed-media exhibition emerging at the intersections of Black poetics, performance, and visual art. The IAS Galleries are open Wednesday-Sunday, 12 pm – 5 pm. Admission is free to the public. Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right Libia Posada’s first solo exhibition in the United States features installations, sculptures, and drawings meticulously constructed from surgical instruments, gauze bandages, crutches, used books, and domestic picture frames. The new and existing works in the exhibition powerfully stitch together the personal, social, and political disorders and afflictions that currently trouble the world, from the wars that resonate across the globe to the violences of aging in US prisons. Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements The internationally-lauded work of humanities professor Gina Athena Ulysse is on view as a premier Faculty Spotlight Exhibition. The site-specific installation, produced in community from things collected, found, purchased and donated, centers on the Haitian concept of rasanblaj, a form of assembly and collage that transcends the formal use of materials to draw together people, spirits, and ideas. Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But Melodies Collage is both a material practice and a structural interrogation in the Faculty Spotlight Exhibition artworks by literature professor Ronaldo V. Wilson. In video, painting, and installation, layers and folds conceal and reveal, delving into the experience, both bodily and emotive, of living in time
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 12:00 PM · See listing
Friday, July 24 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm Join our Bridge Club for friendly games and social fun, open to players of all skill levels.
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 12:00 PM · See listing
Friday, July 24 2026 11:00am - 1:00pm We are knitting at Live Oak Library on Fridays.
📍 Comicopolis
🕒 12:00 PM · FREE
It's time to get those crayons sharpened, paints mixed and markers at the ready for our Summer 2026 Pokémon Art Contest for kids 5-12! To join in, create a picture of your favorite Pokémon having a fun moment or striking a cool, dynamic pose. Submissions should be on 8.5 x 11 paper. You can use any medium you like, such as paint, marker, crayon, pencil, etc. No digital art. There will be prizes awarded to two age groups, 5-7 and 8-12. Entries accepted June 1st-July 31st. Winners will be announced on August 6th. BONUS: All participants will receive a free Pokémon:Chaos Rising 11x17 mini-poster (while supplies last) when you hand in your art.
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 12:30 PM · See listing
Friday, July 24 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm Come join Librarian Emily for stories, songs, and lots of fun for preschoolers and their caregivers in our beautiful, newly-renovated Scotts Valley Library Branch every Friday at 11:30am.
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 12:30 PM · FREE
Friday, July 24 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm Join us for great stories and a fun craft. Ages 4-6
📍 Pajaro Park
🕒 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM · See listing
Tie-Dye: Join MCFL staff to tie-dye a book bag. Adult and Teen Workshops - Ages 13 and up Registration required - Materials provided - No experience needed Call the branch directly to register Please note, programs will be cancelled if no one is registered 24 hours before the program This program is brought to you by the Foundation for Monterey County Free Libraries. Sign up for the Summer Reading Club at any MCFL branch between June 1st and July 31st. Or sign up online at https://emcfl.beanstack.com/reader365
📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM · See listing
Take a guided tour of the MAH by one of our staff members! At the MAH, our tours don't just take you through art and history. They immerse you in it and connect you to Santa Cruz and beyond. If you're ready to dive into a new perspective, join us every Friday for an informative private tour free with admission. Art experts, historians, and educators are here to help. Plus, stick around to meet new people or check out our new gift shop. If you are an educator and interested in booking a tour for your class or group, browse our educational field trips here.
📍 Capitola
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing
Join a diverse group of cyber security enthusiasts every 3rd Friday of the month from 1-3PM or on the 1st Sunday of the month from 3-5PM. Join a group of folks who have a passion for cyber security. Group members have a broad range of interests and skill within the field and invite other people interested in cybersecurity to this public space where we can hangout, share new ideas, projects, and socialize. https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/events?term=cyber+security&r=range&start=2026-06-02&end=2026-09-30
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM · $395
A technical training camp for theater at All About Theatre in Santa Cruz, covering skills for behind-the-scenes production.
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 1:30 PM · See listing
Friday, July 24 2026 12:30pm - 2:30pm Are you stuck with a technology question? You can make a free appointment with a tech savvy library staff member!
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 2:00 PM · See listing
Friday, July 24 2026 1:00pm - 2:30pm Sharpen your word skills and enjoy friendly competition at our Scrabble Club - fun for all levels.
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 2:00 PM · See listing
Friday, July 24 2026 1:00pm - 3:00pm Play cards with fun folks every 2nd and 4th Friday.
📍 Engineering 2
🕒 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM · See listing
While large language models can match or exceed human performance, they do so with memory and energy costs orders of magnitude greater than biological cognition. We investigate sparsity as a brain-inspired computational principle to address both. We first establish a framework for evaluating small language model construction methods, using the next-token logit distribution as a behavioral fingerprint. Then, we introduce a semi-structured correlation-aware weight sparsity (CWS) method that uses the full activation covariance to identify and prune correlated weights whose combined removal cost is lower than any individual score predicts. CWS, improves perplexity over existing criteria up to 70% sparsity. To extend this gain to extreme sparsity, we propose a hierarchical ADMM framework that optimizes pruning directly against cross-entropy and distillation loss, first layer-wise for efficiency and then globally for cross-layer coordination. This research establishes brain-inspired principles as a foundation for efficient language models that remain accurate even under extreme compression. Event Host: Kimia Gholami, Ph.D. Student, Electrical & Computer Engineering Advisor: Jason Eshraghian Zoom: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/9827512398?pwd=SGpDWGtVVG81dkgyTHhjbG81dEVUZz09&omn=98349793611 Passcode: 8398
📍 Downtown Watsonville
🕒 2:00 PM – 9:00 PM · See listing
The Watsonville Farmers Market is every Friday afternoon from 2-7 all year round at the City Plaza in Downtown Watsonville. Don’t miss out on the wonderful locally grown fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers. Bring your appetite as there are tons of delicious prepared foods to try.
📍 Sub Rosa
🕒 3:00 PM – 9:00 PM · See listing
Sharing the wonderful art of Gazan organizer Yazan Mohammad🥳 join us to explore his work and support his university costs so he can proceed with his evacuation from Gaza. lets get YAZAN to Ireland!~ a fundraiser for YAZAN’s education at UNIVERSITY of LIMERICK and evacuation from GAZA Join us to celebrate Yazan’s commitment to UL in Ireland and help raise funds for his evacuation from Gaza [⭐] Art Market [⭐] Music [⭐] Community [⭐] Zines! Friday, July 24. Subrosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. 3-9PM * Interested in vending or playing music? Contact meowzedong.420 on Signal. Free entry (NOTAFLOF*) // all-ages // dry space // safe(r) space // anti-capitalist space // respect the space and each other! *no one turned away for lack of funds SubRosa is at 703 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, CA —@@@@@— SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space - a place to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. Let’s create together the wo
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 4:00 PM · See listing
Friday, July 24 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm S.T.E.A.M Projects. Explore Your World
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 4:30 PM · See listing
Friday, July 24 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm Use your imagination and build anything you can dream! Lego and Duplo blocks will be available for children and youth to tinker with, build, explore, and creatively play! No registration necessary.
📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 5:00 PM – 8:30 PM · FREE
Free summer block party in Midtown Santa Cruz featuring live music, food trucks, local artists, makers, and family fun.
📍 The Sawmill Restaurant and Ale House
🕒 5:00 PM · See listing
Friday, 5:00 PM - Performing with "WOODMILL"
📍 Midtown Block Party Lot
🕒 5:00 PM – 8:30 PM · FREE
Go Celebrate all the vibrancy of Midtown at the Summer Block Party, happening every Friday! Food – Artists – Live Music – Vendors The summer series of free events will feature the talents of 30+ local bands. In addition to live music, event goers will enjoy a selection of local eats as well as the opportunity to check out the work of local artists and vendors. Midtown Fridays starts May 29 to August 28.
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $595
A theater production of the musical Dear Evan Hansen.
📍 Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park
🕒 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE
Unwind at the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park at a old-fashioned campfire event this summer! From 5:30-8 p.m. on Friday, July 24, visitors can enjoy a campfire at the state historic park, listen to live music and make fresh tortillas on the comal! Visitors are also welcome to bring their own food for an evening picnic and listen to the musical guest Ramblin Rebels. The event is free. Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park is at 144 School St., Santa Cruz CA 95060.
📍 The Sawmill Restaurant and Ale House
🕒 6:00 PM · See listing
WoodMill plays live music at The Sawmill Restaurant in Boulder Creek. A casual evening of tunes with food and drinks.
📍 The Landing
🕒 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM · $12
Step back in time to the Golden Age of cinema! With live piano accompaniment by Kylan deGhetaldi, you won’t want to miss this unique silent movie experience. Buster Keaton's The General is one of the most revered comedies of the silent era. Released in 1926, this marks the 100th anniversary of this classic film. This is a fundraiser. All proceeds benefit The Landing. Doors open at 6 PM and the movie starts at 7 PM. Concessions will be available for purchase.
📍 Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
🕒 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM · See listing
Join us for an astronomy-themed evening at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. We’ll be learning about the moon, stars, solar system, planets, all things astronomy, through activities, games, interactive models, etc. 6:00-8:00 – jazz music and interactive astronomy booths 8:00-9:00 – guest speaker presentation 9:00-10:00 – moonlight walk through the Redwood Grove 9:00-11:00 – telescope viewing with Santa Cruz Astronomy Club Event is held at the entrance to the Redwood Grove. Hope to see you there!
📍 Madson Wine
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE
Rebecca Coupe Franks / Trumpet Nancy Heth / Vocals and Piano
📍 Shanty Shack Brewing
🕒 6:00 PM · See listing
We are coming at you with a twist of flavor and soul and taking Americana, Funky Soul, and Latin Jazz Fusion and running with it. We are serving our fresh perspective and arrangements to the people and looking good while doing it. We are filled with good times and great vibes for everyone to enjoy. Our 10 piece orchestra is made up of funky horns, groovy rhythms and smooth melodies. Each member brings a unique flavor to the mix, and it makes for the twist of flavor The Akoustiks comes to be.
📍 Midtown Friday Summer Block Party
🕒 6:00 PM · See listing
Ripatti Rose Band - Live at Midtown Friday Summer Block Party
📍 Scotts Valley Community Center
🕒 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM · $10
Join us for Bunco Game Night! Get ready for an evening full of fun, laughs, music, and friendly competition! Your entry includes lite appetizers and the chance to win prizes at the end of the night. No experience needed — Bunco is easy to learn and perfect for a relaxed, social evening. Grab your friends and bring your beverage of choice to enjoy while you roll the dice. No prior experience needed, super easy game to play
