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📍 Santa Cruz County, CA

From the waves to the redwoods, it's all happening here.

Live music, festivals, art walks, surf contests, trail days and everything in between.

In-person only, on purpose. Everything here is something you can actually show up to. No screens, no streams.

★ Featured this season

Promotional image for Naturalist Night: Plankton 101 ★ Featured
Wed, Aug 19, 2026 · Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

Naturalist Night: Plankton 101

Did you know that every other breath we take comes from phytoplankton? Dive into the hidden world of plankton and discover the tiny organisms that form the foundation of Monterey Bay’s rich marine ecosystem. Join marine scientist and educator Jane Silberstein for an engaging introduction to phytoplankton, zooplankton, and the remarkable roles they play in supporting ocean life. After the talk, you’ll have the opportunity to observe live plankton under a microscope and get an up-close look at these incredible microscopic organisms. Whether you’re a curious beachgoer, an aspiring naturalist, or simply fascinated by the ocean, this lecture will leave you with a new appreciation for the life drifting just beneath the surface. These amazing organisms form the base of the marine food web, produce much of the oxygen we breathe, influence the color of the ocean, and support countless species throughout Monterey Bay and beyond. REGISTER HERE Location: Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History Ticket Price: $12 Discounts: $5 member discount About the Speaker : Jane Silberstein brings more than 40 years of experience studying and teaching about the marine life of Monterey Bay. She earned her undergraduate degree in science with an emphasis in marine science from UC Santa Cruz and her graduate degree in Invertebrate Marine Ecology from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. During her 33 years at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Jane worked on all three plankton guide stations, sharing the fascinating world of plankton with visitors from around the globe. She has also taught plankton through Cabrillo College’s Pacific Plankton Program for nearly six years, inspiring students to explore the remarkable microscopic organisms that support life in the ocean. Jane is passionate about making the microscopic world accessible to audiences of all ages and helping others discover the incredible diversity of life drifting just beneath the surface. Accessibility and Logistics : This program will take place

Education 📍 Seabright & Harbor
Promotional image for Steve Hawk ★ Featured
Wed, Aug 19, 2026 · Bookshop Santa Cruz

Steve Hawk

Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Steve Hawk, the longest serving editor of Surfer (1991-1998), who will share his thrilling new novel Nearshore , a mix of literary suspense and coastal noir which follows an unlikely trio on the California coast who investigate a nuclear terrorist act. Hawk will be in conversation with Charles Duhigg at this event.

Family 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz
Music
Coming up
Mon, Aug 10, 2026 · Ugly Mug CoffeeHouse, 4640 Soquel Dr, Soquel, CA 95073, United States

Open Mic w/ SteveV, every Monday

It's Monday Open Mic at the Ugly Mug! Sign ups at 5p Beer, Espresso Drinks and Desserts available

Music 📍 Soquel
Promotional image for Abbott Square: Comedy Night Coming up
Mon, Aug 10, 2026 · Abbott Square Market

Abbott Square: Comedy Night

Come hang out in the secret garden and have some laughs, EVERY MONDAY NIGHT. Featuring comedians from all over the area and beyond.

Comedy 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz

☀️ Happening today

Monday, August 10

28 events on today. No plans required, just go.

9:00 AM
$59
Dynomite Farm: Private Dahlia U-Cut Experience
📍 Dynomite Farm
Community
10:00 AM
FREE
Natural Bridges Little Rangers Program
📍 Natural Bridges State Beach
Family
11:30 AM
See listing
Aptos Bridge Club
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Community
11:30 AM
See listing
Monthly Monday Meditation
📍 Scotts Valley Branch Library
Community
11:30 AM
See listing
Mahjong Club @ Branciforte
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Community
11:30 AM
See listing
Seniors Share @ Felton Library
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Community
12:00 PM
FREE
Latte's and Learn
📍 California Coffee
Education
12:30 PM
See listing
Monthly Monday Meditation
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Community
1:00 PM
See listing
Loops at the Library - Knit/Crochet @ Garfield Park Branch
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Community

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Showing 390 of 409 upcoming events · Art & Culture

Aug
11

Free Health Screening

📍 Watsonville
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing

Visit Watsonville Public Library for a FREE Health Screening, no appointment needed! ~ Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley invites library patrons to take advantage of this opportunity to check in on their health and learn more about their risk for conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Screenings will take place on the second Tuesday of each month from July through December, between 10:00am-12:00pm at the Main Library. Tuesday, July 14: Diabetes Tuesday, August 11: Blood Pressure Tuesday, September 8: Diabetes Tuesday, October 13: Cholesterol Tuesday, November 10: Diabetes Tuesday, December 8: Blood Pressure This project is supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. This program is supported by Rural Health Connections. Audience: All ages ESPAÑOL ¡Visite la Biblioteca Pública Watsonville para una evaluación de salud GRATUITA, no necesita cita! ~ Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley invita a los usuarios a aprovechar esta oportunidad para revisar su estado de salud y aprender más sobre su riesgo de padecer enfermedades como la diabetes y la presión arterial alta. Los exámenes de salud se llevarán a cabo el segundo martes de cada mes, de julio a diciembre, de 10:00am-12:00pm en la Biblioteca Principal. martes 14 de julio: Diabetes martes 11 de agosto: Presión arterial martes 8 de septiembre: Diabetes martes 13 de octubre: Colesterol martes 10 de noviembre: Diabetes martes 8 de diciembre: Presión arterial Este proyecto cuenta con el apoyo total o parcial del Instituto de Servicios de Museos y Bibliotecas de los Estados Unidos (IMLS) bajo las disposiciones de la Ley de Servicios y Tecnología Bibliotecaria, administrada en California por el Bibliotecario Estatal. Este programa cuenta con el apoyo de Rural Health Connections. Audiencia: Para todas las edades

Art & Culture Family 📍 Watsonville Details →
Aug
11

Hot Topics Book Club

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM · See listing

Join our book club every second Thursday to explore great reads and share engaging conversations with fellow book lovers. A book club organized around discussing the “hot topic” titles in the news, and book buzz— the controversies, the new classics or perhaps overexposed. Registration required: https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/16749444

Art & Culture Community Details →
Aug
11

M. K Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
11

Clifford Henderson

📍 Bookshop Santa Cruz
🕒 7:00 PM · See listing

Award-winning novelist Clifford Mae Henderson returns with Lost in Sound: A Mystery, a thrilling whodunit set in the fictional coastal town of Tres Ojos. A mystery unravels in this unlikely sleepy beach town where tech millionaires brush past homeless encampments. When a neurodivergent landlocked pirate, Captain Eddie, is accused of murder, an unlikely and delightfully eccentric crew bands together to help the captain. The case spirals into a high-profile circus when the victim turns out to be the estranged sister of a country music legend. Henderson brings warmth, wit, and a deep social conscience to the page. -Shelly Novo; Good Times Santa Cruz

Aug
11

Macbeth, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM · See listing

Something wicked this way comes, indeed. Starting this weekend and running through August 30th, Santa Cruz Shakespeare presents one of The Bard’s most infamous plays, Macbeth. Coincidentally the play’s first ever performance is believed to have been in 1606 marking this as the 420th anniversary, which is very Santa Cruz. And for anyone familiar with Macbeth, it’s easy to see why it’s lasted throughout the ages. Witches, murder, moral failings and tons of tragedy are beautifully sewn throughout the acts, stitched together with lines such as “Blood will have blood,” and “the wine of life is drawn.” -Mat Weir; Good Times Santa Cruz

Art & Culture Free 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
12

Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences

📍 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

Education Art & Culture 📍 Westside Details →
Aug
13

Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences

📍 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

Education Art & Culture 📍 Westside Details →
Aug
13

Rules Are Not Neutral: Play As Sense-Making, Acts Of Resistance, And Imagining Otherwise

📍 Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

This exhibition brings together a range of analog games – including board, card, role-playing, and other participatory works – that engage social and political realities in different ways. The works span widely circulated commercial games to independently produced projects, one-of-a-kind artworks by artists, faculty, alumni, and students, and materials drawn from UC Santa Cruz Special Collections and Archives. In part, the exhibition challenges the persistent assumption that games and play are detached from social and political life. On the contrary, game designers and artists across diverse perspectives and positions have long used play to engage questions of social systems, lived experience, and how power operates. This exhibition does not attempt to represent that full spectrum. Instead, it brings together a particular set of works that foreground how games can make systems visible, intervene in them, and imagine alternatives. All games embody values, whether intentional or not. – Mary Flanagan , game designer and scholar Across all of these works, games are not only forms of entertainment, though they may be that as well. They are encountered in multiple ways: as objects, as systems, as artworks, and as experiences that unfold unpredictably through interaction. In each case, rules and constraints shape what participants can do. In these different forms, the works stage systems – such as housing and land ownership, capitalism, race and identity, civil rights and protest, fascism, and colonialism – in ways that are simplified and easy to see, opening space to recognize similar structures beyond the game. In this sense, the works suggest that rules are not neutral – they organize experience, distribute power, and produce meaning. Games are the art of agency. – C. Thi Nguyen , philosopher The exhibition is intentionally dense. This abundance reflects the breadth of ways games operate across contexts, from activism and education to art and everyday life. While it cel

Education Art & Culture 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
13

Open Archives

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

Step into the MAH's Archives Reading Room during our weekly Open Archives hours. Meet the archivist, see a unique item from the collection on display, and discover where Santa Cruz history is preserved. Please note: Open Archives is an informal drop-in experience, not a time for in-depth research appointments. If you'd like to schedule research time, please contact us in advance by email or phone. We usually pop open the archives every week-though every now and then we take a break. For more information, email [email protected]

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
13

Re/View: Alumni Exhibition -- UC Santa Cruz

📍 Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
🕒 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Opening celebration and Artist Talk on Saturday, August 15, 2-4:30pm. Light refreshments will be served. Re/View: Alumni Exhibition ReView: UCSC Arts Alumni Exhibition, on view August 13-September 19, 2026, features Arts Division alumni from the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas. Curated by Valéria Miranda, the Sesnon’s Director, includes a wide variety of media and technique highlighting the diversity of contemporary practice of alumni who graduated from 1972 to 2025. The exhibition title alludes to the portfolio critique process and suggests ideas of reflection and reevaluation—whether revisiting past work, rethinking materials, or tracing how a practice evolves over time. This exhibition celebrates the creative path of artists who began their journeys at UCSC. United by shared roots yet defined by distinct paths, the participating alumni reflect the lasting influence of the Arts Division programs. Their works speak to the spirit of inquiry, experimentation, and perseverance that has long shaped the university’s artistic community. ReView presents an opportunity for the campus and larger community to see the professional practice of these artists who continue to build on the creative foundation that they received at UCSC and to inspire our current students, offering visualization of their own future artistic journeys after graduation. ReView offers a unique opportunity for returning alumni to celebrate their creative expressions while reconnecting with classmates and the university community. Admission is free and open to the public. Summer Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday, 1-5pm

Art & Culture Free 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
13

Tech Cafe

📍 Freedom Branch Library
🕒 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM · See listing

Are you interested in learning about technology? Visit us during our weekly Tech Café program where you have the opportunity to get basic tech-related questions answered and test a new piece of technology. This program will take place on Thursdays from 4:30-6:30pm at the Main Library (unless otherwise indicated). The technology we demo will change each month; here is a list of what technology will be featured: - January (program starts on the 15th): Doodle Pens - February: Makey Makeys (circuit boards) - March: 3D Printer - April: Spheros (programmable robots) - May: Cricut - June: Glowforge - laser cutter (This program will take place at the Freedom Branch) - July: iPad Stop Motion movies - August: Spheros (programmable robots) - September: 3D Printer - October: Doodle Pens - November: Cricut - December: Makey Makeys (circuit boards) Audience: All Ages ¿Le interesa aprender sobre tecnología? Visítanos durante nuestro programa semanal Tech Café, donde tendrás la oportunidad de obtener respuestas a preguntas básicas relacionadas con la tecnología y probar una nueva tecnología. Este programa se llevará a cabo los jueves de 4:30 a 6:30pm en la Biblioteca Principal (a menos que se indique otro horario o lugar). La tecnología que mostraremos cambiará cada mes; las tecnologías que se presentarán: - enero (el programa comienza el día 15): Doodle Pens - febrero: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) - marzo: Impresora 3D - abril: Spheros (robots programables) - mayo: Cricut - junio: Glowforge - cortadora láser (este programa se llevará a cabo en la sucursal Freedom) - julio: iPad Stop Motion (películas) - agosto: Spheros (robots programables) - septiembre: Impresora 3D - octubre: Doodle Pens - noviembre: Cricut - diciembre: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) Audiencia: Para todas las edades

Art & Culture Family 📍 Watsonville Details →
Aug
13

Audrey Stanley Grove: Much Ado About Nothing

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, un-der the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare Directed by Charles Pasternak One of Shakespeare’s wittiest and most beloved comedies, the 2026 season will open with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Of all the couples in Shakespeare, perhaps none is more widely loved than Beatrice and Benedick. Their battle of wits; their antagonism turned to eroticism; their history. Before the play begins, they already seem to define each other. The audience, like the other characters in the play, wait with excitement as their wits clash, and eventually, as their love blossoms. Much Ado About Nothing runs July 11 – August 30. More information or to purchase tickets, follow the link in the orange above, or contact the box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4pm at the number listed above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
13

Dear Evan Hansen

📍 Colligan Theater
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $28

A Santa Cruz Premiere! Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen comes to Santa Cruz for the first time in a fully staged production with a live orchestra. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a lonely high school student struggling with social anxiety who longs to feel like he belongs. After a misunderstanding following the death of a classmate, Evan finds himself caught in a lie that unexpectedly brings him closer to the grieving family—and gives him the connection he’s always wanted. But as the truth becomes harder to hide, Evan must face the consequences of the choices he’s made. Filled with unforgettable songs by Academy Award, Grammy, and Tony-winning songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman), Dear Evan Hansen is a moving story, with both humor and deep emotionality, about friendship, family, forgiveness, and the universal desire to be seen and accepted. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Contains themes of suicide, grief, mental health, and strong emotional content.

Art & Culture Music Details →
Aug
13

The Rocky Horror Show

📍 Santa Cruz Veteran's Hall
🕒 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM · $15

A young, wholesome, and seemingly normal couple, Brad and Jan, set out to visit their old professor, but their plans change when a large storm causes their car to go flat. Desperate to get out of the rain, they find an old castle that is home to Dr. Frank-N-Furter. From there, the night only becomes weirder. That night will be one they and the audience will not forget. This cult classic continues to entertain crowds, and this run is no different. Audience members can purchase interactive goodie bags with their tickets and participate in a costume contest. Goes until August 22.

Aug
13

Seabright Summer Movie Nights

📍 Murray Street at the corner of Seabright Ave
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · FREE

Thursday Night Movie Nights, a six-week outdoor movie series held Thursday nights on Murray Street starting July 9 through August 13. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets for free outdoor screenings. The event series is free to attend and will feature family-friendly programming throughout the summer. July 23: Minecraft Movie July 30: Shrek August 6: Hoppers August 13: Goat

Art & Culture Family 📍 Seabright & Harbor Details →
Aug
14

Art for Healing

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM · See listing

Art for Healing: Using the power of the creative process to provide support, insight and a deeper relationship with yourself in a safe and nurturing environment. No art experience necessary. All art supplies provided.Meets 2nd Friday of the month, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm. (Space is limited so please check with WomenCARE re: availability) Facilitated by Dayna Lea

Wellness Art & Culture Details →
Aug
14

Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences

📍 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

Education Art & Culture 📍 Westside Details →
Aug
14

Guided Tour

📍 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.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
14

Re/View: Alumni Exhibition -- UC Santa Cruz

📍 Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
🕒 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Opening celebration and Artist Talk on Saturday, August 15, 2-4:30pm. Light refreshments will be served. Re/View: Alumni Exhibition ReView: UCSC Arts Alumni Exhibition, on view August 13-September 19, 2026, features Arts Division alumni from the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas. Curated by Valéria Miranda, the Sesnon’s Director, includes a wide variety of media and technique highlighting the diversity of contemporary practice of alumni who graduated from 1972 to 2025. The exhibition title alludes to the portfolio critique process and suggests ideas of reflection and reevaluation—whether revisiting past work, rethinking materials, or tracing how a practice evolves over time. This exhibition celebrates the creative path of artists who began their journeys at UCSC. United by shared roots yet defined by distinct paths, the participating alumni reflect the lasting influence of the Arts Division programs. Their works speak to the spirit of inquiry, experimentation, and perseverance that has long shaped the university’s artistic community. ReView presents an opportunity for the campus and larger community to see the professional practice of these artists who continue to build on the creative foundation that they received at UCSC and to inspire our current students, offering visualization of their own future artistic journeys after graduation. ReView offers a unique opportunity for returning alumni to celebrate their creative expressions while reconnecting with classmates and the university community. Admission is free and open to the public. Summer Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday, 1-5pm

Art & Culture Free 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
14

Pole Fitness 101/Functional Movement + Fundamentals + Dance

📍 Ohana Studios Santa Cruz
🕒 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM · $20

Pole Fitness 101 is more than just aerial training. Get movement training you’ll use for life! ✅Pole technique with dance & fitness modules ✅Functional conditioning ✅Mobility & flexibility training ✅High level Xpert Xpole certified (L1-L4) ✅FRC certified Mobility Specialist (FRCms) Drop in on one class or attend the fully programmed module for 7 weeks! Fridays 6 pm. www.ohanastudiosantacruz.com

Art & Culture Wellness 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
14

Atmosphere & Friends

📍 Quarry Amphitheater
🕒 6:30 PM · See listing

When it comes to the underground hip hop greats, there are several lists one can compile, but all would include Atmosphere. Formed in 1996 by rapper Slug and DJ Ant in Minneapolis, Atmosphere has been dropping bars, knowledge and beats to hip hop lovers throughout the world. They were part of the original collective that would later form Rhymesayers record label, which would later sign acts like Living Legends, Murs, Aesop Rock, Brother Ali, Evidence, and Dilated Peoples. To see them is a blessing, but to see Atmosphere with the Bay’s The Pharcyde, DJ Abilities, Abstract Rude, and Plain Ole Bill is one night people will be talking about for years to come. -Mat Weir; Good Times Santa Cruz

Music Art & Culture 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
14

Dear Evan Hansen

📍 Colligan Theater
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $28

A Santa Cruz Premiere! Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen comes to Santa Cruz for the first time in a fully staged production with a live orchestra. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a lonely high school student struggling with social anxiety who longs to feel like he belongs. After a misunderstanding following the death of a classmate, Evan finds himself caught in a lie that unexpectedly brings him closer to the grieving family—and gives him the connection he’s always wanted. But as the truth becomes harder to hide, Evan must face the consequences of the choices he’s made. Filled with unforgettable songs by Academy Award, Grammy, and Tony-winning songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman), Dear Evan Hansen is a moving story, with both humor and deep emotionality, about friendship, family, forgiveness, and the universal desire to be seen and accepted. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Contains themes of suicide, grief, mental health, and strong emotional content.

Art & Culture Music Details →
Aug
14

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

📍 Actors' Theatre
🕒 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM · $35

In August 2026, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead will be playing at Actors’ Theatre in Santa Cruz. Written by the late Tom Stoppard, this classic midcentury masterpiece is one of his earliest plays but also likely his best known. Written as a comedy, the work shares substantially with Samuel Beckett’s absurdist style, particularly Waiting for Godot. Performances from August 13th to August 30th, 2026, running Thursday through Sunday. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard crafts an ingenious backstory for these characters, which becomes an exploration of the meaning of life (or death), woven into Shakespeare’s greatest play. The two collegiate friends find themselves traveling to Elsinore, encountering a roving band of actors, a prince (maybe mad), pirates, and never manage to get a grip on anything - even which of them is which. Santa Cruz local talents Chris Salem (Cabaret with Renegade Theater) will be playing Rosencrantz, and Zed Warner (The Addams Family with Mountain Community Theater) will be playing Guildenstern. A host of other fantastic Santa Cruz talents will take on the remaining roles of Shakespeare’s Hamlet including Ward Willats, Ian Dyer, Andy Waddell, Jennifer Stanford, Kevin Karplus, Juno Aliah, Raven Voorhees, Nick Bilardello, Brad Roades, Tom Boyle and Benjamin Canant. Tickets will go on sale July 1st, for an admission fee of $40, $35 for students and seniors, Thursday tickets will be 2-for-1, and there are plans for rush tickets to be available an hour before curtain. Today, audiences can go to https://randg.live/ or follow on instagram @randg.sc for production updates, announcements, and ticket information.

Art & Culture Comedy 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
14

The Rocky Horror Show

📍 Santa Cruz Veteran's Hall
🕒 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM · $15

A young, wholesome, and seemingly normal couple, Brad and Jan, set out to visit their old professor, but their plans change when a large storm causes their car to go flat. Desperate to get out of the rain, they find an old castle that is home to Dr. Frank-N-Furter. From there, the night only becomes weirder. That night will be one they and the audience will not forget. This cult classic continues to entertain crowds, and this run is no different. Audience members can purchase interactive goodie bags with their tickets and participate in a costume contest. Goes until August 22.

Aug
14

Sequoias At Night

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM · See listing

Fridays & Saturdays 8pm-10pm through October. Opening weekend July 10-11! Experience the magic once again as this beloved art and light installation returns to the Santa Cruz Mountains for its second year. Lighted lanterns hang high overhead surrounded by thousand year old redwoods that are uplit to create a unique and awe-inspiring retreat back to nature.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
14

Mountain Community Theater Presents: New Works Weekend

📍 Park Hall
🕒 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $10

Mountain Community Theater's New Works Weekend is a celebration of local storytelling through eight original ten-minute plays. This year's lineup spans comic farce, dark comedy, and supernatural romp, with writers tackling everything from a psychic radio show and the ghost of Mae West to an escaped memory care patient, a time-traveling surgeon, and Old King Cole's throne room. Featured readers include MCT veterans Naomi Bowers, Tiffany Cesarin, Shireen Doyle, and Hannah Eckstein. Each performance is followed by a talkback with the writers, directors, and readers, offering a rare window into the craft behind the curtain. Goes until Aug 16. -Shelly Novo; Good Times Santa Cruz

Art & Culture Community 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
14

Macbeth, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 8:00 PM · See listing

Something wicked this way comes, indeed. Starting this weekend and running through August 30th, Santa Cruz Shakespeare presents one of The Bard’s most infamous plays, Macbeth. Coincidentally the play’s first ever performance is believed to have been in 1606 marking this as the 420th anniversary, which is very Santa Cruz. And for anyone familiar with Macbeth, it’s easy to see why it’s lasted throughout the ages. Witches, murder, moral failings and tons of tragedy are beautifully sewn throughout the acts, stitched together with lines such as “Blood will have blood,” and “the wine of life is drawn.” -Mat Weir; Good Times Santa Cruz

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
14

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
15

Bookstore Romance Day

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM · See listing

Celebrate Bookstore Romance Day at Bookshop Santa Cruz: Camp Daydream is in session! Join us this Bookstore Romance Day for a day full of camp-inspired activities! Bunk-up with fellow romance...

Community Art & Culture Details →
Aug
15

Zentangle

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing

A fun and easy-to-learn way of drawing structured patterns to create beautiful images. The Zentangle Method makes drawing patterns, or tangles, accessible to almost anyone of all ages since tangles are created from basic pen strokes. If you can write your name, you can create art with Zentangle. As you draw tangles you will likely experience increased focus, calm, creativity and well-being. For those of you who attended the Introductory Zentangle class on February 20, this class will also introduce Zentangle and review the Zentangle Method. However, we will be doing variations of previously taught tangles and/or new tangles, so you will create a completely different Zentangle tile than before. Meets the 3rd Saturday of each month from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm.Facilitated by Cynthia Balthaser.

Art & Culture Family Details →
Aug
15

How to Start a Short Story

📍 Scotts Valley Branch Library
🕒 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing

In this two-part short story workshop, writers will explore how to shape a story from an initial idea into a more focused, compelling draft. Register here: https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/16763798 We’ll look at what makes a story feel alive on the page, with an emphasis on helping each writer better understand what their story is really about. Participants will have the opportunity to share their work, receive constructive feedback, and discuss practical strategies for strengthening a draft. The workshop is designed to be supportive, thoughtful, and generative, whether you are starting a new story, revising an existing one, or trying to figure out where a piece wants to go next. Writers of all experience levels are welcome. The goal is not to leave with a perfect story, but to leave with a clearer sense of direction, stronger tools for revision, and renewed confidence in the work. Devin Shoop is an MFA candidate and a published author. Photo credit: Aaron Burden.

Art & Culture Education 📍 Scotts Valley Details →
Aug
15

The Language of Collage with Gina Gaiser

📍 Tumbleweed Found
🕒 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM · $45

Finding Shape, Color & Composition in Everyday Materials Collage begins with learning to see. In this introductory, hands-on workshop, participants will explore the elements of design and principles of composition using found papers, photographs, maps, botanical imagery, magazines, and printed ephemera. Through demonstrations and guided exercises, you'll learn how framing, cropping, layering, repetition, and thoughtful composition can transform ordinary materials into dynamic works of art. We'll explore visual concepts, including the Rule of Thirds, the Fibonacci Sequence (Golden Spiral), balance, rhythm, contrast, and focal point, as we create several collage studies and one finished piece. Participants will mat and frame one completed collage to take home, ready to display. Techniques Explored ● Elements of design: shape, line, color, texture, pattern, and negative space ● Framing and cropping to discover strong compositions ● Layering, repetition, and abstraction using found papers and photographs ● Creating balance, rhythm, movement, and focal points ● Editing and refining compositions through scale, contrast, and placement Materials A wide selection of found papers, magazines, photographs, vintage ephemera, maps, botanical imagery, and collage tools will be provided. Participants are also encouraged to bring personal photographs, paper scraps, or printed materials they'd like to incorporate into their work. About Gina Gina Gaiser is an Oakland-based artist working in photography, collage, and digital media. Her work begins with photographs of the built environment and the natural world, where she is drawn to overlooked patterns, textures, and structures. She cuts apart and reassembles these images into layered compositions that explore repetition, abstraction, and transformation. She earned a BA in Studio Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz, studied printmaking and art history at Il Bisonte in Florence, Italy, and received an MFA in Digital Media,

Art & Culture Education Details →
Aug
15

Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences

📍 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

Education Art & Culture 📍 Westside Details →
Aug
15

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
15

Nicholson Vineyards: Summer Series

📍 Nicholson Vineyards
🕒 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM · $25

Enjoy summer weekend afternoons at the beautiful Nicholson Vineyards! Saturdays from noon to 5pm – Enjoy perusing art from local artists Sundays from 1pm to 4pm – Enjoy listening to local musicians Pack a picnic spread, gather your friends and family, and sip on their refreshing summer wine flight, featuring the best of our warm-weather selections. Book your reservation today! July 11 & 12: The Clay Chalet and music by Dos Bros July 18 & 19: Indigo and Vine and music by Jo Coleman July 25 & 26: Sour Sammy Sourdough and music by Six String Mixtape August 1 & 2: Scout and Sea and music by Half Pass August 8 & 9: Lili Arnold Studios and music by Eden Edell August 15 & 16: Desert Moon Design and music by Kip Allert August 22 & 23: Papelline Jewelry and music by Zach Bailey August 29 & 30: Anna Gail Designs and music by Jeff Smith September 5 & 6: All You Knead and music by Cake Party!

Food & Drink Art & Culture 📍 Aptos & Seacliff Details →
Aug
15

Re/View: Alumni Exhibition -- UC Santa Cruz

📍 Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
🕒 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Opening celebration and Artist Talk on Saturday, August 15, 2-4:30pm. Light refreshments will be served. Re/View: Alumni Exhibition ReView: UCSC Arts Alumni Exhibition, on view August 13-September 19, 2026, features Arts Division alumni from the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas. Curated by Valéria Miranda, the Sesnon’s Director, includes a wide variety of media and technique highlighting the diversity of contemporary practice of alumni who graduated from 1972 to 2025. The exhibition title alludes to the portfolio critique process and suggests ideas of reflection and reevaluation—whether revisiting past work, rethinking materials, or tracing how a practice evolves over time. This exhibition celebrates the creative path of artists who began their journeys at UCSC. United by shared roots yet defined by distinct paths, the participating alumni reflect the lasting influence of the Arts Division programs. Their works speak to the spirit of inquiry, experimentation, and perseverance that has long shaped the university’s artistic community. ReView presents an opportunity for the campus and larger community to see the professional practice of these artists who continue to build on the creative foundation that they received at UCSC and to inspire our current students, offering visualization of their own future artistic journeys after graduation. ReView offers a unique opportunity for returning alumni to celebrate their creative expressions while reconnecting with classmates and the university community. Admission is free and open to the public. Summer Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday, 1-5pm

Art & Culture Free 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
15

Book Reading

📍 Scotts Valley Branch Library
🕒 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM · FREE

Meet the Author Martha Graham-Waldon, author of the memoir Nothing Like Normal—Surviving a Sibling’s Schizophrenia will be presenting the 2nd edition of her book at the Scotts Valley Library on Saturday, August 15 at 2pm. Nothing Like Normal is a tender coming of age story about growing up with an older sister who developed schizophrenia at the tender age of 15. The recently released 2nd edition continues the story with a tender epilogue as she unites with her sister’s daughter, revealing how joy can arise even out of tragedy and pain. This memoir is a powerful story of survival, resilience, and self-discovery. It speaks to anyone who has experienced the impact of mental illness within a family, offering validation, understanding, and ultimately hope.

Art & Culture Free 📍 Scotts Valley Details →
Aug
15

Dear Evan Hansen

📍 Colligan Theater
🕒 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM · $28

A Santa Cruz Premiere! Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen comes to Santa Cruz for the first time in a fully staged production with a live orchestra. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a lonely high school student struggling with social anxiety who longs to feel like he belongs. After a misunderstanding following the death of a classmate, Evan finds himself caught in a lie that unexpectedly brings him closer to the grieving family—and gives him the connection he’s always wanted. But as the truth becomes harder to hide, Evan must face the consequences of the choices he’s made. Filled with unforgettable songs by Academy Award, Grammy, and Tony-winning songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman), Dear Evan Hansen is a moving story, with both humor and deep emotionality, about friendship, family, forgiveness, and the universal desire to be seen and accepted. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Contains themes of suicide, grief, mental health, and strong emotional content.

Art & Culture Music Details →
Aug
15

Nothing Like Normal A Local Author Talk With Martha Graham-Waldon

📍 Scotts Valley Branch Library
🕒 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

Nothing Like Normal is a tender coming of age story about growing up with an older sister who developed schizophrenia at the tender age of 15. The recently released 2nd edition continues the story with a tender epilogue as the author unites with her sister’s daughter, revealing how joy can arise even out of tragedy and pain. This book will resonate with anyone who has struggled with the pain of schizophrenia or a chronic illness in a loved one, while inspiring hope and healing as well. Presented in honor of August's National Wellness Month. Registration encouraged, walk-ins welcome. https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/16578258 Light refreshments will be provided.

Art & Culture Education 📍 Scotts Valley Details →
Aug
15

Macbeth, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 2:00 PM · See listing

Something wicked this way comes, indeed. Starting this weekend and running through August 30th, Santa Cruz Shakespeare presents one of The Bard’s most infamous plays, Macbeth. Coincidentally the play’s first ever performance is believed to have been in 1606 marking this as the 420th anniversary, which is very Santa Cruz. And for anyone familiar with Macbeth, it’s easy to see why it’s lasted throughout the ages. Witches, murder, moral failings and tons of tragedy are beautifully sewn throughout the acts, stitched together with lines such as “Blood will have blood,” and “the wine of life is drawn.” -Mat Weir; Good Times Santa Cruz

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
15

Late Night @ the MAH: Black Tie Roller Ball

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM · $20

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND Rollerskate/Dance Party Elegance on Wheels Break out your best attire and dancing skates for a one-of-a-kind, Late Night @ the MAH: rollerskating edition. Experience the Solari Gallery transformed into a skating rink for one night only. Vendors, performances and more to be announced. This event is 21+. All rollerskates must have toe stops or jam/skate plugs to be granted entry. We welcome inline skates/ rollerblades as well. Waivers will be required to sign upon entry. Drinks available for purchase and will be permitted outside galleries. Late Night @ the MAH is a series of after-hours happenings at the museum featuring music, performance, and film by an array of artists.

Art & Culture Adults 21+ 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
15

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

📍 Actors' Theatre
🕒 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM · $35

In August 2026, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead will be playing at Actors’ Theatre in Santa Cruz. Written by the late Tom Stoppard, this classic midcentury masterpiece is one of his earliest plays but also likely his best known. Written as a comedy, the work shares substantially with Samuel Beckett’s absurdist style, particularly Waiting for Godot. Performances from August 13th to August 30th, 2026, running Thursday through Sunday. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard crafts an ingenious backstory for these characters, which becomes an exploration of the meaning of life (or death), woven into Shakespeare’s greatest play. The two collegiate friends find themselves traveling to Elsinore, encountering a roving band of actors, a prince (maybe mad), pirates, and never manage to get a grip on anything - even which of them is which. Santa Cruz local talents Chris Salem (Cabaret with Renegade Theater) will be playing Rosencrantz, and Zed Warner (The Addams Family with Mountain Community Theater) will be playing Guildenstern. A host of other fantastic Santa Cruz talents will take on the remaining roles of Shakespeare’s Hamlet including Ward Willats, Ian Dyer, Andy Waddell, Jennifer Stanford, Kevin Karplus, Juno Aliah, Raven Voorhees, Nick Bilardello, Brad Roades, Tom Boyle and Benjamin Canant. Tickets will go on sale July 1st, for an admission fee of $40, $35 for students and seniors, Thursday tickets will be 2-for-1, and there are plans for rush tickets to be available an hour before curtain. Today, audiences can go to https://randg.live/ or follow on instagram @randg.sc for production updates, announcements, and ticket information.

Art & Culture Comedy 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
15

Mountain Community Theater Presents: New Works Weekend

📍 Park Hall
🕒 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $10

Mountain Community Theater's New Works Weekend is a celebration of local storytelling through eight original ten-minute plays. This year's lineup spans comic farce, dark comedy, and supernatural romp, with writers tackling everything from a psychic radio show and the ghost of Mae West to an escaped memory care patient, a time-traveling surgeon, and Old King Cole's throne room. Featured readers include MCT veterans Naomi Bowers, Tiffany Cesarin, Shireen Doyle, and Hannah Eckstein. Each performance is followed by a talkback with the writers, directors, and readers, offering a rare window into the craft behind the curtain. Goes until Aug 16. -Shelly Novo; Good Times Santa Cruz

Art & Culture Community 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
15

Audrey Stanley Grove: Live Drama in the Redwoods

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience August Wilson’s Fences, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Fences By August Wilson Directed by Susan Dalian August Wilson joins the Santa Cruz Shakespeare stage for the first time in 45 years. Fences is the perfect offering, wonderfully in line with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare season’s theme: Till Death Do Us Part. Troy Maxson is one of Wilson’s great creations; Shakespearean in scope; a wordsmith and brilliant storyteller. He has survived the terrible trauma of his past and built himself a good life. But the backbone of that life, the spine that keeps it standing strong, is his wife Rose. Like all of Wilson’s best work, Fences is both mythic and intimate; the questions it asks both human and eternal. Fences runs July 28 – August 28. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information through the link in the orange button above. Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call the number above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
15

Sequoias At Night

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM · See listing

Fridays & Saturdays 8pm-10pm through October. Opening weekend July 10-11! Experience the magic once again as this beloved art and light installation returns to the Santa Cruz Mountains for its second year. Lighted lanterns hang high overhead surrounded by thousand year old redwoods that are uplit to create a unique and awe-inspiring retreat back to nature.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
16

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
16

Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences

📍 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

Education Art & Culture 📍 Westside Details →
Aug
16

Nicholson Vineyards: Summer Series

📍 Nicholson Vineyards
🕒 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM · $25

Enjoy summer weekend afternoons at the beautiful Nicholson Vineyards! Saturdays from noon to 5pm – Enjoy perusing art from local artists Sundays from 1pm to 4pm – Enjoy listening to local musicians Pack a picnic spread, gather your friends and family, and sip on their refreshing summer wine flight, featuring the best of our warm-weather selections. Book your reservation today! July 11 & 12: The Clay Chalet and music by Dos Bros July 18 & 19: Indigo and Vine and music by Jo Coleman July 25 & 26: Sour Sammy Sourdough and music by Six String Mixtape August 1 & 2: Scout and Sea and music by Half Pass August 8 & 9: Lili Arnold Studios and music by Eden Edell August 15 & 16: Desert Moon Design and music by Kip Allert August 22 & 23: Papelline Jewelry and music by Zach Bailey August 29 & 30: Anna Gail Designs and music by Jeff Smith September 5 & 6: All You Knead and music by Cake Party!

Food & Drink Art & Culture 📍 Aptos & Seacliff Details →
Aug
16

Audrey Stanley Grove: Live Drama in the Redwoods

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience August Wilson’s Fences, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Fences By August Wilson Directed by Susan Dalian August Wilson joins the Santa Cruz Shakespeare stage for the first time in 45 years. Fences is the perfect offering, wonderfully in line with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare season’s theme: Till Death Do Us Part. Troy Maxson is one of Wilson’s great creations; Shakespearean in scope; a wordsmith and brilliant storyteller. He has survived the terrible trauma of his past and built himself a good life. But the backbone of that life, the spine that keeps it standing strong, is his wife Rose. Like all of Wilson’s best work, Fences is both mythic and intimate; the questions it asks both human and eternal. Fences runs July 28 – August 28. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information through the link in the orange button above. Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call the number above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
16

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

📍 Actors' Theatre
🕒 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM · $35

In August 2026, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead will be playing at Actors’ Theatre in Santa Cruz. Written by the late Tom Stoppard, this classic midcentury masterpiece is one of his earliest plays but also likely his best known. Written as a comedy, the work shares substantially with Samuel Beckett’s absurdist style, particularly Waiting for Godot. Performances from August 13th to August 30th, 2026, running Thursday through Sunday. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard crafts an ingenious backstory for these characters, which becomes an exploration of the meaning of life (or death), woven into Shakespeare’s greatest play. The two collegiate friends find themselves traveling to Elsinore, encountering a roving band of actors, a prince (maybe mad), pirates, and never manage to get a grip on anything - even which of them is which. Santa Cruz local talents Chris Salem (Cabaret with Renegade Theater) will be playing Rosencrantz, and Zed Warner (The Addams Family with Mountain Community Theater) will be playing Guildenstern. A host of other fantastic Santa Cruz talents will take on the remaining roles of Shakespeare’s Hamlet including Ward Willats, Ian Dyer, Andy Waddell, Jennifer Stanford, Kevin Karplus, Juno Aliah, Raven Voorhees, Nick Bilardello, Brad Roades, Tom Boyle and Benjamin Canant. Tickets will go on sale July 1st, for an admission fee of $40, $35 for students and seniors, Thursday tickets will be 2-for-1, and there are plans for rush tickets to be available an hour before curtain. Today, audiences can go to https://randg.live/ or follow on instagram @randg.sc for production updates, announcements, and ticket information.

Art & Culture Comedy 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
16

MCT Presents New Works Weekend

📍 Park Hall
🕒 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM · $10

New Works Weekend is Mountain Community Theater’s celebration of local storytelling. This year, we are thrilled to share eight brand-new, original plays crafted entirely by talented authors from our own community. These performances showcase local talented playwrights’ scripts as they work to bring these stories from the page to the stage. Tickets are only $10 each! Performances take place at Ben Lomond’s historic Park Hall (9400 Mill Street). Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 2:00 PM. After each performance there will be a talkback with the writers, directors, and readers. Buy Tickets Each performance will consist of eight ten-minute plays. The plays include: Beyond the Beyond and Beyond, by Robin Lasser where we will delve into the airwaves as a guest psychic on a radio show contacts the beyond. Patrick True gives us On the Haunt, where a shy music teacher accidentally conjures up the Ghost of Mae West. Starry Starry Night is Hannah Eckstein’s comic farce about two sisters sharing stories around a campfire in the African bush. Tiffany Cesarin’s Hearts That Matter envelops us in a dark comedy about a family drama. In Paola Bruni’s Sense of Direction, Officer Lenny Green, the “Dancing Cop of Brooklyn” finds himself in a difficult situation when his wife Alice escapes from Cypress Village Memory Care and discovers him directing traffic–what else could go wrong? Eavesdropping, by Juanita Usher is a hilarious chance encounter in a department store dressing room that leads to some truths being revealed. Linda Gunther’s script, Back to the Suture, is a raucous comedy set in a doctor’s office, where a female college student impersonates her late father Dr. Suture. The twist? Dr. Suture can go back in time! Our last play is Once Upon a Time Change written by one of MCT’s founders, Rita Wadsworth co-authored by Carolyn Hyatt. It’s a romp in the throne room with Old King Cole and his court jester. Featured readers include MCT veteran actors Naomi Bowers, Tiffany C

Art & Culture Community 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
16

Audrey Stanley Grove: Much Ado About Nothing

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, un-der the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare Directed by Charles Pasternak One of Shakespeare’s wittiest and most beloved comedies, the 2026 season will open with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Of all the couples in Shakespeare, perhaps none is more widely loved than Beatrice and Benedick. Their battle of wits; their antagonism turned to eroticism; their history. Before the play begins, they already seem to define each other. The audience, like the other characters in the play, wait with excitement as their wits clash, and eventually, as their love blossoms. Much Ado About Nothing runs July 11 – August 30. More information or to purchase tickets, follow the link in the orange above, or contact the box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4pm at the number listed above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
19

Steve Hawk, Nearshore

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

FREE IN-STORE EVENT: Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Steve Hawk, former editor of Surfer, who will share his thrilling new novel Nearshore, a mix of literary suspense and coastal noir which follows an...

Art & Culture Surf Details →
Aug
19

Macbeth, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM · See listing

Something wicked this way comes, indeed. Starting this weekend and running through August 30th, Santa Cruz Shakespeare presents one of The Bard’s most infamous plays, Macbeth. Coincidentally the play’s first ever performance is believed to have been in 1606 marking this as the 420th anniversary, which is very Santa Cruz. And for anyone familiar with Macbeth, it’s easy to see why it’s lasted throughout the ages. Witches, murder, moral failings and tons of tragedy are beautifully sewn throughout the acts, stitched together with lines such as “Blood will have blood,” and “the wine of life is drawn.” -Mat Weir; Good Times Santa Cruz

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
20

Submerge - Going Deep in Dance

📍 Santa Cruz Yoga
🕒 12:00 AM · See listing

SUBMERGE exists for the dancers and for the artists. It's a dance party, a movement meditation and a fantastic workout all at once. Drawing inspiration from the great dances of music festivals and burning man, as well as the best parts of the ecstatic dance movement, SUBMERGE exists to provide dancers a deep canvas for movement, and also for experienced artists (often with decades of wisdom) to get fairly paid. 100% of ticket revenues go to the artists.

Art & Culture Wellness Details →
Aug
20

Zentangle Club

📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 11:30 AM · See listing

Thursday, August 20 2026 10:30am - 12:00pm The Zentangle Method is a fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. Join Certified Zentangle Teacher Lisa Hoesing for an introductory workshop and monthly meetup.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Aug
20

Rules Are Not Neutral: Play As Sense-Making, Acts Of Resistance, And Imagining Otherwise

📍 Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

This exhibition brings together a range of analog games – including board, card, role-playing, and other participatory works – that engage social and political realities in different ways. The works span widely circulated commercial games to independently produced projects, one-of-a-kind artworks by artists, faculty, alumni, and students, and materials drawn from UC Santa Cruz Special Collections and Archives. In part, the exhibition challenges the persistent assumption that games and play are detached from social and political life. On the contrary, game designers and artists across diverse perspectives and positions have long used play to engage questions of social systems, lived experience, and how power operates. This exhibition does not attempt to represent that full spectrum. Instead, it brings together a particular set of works that foreground how games can make systems visible, intervene in them, and imagine alternatives. All games embody values, whether intentional or not. – Mary Flanagan , game designer and scholar Across all of these works, games are not only forms of entertainment, though they may be that as well. They are encountered in multiple ways: as objects, as systems, as artworks, and as experiences that unfold unpredictably through interaction. In each case, rules and constraints shape what participants can do. In these different forms, the works stage systems – such as housing and land ownership, capitalism, race and identity, civil rights and protest, fascism, and colonialism – in ways that are simplified and easy to see, opening space to recognize similar structures beyond the game. In this sense, the works suggest that rules are not neutral – they organize experience, distribute power, and produce meaning. Games are the art of agency. – C. Thi Nguyen , philosopher The exhibition is intentionally dense. This abundance reflects the breadth of ways games operate across contexts, from activism and education to art and everyday life. While it cel

Education Art & Culture 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
20

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
20

Open Archives

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

Step into the MAH's Archives Reading Room during our weekly Open Archives hours. Meet the archivist, see a unique item from the collection on display, and discover where Santa Cruz history is preserved. Please note: Open Archives is an informal drop-in experience, not a time for in-depth research appointments. If you'd like to schedule research time, please contact us in advance by email or phone. We usually pop open the archives every week-though every now and then we take a break. For more information, email [email protected]

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
20

Re/View: Alumni Exhibition -- UC Santa Cruz

📍 Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
🕒 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Opening celebration and Artist Talk on Saturday, August 15, 2-4:30pm. Light refreshments will be served. Re/View: Alumni Exhibition ReView: UCSC Arts Alumni Exhibition, on view August 13-September 19, 2026, features Arts Division alumni from the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas. Curated by Valéria Miranda, the Sesnon’s Director, includes a wide variety of media and technique highlighting the diversity of contemporary practice of alumni who graduated from 1972 to 2025. The exhibition title alludes to the portfolio critique process and suggests ideas of reflection and reevaluation—whether revisiting past work, rethinking materials, or tracing how a practice evolves over time. This exhibition celebrates the creative path of artists who began their journeys at UCSC. United by shared roots yet defined by distinct paths, the participating alumni reflect the lasting influence of the Arts Division programs. Their works speak to the spirit of inquiry, experimentation, and perseverance that has long shaped the university’s artistic community. ReView presents an opportunity for the campus and larger community to see the professional practice of these artists who continue to build on the creative foundation that they received at UCSC and to inspire our current students, offering visualization of their own future artistic journeys after graduation. ReView offers a unique opportunity for returning alumni to celebrate their creative expressions while reconnecting with classmates and the university community. Admission is free and open to the public. Summer Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday, 1-5pm

Art & Culture Free 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
20

Dear Evan Hansen

📍 Colligan Theater
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $28

A Santa Cruz Premiere! Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen comes to Santa Cruz for the first time in a fully staged production with a live orchestra. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a lonely high school student struggling with social anxiety who longs to feel like he belongs. After a misunderstanding following the death of a classmate, Evan finds himself caught in a lie that unexpectedly brings him closer to the grieving family—and gives him the connection he’s always wanted. But as the truth becomes harder to hide, Evan must face the consequences of the choices he’s made. Filled with unforgettable songs by Academy Award, Grammy, and Tony-winning songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman), Dear Evan Hansen is a moving story, with both humor and deep emotionality, about friendship, family, forgiveness, and the universal desire to be seen and accepted. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Contains themes of suicide, grief, mental health, and strong emotional content.

Art & Culture Music Details →
Aug
20

Audrey Stanley Grove: Live Drama in the Redwoods

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience August Wilson’s Fences, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Fences By August Wilson Directed by Susan Dalian August Wilson joins the Santa Cruz Shakespeare stage for the first time in 45 years. Fences is the perfect offering, wonderfully in line with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare season’s theme: Till Death Do Us Part. Troy Maxson is one of Wilson’s great creations; Shakespearean in scope; a wordsmith and brilliant storyteller. He has survived the terrible trauma of his past and built himself a good life. But the backbone of that life, the spine that keeps it standing strong, is his wife Rose. Like all of Wilson’s best work, Fences is both mythic and intimate; the questions it asks both human and eternal. Fences runs July 28 – August 28. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information through the link in the orange button above. Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call the number above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
20

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

📍 Actors' Theatre
🕒 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM · $35

In August 2026, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead will be playing at Actors’ Theatre in Santa Cruz. Written by the late Tom Stoppard, this classic midcentury masterpiece is one of his earliest plays but also likely his best known. Written as a comedy, the work shares substantially with Samuel Beckett’s absurdist style, particularly Waiting for Godot. Performances from August 13th to August 30th, 2026, running Thursday through Sunday. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard crafts an ingenious backstory for these characters, which becomes an exploration of the meaning of life (or death), woven into Shakespeare’s greatest play. The two collegiate friends find themselves traveling to Elsinore, encountering a roving band of actors, a prince (maybe mad), pirates, and never manage to get a grip on anything - even which of them is which. Santa Cruz local talents Chris Salem (Cabaret with Renegade Theater) will be playing Rosencrantz, and Zed Warner (The Addams Family with Mountain Community Theater) will be playing Guildenstern. A host of other fantastic Santa Cruz talents will take on the remaining roles of Shakespeare’s Hamlet including Ward Willats, Ian Dyer, Andy Waddell, Jennifer Stanford, Kevin Karplus, Juno Aliah, Raven Voorhees, Nick Bilardello, Brad Roades, Tom Boyle and Benjamin Canant. Tickets will go on sale July 1st, for an admission fee of $40, $35 for students and seniors, Thursday tickets will be 2-for-1, and there are plans for rush tickets to be available an hour before curtain. Today, audiences can go to https://randg.live/ or follow on instagram @randg.sc for production updates, announcements, and ticket information.

Art & Culture Comedy 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
21

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
21

Re/View: Alumni Exhibition -- UC Santa Cruz

📍 Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
🕒 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Opening celebration and Artist Talk on Saturday, August 15, 2-4:30pm. Light refreshments will be served. Re/View: Alumni Exhibition ReView: UCSC Arts Alumni Exhibition, on view August 13-September 19, 2026, features Arts Division alumni from the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas. Curated by Valéria Miranda, the Sesnon’s Director, includes a wide variety of media and technique highlighting the diversity of contemporary practice of alumni who graduated from 1972 to 2025. The exhibition title alludes to the portfolio critique process and suggests ideas of reflection and reevaluation—whether revisiting past work, rethinking materials, or tracing how a practice evolves over time. This exhibition celebrates the creative path of artists who began their journeys at UCSC. United by shared roots yet defined by distinct paths, the participating alumni reflect the lasting influence of the Arts Division programs. Their works speak to the spirit of inquiry, experimentation, and perseverance that has long shaped the university’s artistic community. ReView presents an opportunity for the campus and larger community to see the professional practice of these artists who continue to build on the creative foundation that they received at UCSC and to inspire our current students, offering visualization of their own future artistic journeys after graduation. ReView offers a unique opportunity for returning alumni to celebrate their creative expressions while reconnecting with classmates and the university community. Admission is free and open to the public. Summer Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday, 1-5pm

Art & Culture Free 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
21

Guided Tour

📍 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.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
21

JOHI Open Studio

📍 JOHI Showroom
🕒 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE

Come visit the JOHI showroom to learn about a Santa Cruz furniture studio dedicated to functional design and unique form. We will be showcasing hardwood furniture and a look into the process of creating long lasting designs. Led by husband-wife product and interior design partners Raja Badr-El-Din and Holly Apau Badr-El-Din, who launched JOHI in 2019. Since the beginning, we’ve kept people at the heart of our work, celebrating meaningful connections at home and in our community. We welcome you to come to our showroom to touch and explore local craftsmanship.

Art & Culture Free Details →
Aug
21

Pole Fitness 101/Functional Movement + Fundamentals + Dance

📍 Ohana Studios Santa Cruz
🕒 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM · $20

Pole Fitness 101 is more than just aerial training. Get movement training you’ll use for life! ✅Pole technique with dance & fitness modules ✅Functional conditioning ✅Mobility & flexibility training ✅High level Xpert Xpole certified (L1-L4) ✅FRC certified Mobility Specialist (FRCms) Drop in on one class or attend the fully programmed module for 7 weeks! Fridays 6 pm. www.ohanastudiosantacruz.com

Art & Culture Wellness 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
21

Dear Evan Hansen

📍 Colligan Theater
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $28

A Santa Cruz Premiere! Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen comes to Santa Cruz for the first time in a fully staged production with a live orchestra. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a lonely high school student struggling with social anxiety who longs to feel like he belongs. After a misunderstanding following the death of a classmate, Evan finds himself caught in a lie that unexpectedly brings him closer to the grieving family—and gives him the connection he’s always wanted. But as the truth becomes harder to hide, Evan must face the consequences of the choices he’s made. Filled with unforgettable songs by Academy Award, Grammy, and Tony-winning songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman), Dear Evan Hansen is a moving story, with both humor and deep emotionality, about friendship, family, forgiveness, and the universal desire to be seen and accepted. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Contains themes of suicide, grief, mental health, and strong emotional content.

Art & Culture Music Details →
Aug
21

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

📍 Actors' Theatre
🕒 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM · $35

In August 2026, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead will be playing at Actors’ Theatre in Santa Cruz. Written by the late Tom Stoppard, this classic midcentury masterpiece is one of his earliest plays but also likely his best known. Written as a comedy, the work shares substantially with Samuel Beckett’s absurdist style, particularly Waiting for Godot. Performances from August 13th to August 30th, 2026, running Thursday through Sunday. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard crafts an ingenious backstory for these characters, which becomes an exploration of the meaning of life (or death), woven into Shakespeare’s greatest play. The two collegiate friends find themselves traveling to Elsinore, encountering a roving band of actors, a prince (maybe mad), pirates, and never manage to get a grip on anything - even which of them is which. Santa Cruz local talents Chris Salem (Cabaret with Renegade Theater) will be playing Rosencrantz, and Zed Warner (The Addams Family with Mountain Community Theater) will be playing Guildenstern. A host of other fantastic Santa Cruz talents will take on the remaining roles of Shakespeare’s Hamlet including Ward Willats, Ian Dyer, Andy Waddell, Jennifer Stanford, Kevin Karplus, Juno Aliah, Raven Voorhees, Nick Bilardello, Brad Roades, Tom Boyle and Benjamin Canant. Tickets will go on sale July 1st, for an admission fee of $40, $35 for students and seniors, Thursday tickets will be 2-for-1, and there are plans for rush tickets to be available an hour before curtain. Today, audiences can go to https://randg.live/ or follow on instagram @randg.sc for production updates, announcements, and ticket information.

Art & Culture Comedy 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
21

Sequoias At Night

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM · See listing

Fridays & Saturdays 8pm-10pm through October. Opening weekend July 10-11! Experience the magic once again as this beloved art and light installation returns to the Santa Cruz Mountains for its second year. Lighted lanterns hang high overhead surrounded by thousand year old redwoods that are uplit to create a unique and awe-inspiring retreat back to nature.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
21

Audrey Stanley Grove: Much Ado About Nothing

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, un-der the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare Directed by Charles Pasternak One of Shakespeare’s wittiest and most beloved comedies, the 2026 season will open with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Of all the couples in Shakespeare, perhaps none is more widely loved than Beatrice and Benedick. Their battle of wits; their antagonism turned to eroticism; their history. Before the play begins, they already seem to define each other. The audience, like the other characters in the play, wait with excitement as their wits clash, and eventually, as their love blossoms. Much Ado About Nothing runs July 11 – August 30. More information or to purchase tickets, follow the link in the orange above, or contact the box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4pm at the number listed above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
22

The Inner & Outer Audition, with Wilma Chandler

📍 Santa Cruz Actors' Theatre
🕒 12:00 AM · See listing

Audition workshop with Wilma Chandler this August! This workshop will help you prepare for auditioning, inside and out Saturdays, August 22, 29 & Sept 5, 2026, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm Topics include: Selecting your monologue Cold readings Preparation Outer work: presentation, appearance, character interpretation, emotional range, tempo and vitality Inner work: handling fear, finding yourself in the work, breath and silence, the inner character, and the offering Cost: $60. Maximum of 15 participants Visit our Workshops page to sign up: https://www.santacruzactorstheatre.org/workshops

Art & Culture Education 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
22

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
22

Role-playing Games at the Library

📍 Freedom Branch Library
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · See listing

Watsonville Public Library and the Santa Cruz County Roleplayin g Games Group invite anyone in the community interested in tabletop role-p laying games (TTRPGs) to come and learn how to play multiple role-playing games. Several games will be presented at the same session at different ta bles. The focus for this session is for people to experience the ga mes without the commitment of lots of sessions or money spent. Everything needed to play will be provided, and all skill levels are welcome! Audience: Adults. https://www.watsonville.gov/calendar.aspx?EID=7417

Art & Culture Community 📍 Watsonville Details →
Aug
22

Indigo Mothers & Others

📍 Sub Rosa
🕒 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM · See listing

Indigo Mothers & Others - Saturday, August 22nd / 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. with Vicki Lynn ([email protected]) Location: Fábrica in Pacific Ave Courtyard, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz Description: This class will cover the creation, care, and feeding of an organic indigo vat as well as resist techniques for creating patterns on cloth. Each student will create a working indigo "mother" The mothers will then be combined to form a vat in which to dip the cloth prepped with resist patterns. Limited to 6 participants. Materials: Fabric and indigo will be supplied - a $5 - $10 donation to cover supplies would be appreciated. Students can bring their own plant fiber (cotton, linen, ramie, etc) etc to dye. For best results, all fabric should be laundered without fabric softener or dryer sheets. NOTAFLOF for real - no one turned away for lack of funds. Community care note: Class will be outdoors in the courtyard.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
22

Annieglass Craftbar: Glass Coasters Workshop

📍 Annieglass
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · $85

Make your own beautiful set of four glass coasters with Smithsonian artist, Annie Morhauser. Everything you need will be provided—glass, stencils, colorful glass enamels, adhesive feet, and expert guidance throughout the process. You’ll design and decorate 4″ glass squares, then load them into the kilns (don’t worry—they’ll be off!). Annieglass will fire your pieces for you, and you can have them shipped to your home. Want a full set of eight? Book two workshops! You’ll also receive 15% off Annieglass first-quality pieces on the day of the event. Sparkling waters provided. Half bottles & bottles of wine available for purchase.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Watsonville Details →
Aug
22

Life and Art of Isadora Duncan: Lecture and Performance with Lois Ann Flood

📍 Capitola Branch Library
🕒 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM · FREE

Lois Flood, an authority on Isadora Duncan's life and legacy, including her dance style, will give a presentation about the life of Isadora Duncan and her contributions to the dance world. Lois Ann Flood brings the remarkable groundbreaking dancer, Isadora Duncan, to life through storytelling, photos, and dance. Learn how Duncan, the most celebrated dancer-choreographer of the early 20th century, boldly rejected the cultural and legal restrictions placed on women of her day, overcame crushing personal tragedies, and inspired generations dancers with her fluid, natural movements. Lois will demonstrate Isadora's choreography, and you might get to try some dance moves yourself. Light refreshments will be available. Registration is strongly recommended. Walk-ins are welcome. Register at https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/16591517. Lois has been performing the exquisite dances of Isadora Duncan for over 20 years. She has performed and taught master classes in NYC, Paris and San Francisco. Lois is well known in the Northern California area, where she performs lecture/dance programs at theater’s, museums and colleges. Lois grew up in NYC where she initially studied ballet. She has spent many years teaching Duncan Dance to all ages and is the founder of Diablo Dance Theater. Lois currently resides in Danville, California.

Art & Culture Family 📍 Capitola Details →
Aug
22

Re/View: Alumni Exhibition -- UC Santa Cruz

📍 Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
🕒 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Opening celebration and Artist Talk on Saturday, August 15, 2-4:30pm. Light refreshments will be served. Re/View: Alumni Exhibition ReView: UCSC Arts Alumni Exhibition, on view August 13-September 19, 2026, features Arts Division alumni from the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas. Curated by Valéria Miranda, the Sesnon’s Director, includes a wide variety of media and technique highlighting the diversity of contemporary practice of alumni who graduated from 1972 to 2025. The exhibition title alludes to the portfolio critique process and suggests ideas of reflection and reevaluation—whether revisiting past work, rethinking materials, or tracing how a practice evolves over time. This exhibition celebrates the creative path of artists who began their journeys at UCSC. United by shared roots yet defined by distinct paths, the participating alumni reflect the lasting influence of the Arts Division programs. Their works speak to the spirit of inquiry, experimentation, and perseverance that has long shaped the university’s artistic community. ReView presents an opportunity for the campus and larger community to see the professional practice of these artists who continue to build on the creative foundation that they received at UCSC and to inspire our current students, offering visualization of their own future artistic journeys after graduation. ReView offers a unique opportunity for returning alumni to celebrate their creative expressions while reconnecting with classmates and the university community. Admission is free and open to the public. Summer Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday, 1-5pm

Art & Culture Free 📍 UCSC Details →
Aug
22

Dear Evan Hansen

📍 Colligan Theater
🕒 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM · $28

A Santa Cruz Premiere! Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen comes to Santa Cruz for the first time in a fully staged production with a live orchestra. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a lonely high school student struggling with social anxiety who longs to feel like he belongs. After a misunderstanding following the death of a classmate, Evan finds himself caught in a lie that unexpectedly brings him closer to the grieving family—and gives him the connection he’s always wanted. But as the truth becomes harder to hide, Evan must face the consequences of the choices he’s made. Filled with unforgettable songs by Academy Award, Grammy, and Tony-winning songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman), Dear Evan Hansen is a moving story, with both humor and deep emotionality, about friendship, family, forgiveness, and the universal desire to be seen and accepted. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Contains themes of suicide, grief, mental health, and strong emotional content.

Art & Culture Music Details →
Aug
22

Life and Art of Isadora Duncan

📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 2:00 PM · See listing

Saturday, August 22 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm Lois Flood, an authority on Isadora Duncan's life and legacy, including her dance style, will give a presentation about the life of Isadora Duncan and her contributions to the dance world.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Aug
22

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

📍 Actors' Theatre
🕒 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM · $35

In August 2026, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead will be playing at Actors’ Theatre in Santa Cruz. Written by the late Tom Stoppard, this classic midcentury masterpiece is one of his earliest plays but also likely his best known. Written as a comedy, the work shares substantially with Samuel Beckett’s absurdist style, particularly Waiting for Godot. Performances from August 13th to August 30th, 2026, running Thursday through Sunday. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard crafts an ingenious backstory for these characters, which becomes an exploration of the meaning of life (or death), woven into Shakespeare’s greatest play. The two collegiate friends find themselves traveling to Elsinore, encountering a roving band of actors, a prince (maybe mad), pirates, and never manage to get a grip on anything - even which of them is which. Santa Cruz local talents Chris Salem (Cabaret with Renegade Theater) will be playing Rosencrantz, and Zed Warner (The Addams Family with Mountain Community Theater) will be playing Guildenstern. A host of other fantastic Santa Cruz talents will take on the remaining roles of Shakespeare’s Hamlet including Ward Willats, Ian Dyer, Andy Waddell, Jennifer Stanford, Kevin Karplus, Juno Aliah, Raven Voorhees, Nick Bilardello, Brad Roades, Tom Boyle and Benjamin Canant. Tickets will go on sale July 1st, for an admission fee of $40, $35 for students and seniors, Thursday tickets will be 2-for-1, and there are plans for rush tickets to be available an hour before curtain. Today, audiences can go to https://randg.live/ or follow on instagram @randg.sc for production updates, announcements, and ticket information.

Art & Culture Comedy 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
22

Sequoias At Night

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM · See listing

Fridays & Saturdays 8pm-10pm through October. Opening weekend July 10-11! Experience the magic once again as this beloved art and light installation returns to the Santa Cruz Mountains for its second year. Lighted lanterns hang high overhead surrounded by thousand year old redwoods that are uplit to create a unique and awe-inspiring retreat back to nature.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
23

More than Paper: Mixed Media Collage & Storytelling with Wendy Aikin

📍 Tumbleweed Found
🕒 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM · $125

More Than Paper is a mixed-media collage workshop that uses layers, texture, and composition to tell stories, preserve memories, and explore themes. Using paper as a starting point, participants will combine photographs, text, fabric, stitching, drawing, paint, stamps, stencils, and found materials to create expressive work on wood panels or other sturdy surfaces. Students will use layering, obscuring, repetition, and juxtaposition to explore how materials create meaning. The class also emphasizes cohesive composition and the development of a personal visual language through recurring shapes, symbols, colors, and imagery. Techniques Explored • Collage composition and storytelling • Using vintage photos, text, maps, and ephemera • Sewing into paper and cloth • Layering tissue and translucent materials • Drawing,mark-making, and paint • Adding dimension with nails, tacks, thread, and stitching • Adhesives and basic archival practices This class encourages experimentation and discovery while helping participants bring ideas and narratives to life through mixed-media techniques. About Wendy Wendy Aikin is a Watsonville, California-based artist whose encaustic, collage and assemblage works weave stories from wax, found objects, and memory. A co-founder of Wax Works West, she helped share the magic of encaustic with over 1,000 students worldwide. Largely self-taught but endlessly curious, she continues to explore and experiment in her Corralitos studio, where most days she’s happily elbow-deep in wax and glue.

Art & Culture Education Details →
Aug
23

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
23

Big Blue Community Indigo Vat

📍 The Fábrica, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA
🕒 12:30 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

Big Blue Community Indigo Vat - Sunday, August 23rd / 12:30 p.m. - 3 p.m. with Vicki Lynn ([email protected]) Location: Fábrica in Pacific Ave Courtyard, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz Description: Bring your clean, natural fiber fabric items to dip in the organic indigo dye vat. Let's all get blue! Materials: Please consider a donation of $3 - $5 for materials. Bring your own clothing or fabric to dip if you would like – unhemmed fabric squares will also be available if you just want to experiment. Plant-based fibers such as cotton, linen, or hemp work best with the indigo vat. Items should be clean and laundered without fabric softener or dryer sheets. NOTAFLOF for real - no one turned away for lack of funds. Community care note: Class will be outdoors in the courtyard.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
23

Nicholson Vineyards: Summer Series

📍 Nicholson Vineyards
🕒 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM · $25

Enjoy summer weekend afternoons at the beautiful Nicholson Vineyards! Saturdays from noon to 5pm – Enjoy perusing art from local artists Sundays from 1pm to 4pm – Enjoy listening to local musicians Pack a picnic spread, gather your friends and family, and sip on their refreshing summer wine flight, featuring the best of our warm-weather selections. Book your reservation today! July 11 & 12: The Clay Chalet and music by Dos Bros July 18 & 19: Indigo and Vine and music by Jo Coleman July 25 & 26: Sour Sammy Sourdough and music by Six String Mixtape August 1 & 2: Scout and Sea and music by Half Pass August 8 & 9: Lili Arnold Studios and music by Eden Edell August 15 & 16: Desert Moon Design and music by Kip Allert August 22 & 23: Papelline Jewelry and music by Zach Bailey August 29 & 30: Anna Gail Designs and music by Jeff Smith September 5 & 6: All You Knead and music by Cake Party!

Food & Drink Art & Culture 📍 Aptos & Seacliff Details →
Aug
23

Audrey Stanley Grove: Live Drama in the Redwoods

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience August Wilson’s Fences, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Fences By August Wilson Directed by Susan Dalian August Wilson joins the Santa Cruz Shakespeare stage for the first time in 45 years. Fences is the perfect offering, wonderfully in line with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare season’s theme: Till Death Do Us Part. Troy Maxson is one of Wilson’s great creations; Shakespearean in scope; a wordsmith and brilliant storyteller. He has survived the terrible trauma of his past and built himself a good life. But the backbone of that life, the spine that keeps it standing strong, is his wife Rose. Like all of Wilson’s best work, Fences is both mythic and intimate; the questions it asks both human and eternal. Fences runs July 28 – August 28. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information through the link in the orange button above. Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call the number above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
24

Reading Poems Together

📍 Capitola Branch Library
🕒 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM · See listing

Come join a community of readers who meet the 4th Monday of each month to hear poetry and discuss its curious powers. Come join a community of readers who meet the 4th Monday of each month to hear poetry and discuss its curious powers. Discussions facilitated by Paola Bruni, Elaine Fletcher Chapman, and Jessica Cohn. Registration encouraged. Walk-ins welcome. https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/14321587 Poets in 2026 January 26 Joy Harjo February 23 Billy Collins March 23 Eavan Boland April 27 Arthur Sze May 18 * Emily Dickinson June 22 Gary Snyder July 27 Dean Young August 24 Lucille Clifton September 28 Sharon Olds October 26 Juan Felipe Herrera November 23 Ada Limon December 28 Jericho Brown *Note: Third Monday in May because of Memorial Day

Art & Culture Community 📍 Capitola Details →
Aug
25

Seaweed Sip & Paint

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

Join us for an evening of creativity inspired by the beauty of our local coastline! Sip a glass of wine while local artist Calene Luczo Fletcher guides you through watercolor techniques to create your own kelp and seaweed painting. Whether you’re an experienced artist or picking up a paintbrush for the first time, you’ll learn approachable watercolor techniques in a relaxed, welcoming environment. By the end of the evening, you’ll leave with a finished piece of artwork inspired by the vibrant forms and colors of our marine forests. Program sold out, please email [email protected] to join the waitlist All materials are provided, along with wine and light refreshments. Capacity : 20 Ticket Price : $35 Discounts : $5 Member discount Age limit : 12+ Location : Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History Refund Policy

Education Art & Culture 📍 Seabright & Harbor Details →
Aug
25

Winter in America (Still

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

FREE IN-STORE EVENT: Join us for a powerful evening of poetry and reflection! Celebrate the release of Winter in America (Still, a sequel anthology that includes a range of voices respond...

Art & Culture Free Details →
Aug
25

Audrey Stanley Grove: Live Drama in the Redwoods

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience August Wilson’s Fences, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Fences By August Wilson Directed by Susan Dalian August Wilson joins the Santa Cruz Shakespeare stage for the first time in 45 years. Fences is the perfect offering, wonderfully in line with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare season’s theme: Till Death Do Us Part. Troy Maxson is one of Wilson’s great creations; Shakespearean in scope; a wordsmith and brilliant storyteller. He has survived the terrible trauma of his past and built himself a good life. But the backbone of that life, the spine that keeps it standing strong, is his wife Rose. Like all of Wilson’s best work, Fences is both mythic and intimate; the questions it asks both human and eternal. Fences runs July 28 – August 28. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information through the link in the orange button above. Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call the number above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
26

Felton Community Crafters

📍 Felton Branch Library
🕒 10:30 AM – 2:30 PM · See listing

Join us each 4th Wednesday of the month for a relaxing time crafting with your neighbors. The Community Crafters are a diverse group of makers and they love to share their knowledge. We weave, spin yarn, make baskets, felt, and so much more. All crafters are welcome! We hope you will join us in creating community and beautiful things!

Community Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
27

Felton Community Crafters

📍 Felton Branch Library
🕒 10:30 AM · See listing

Join us each 4th Wednesday of the month for a relaxing time crafting with your neighbors. The Community Crafters are a diverse group of makers and they love to share their knowledge. We weave, spin yarn, make baskets, felt, and so much more. All crafters are welcome! We hope you will join us in creating community and beautiful things!

Community Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
27

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
27

Open Archives

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

Step into the MAH's Archives Reading Room during our weekly Open Archives hours. Meet the archivist, see a unique item from the collection on display, and discover where Santa Cruz history is preserved. Please note: Open Archives is an informal drop-in experience, not a time for in-depth research appointments. If you'd like to schedule research time, please contact us in advance by email or phone. We usually pop open the archives every week-though every now and then we take a break. For more information, email [email protected]

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
27

Yappy Hours @ the MAH!

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM · See listing

Join us for Yappy Hours in the Kincentricity Garden every last Thursday of the month! Meet the pups that are up for adoption (paperwork to fill out onsite), sip on a few "Barktinis", and enjoy furry-friend festivities like the option for dogs to make their very own paw paintings!

Art & Culture Family 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
27

Tech Cafe

📍 Freedom Branch Library
🕒 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM · See listing

Are you interested in learning about technology? Visit us during our weekly Tech Café program where you have the opportunity to get basic tech-related questions answered and test a new piece of technology. This program will take place on Thursdays from 4:30-6:30pm at the Main Library (unless otherwise indicated). The technology we demo will change each month; here is a list of what technology will be featured: - January (program starts on the 15th): Doodle Pens - February: Makey Makeys (circuit boards) - March: 3D Printer - April: Spheros (programmable robots) - May: Cricut - June: Glowforge - laser cutter (This program will take place at the Freedom Branch) - July: iPad Stop Motion movies - August: Spheros (programmable robots) - September: 3D Printer - October: Doodle Pens - November: Cricut - December: Makey Makeys (circuit boards) Audience: All Ages ¿Le interesa aprender sobre tecnología? Visítanos durante nuestro programa semanal Tech Café, donde tendrás la oportunidad de obtener respuestas a preguntas básicas relacionadas con la tecnología y probar una nueva tecnología. Este programa se llevará a cabo los jueves de 4:30 a 6:30pm en la Biblioteca Principal (a menos que se indique otro horario o lugar). La tecnología que mostraremos cambiará cada mes; las tecnologías que se presentarán: - enero (el programa comienza el día 15): Doodle Pens - febrero: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) - marzo: Impresora 3D - abril: Spheros (robots programables) - mayo: Cricut - junio: Glowforge - cortadora láser (este programa se llevará a cabo en la sucursal Freedom) - julio: iPad Stop Motion (películas) - agosto: Spheros (robots programables) - septiembre: Impresora 3D - octubre: Doodle Pens - noviembre: Cricut - diciembre: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) Audiencia: Para todas las edades

Art & Culture Family 📍 Watsonville Details →
Aug
27

Dave Evans, How to Live a Meaningful Life

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

FREE IN-STORE EVENT: Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Dave Evans, co-founder of the Life Design Lab at Stanford University, for a discussion about his new book How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Desi...

Art & Culture Free Details →
Aug
28

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
28

Guided Tour

📍 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.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
28

Pole Fitness 101/Functional Movement + Fundamentals + Dance

📍 Ohana Studios Santa Cruz
🕒 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM · $20

Pole Fitness 101 is more than just aerial training. Get movement training you’ll use for life! ✅Pole technique with dance & fitness modules ✅Functional conditioning ✅Mobility & flexibility training ✅High level Xpert Xpole certified (L1-L4) ✅FRC certified Mobility Specialist (FRCms) Drop in on one class or attend the fully programmed module for 7 weeks! Fridays 6 pm. www.ohanastudiosantacruz.com

Art & Culture Wellness 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
28

Esplanade Park: Free Zootopia 2 at the Beach

📍 Esplanade Park
🕒 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM · FREE

Head to Esplanade Park bandstand stage and see a movie on the beach ! The movie will begin at dusk . Bring your own low back chairs and blankets to get comfy . Consider bringing a picnic dinner or dining locally at Capitola Village . Just make sure you don’t bring any alcohol or dogs with you to t he movie , as they are not allowed at Esplanade Park.

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Capitola Details →
Aug
28

Audrey Stanley Grove: Live Drama in the Redwoods

📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM · $25

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience August Wilson’s Fences, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Fences By August Wilson Directed by Susan Dalian August Wilson joins the Santa Cruz Shakespeare stage for the first time in 45 years. Fences is the perfect offering, wonderfully in line with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare season’s theme: Till Death Do Us Part. Troy Maxson is one of Wilson’s great creations; Shakespearean in scope; a wordsmith and brilliant storyteller. He has survived the terrible trauma of his past and built himself a good life. But the backbone of that life, the spine that keeps it standing strong, is his wife Rose. Like all of Wilson’s best work, Fences is both mythic and intimate; the questions it asks both human and eternal. Fences runs July 28 – August 28. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information through the link in the orange button above. Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call the number above.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
28

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
29

Palace Art & Office Supply 77th Anniversary Art Demo Weekend

📍 Palace Art & Office Supply
🕒 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM · FREE

Join us for a free two-day in-store event featuring over 20 local artists and top manufacturers who will be offering live painting demonstrations, make and take activities, and the chance to try out some of your favorite products. Get inspired to create more when you spend the day (or two!) at Palace to celebrate our 77th anniversary! Each day, the store will be filled with local artists and top manufacturers demonstrating products and techniques across a range of mediums: from acrylic and watercolor paints to screen printing to mixed media and collage and beyond. Plus, chances to win prizes and walk away with art that you create throughout the event. The first 77 customers in the door each day will receive a swag bag packed with goodies from our manufacturer partners and everyone who attends the event is invited to spin the prize wheel for a chance to take home free product, coupons, or gift certificates to spend in-store. Visit palaceartsupply.com/anniversary for a complete schedule

Art & Culture Free 📍 Capitola Details →
Aug
29

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
29

Nicholson Vineyards: Summer Series

📍 Nicholson Vineyards
🕒 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM · $25

Enjoy summer weekend afternoons at the beautiful Nicholson Vineyards! Saturdays from noon to 5pm – Enjoy perusing art from local artists Sundays from 1pm to 4pm – Enjoy listening to local musicians Pack a picnic spread, gather your friends and family, and sip on their refreshing summer wine flight, featuring the best of our warm-weather selections. Book your reservation today! July 11 & 12: The Clay Chalet and music by Dos Bros July 18 & 19: Indigo and Vine and music by Jo Coleman July 25 & 26: Sour Sammy Sourdough and music by Six String Mixtape August 1 & 2: Scout and Sea and music by Half Pass August 8 & 9: Lili Arnold Studios and music by Eden Edell August 15 & 16: Desert Moon Design and music by Kip Allert August 22 & 23: Papelline Jewelry and music by Zach Bailey August 29 & 30: Anna Gail Designs and music by Jeff Smith September 5 & 6: All You Knead and music by Cake Party!

Food & Drink Art & Culture 📍 Aptos & Seacliff Details →
Aug
29

Healthy Digital Habits and Screen Time Workshop

📍 Scotts Valley Branch Library
🕒 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM · See listing

Want to better manage your screen time? Join others in person who are curious to learn more about healthy digital habits and screen time at this free library workshop. Screen time is the time you spend in front of screen-based devices while looking at smartphone, computer, TV, gaming, and more. At this workshop, you’ll have a chance to reflect on your current screen time and discuss with other workshop attendees. You’ll learn about why screen time is important to pay attention to and manage intentionally. Then, during the workshop, you’ll start making safe, temporary changes to your phone’s settings to help you get in more control of how often you use your phone. Your instructor will guide you how how to make these changes in your phone and answer questions along the way. What You’ll Learn - Info about the health impacts of screen time. - Tips for unlocking more free time for personal goals, like reading books, eating healthy, and getting better sleep. - How to turn on a free report included in iOS and Android phones that tells you exactly how much time you spend on your phone, what you are doing, and choose what apps to set time limits on. - How to manage your notifications and alerts so they work for you. - And more! What To Bring Your phone. So you can make the most of the workshop, bring your phone charged or bring your phone charger. The Speaker The workshop will be facilitated by Julia Davids, a digital product designer who has worked in health tech. Julia created Fieldhouse Press (fieldhousepress.com) to empower people to make their screen time work for them. Julia grew up in Santa Cruz. Her favorite local park is Nisene Marks. Registration Encouraged. Walk-ins welcome. https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/16575983

Art & Culture Education 📍 Scotts Valley Details →
Aug
29

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Aug
30

Palace Art & Office Supply 77th Anniversary Art Demo Weekend

📍 Palace Art & Office Supply
🕒 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM · FREE

Join us for a free two-day in-store event featuring over 20 local artists and top manufacturers who will be offering live painting demonstrations, make and take activities, and the chance to try out some of your favorite products. Get inspired to create more when you spend the day (or two!) at Palace to celebrate our 77th anniversary! Each day, the store will be filled with local artists and top manufacturers demonstrating products and techniques across a range of mediums: from acrylic and watercolor paints to screen printing to mixed media and collage and beyond. Plus, chances to win prizes and walk away with art that you create throughout the event. The first 77 customers in the door each day will receive a swag bag packed with goodies from our manufacturer partners and everyone who attends the event is invited to spin the prize wheel for a chance to take home free product, coupons, or gift certificates to spend in-store. Visit palaceartsupply.com/anniversary for a complete schedule

Art & Culture Free 📍 Capitola Details →
Aug
30

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
30

Pawsh Retreat - Dog Event in Santa Cruz

📍 Chaminade Resort & Spa
🕒 12:00 PM – 3:30 PM · See listing

Chaminade Resort & Spa welcomes you and your furry friends to our dog-friendly property for an afternoon of play, treats and pup-worthy pampering. Please RSVP! Free event entry - suggested donation of $10 (proceeds to Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter Foundation). Activities & Vendors: Dog Pools & Lounge Area, Agility Course & Games, Pet Portraits, Puppy Picasso Painting, Dog Fashion Show Competition, Live DJ, Adoption & Rescue, Dog Menu & Special Treats, Cash Bar, and Drink & Food specials. Activities subject to change.

Art & Culture Free 📍 Midtown Details →
Aug
30

Rite Life - A Writing Group Amongst the Dead

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

This monthly series of writing workshops in Evergreen Cemetery is facilitated by local poet Gabriel Kittle-Cervine. Rite Life is a workshop that blends the act of automatic writing, with our individual practices of ancestor veneration, to confront that which haunts us, and to celebrate that which allows us to live. The workshop was born in 2016 from the vision of a profound poet and spiritual teacher named Honeysun, just a couple of years before she passed beyond this life. Her initial concept for the Rite Life workshop is preserved in the way it's practiced today; still facilitated by Gabe, her friend and pupil, alongside a bright circle of local writers and practitioners of craft. Learn more at www.blankmetafour.com or follow @unclegabe831 on Instagram. All ages welcome, and we'll be there rain or shine-see y'all in the cemetery!

Art & Culture Family 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Aug
30

Nicholson Vineyards: Summer Series

📍 Nicholson Vineyards
🕒 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM · $25

Enjoy summer weekend afternoons at the beautiful Nicholson Vineyards! Saturdays from noon to 5pm – Enjoy perusing art from local artists Sundays from 1pm to 4pm – Enjoy listening to local musicians Pack a picnic spread, gather your friends and family, and sip on their refreshing summer wine flight, featuring the best of our warm-weather selections. Book your reservation today! July 11 & 12: The Clay Chalet and music by Dos Bros July 18 & 19: Indigo and Vine and music by Jo Coleman July 25 & 26: Sour Sammy Sourdough and music by Six String Mixtape August 1 & 2: Scout and Sea and music by Half Pass August 8 & 9: Lili Arnold Studios and music by Eden Edell August 15 & 16: Desert Moon Design and music by Kip Allert August 22 & 23: Papelline Jewelry and music by Zach Bailey August 29 & 30: Anna Gail Designs and music by Jeff Smith September 5 & 6: All You Knead and music by Cake Party!

Food & Drink Art & Culture 📍 Aptos & Seacliff Details →
Aug
31

Coffee with the Curators

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM · See listing

Grab a cup of coffee and hang out with a MAH curator! Coffee with the Curators is a morning at the museum where you can chat, ask questions, and hear behind-the-scenes stories about the exhibitions and collections. Coffee and good conversation are complimentary with museum admission.

Sep
3

Submerge - Going Deep in Dance

📍 Santa Cruz Yoga
🕒 12:00 AM · See listing

SUBMERGE exists for the dancers and for the artists. It's a dance party, a movement meditation and a fantastic workout all at once. Drawing inspiration from the great dances of music festivals and burning man, as well as the best parts of the ecstatic dance movement, SUBMERGE exists to provide dancers a deep canvas for movement, and also for experienced artists (often with decades of wisdom) to get fairly paid. 100% of ticket revenues go to the artists.

Art & Culture Music Details →
Sep
3

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
3

Open Archives

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

Step into the MAH's Archives Reading Room during our weekly Open Archives hours. Meet the archivist, see a unique item from the collection on display, and discover where Santa Cruz history is preserved. Please note: Open Archives is an informal drop-in experience, not a time for in-depth research appointments. If you'd like to schedule research time, please contact us in advance by email or phone. We usually pop open the archives every week-though every now and then we take a break. For more information, email [email protected]

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
3

Tech Cafe

📍 Freedom Branch Library
🕒 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM · See listing

Are you interested in learning about technology? Visit us during our weekly Tech Café program where you have the opportunity to get basic tech-related questions answered and test a new piece of technology. This program will take place on Thursdays from 4:30-6:30pm at the Main Library (unless otherwise indicated). The technology we demo will change each month; here is a list of what technology will be featured: - January (program starts on the 15th): Doodle Pens - February: Makey Makeys (circuit boards) - March: 3D Printer - April: Spheros (programmable robots) - May: Cricut - June: Glowforge - laser cutter (This program will take place at the Freedom Branch) - July: iPad Stop Motion movies - August: Spheros (programmable robots) - September: 3D Printer - October: Doodle Pens - November: Cricut - December: Makey Makeys (circuit boards) Audience: All Ages ¿Le interesa aprender sobre tecnología? Visítanos durante nuestro programa semanal Tech Café, donde tendrás la oportunidad de obtener respuestas a preguntas básicas relacionadas con la tecnología y probar una nueva tecnología. Este programa se llevará a cabo los jueves de 4:30 a 6:30pm en la Biblioteca Principal (a menos que se indique otro horario o lugar). La tecnología que mostraremos cambiará cada mes; las tecnologías que se presentarán: - enero (el programa comienza el día 15): Doodle Pens - febrero: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) - marzo: Impresora 3D - abril: Spheros (robots programables) - mayo: Cricut - junio: Glowforge - cortadora láser (este programa se llevará a cabo en la sucursal Freedom) - julio: iPad Stop Motion (películas) - agosto: Spheros (robots programables) - septiembre: Impresora 3D - octubre: Doodle Pens - noviembre: Cricut - diciembre: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) Audiencia: Para todas las edades

Art & Culture Family 📍 Watsonville Details →
Sep
3

Drop-In Drawing at the MAH

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

Ever been inspired to drop everything and create when visiting an exhibition at the MAH? Join us for a Drop-In Drawing session in the gallery from 6-8pm on the first Thursday of every month. This is not a formal lesson, but an opportunity to bring in your own art supplies and sketch what you see. Dry media only (no markers or paint). All ages welcome. Free with admission. The museum will provide stools, feel free to bring a cushion or folding chair if space allows. Groups of 5+ please give advanced notice by emailing [email protected] . Drop-In Drawing Calendar 2025 September 4 - Art Forum Gallery / Ed Penniman: Landscapes of Home October 2 - Art Forum Gallery / Ed Penniman: Landscapes of Home November 6 - Art Forum Gallery / Ed Penniman: Landscapes of Home December 4 - Art Forum Gallery / Ed Penniman: Landscapes of Home 2026 January 1 - NONE (New Years Day) February 5 - Solari Gallery / Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship March 5 - Solari Gallery / Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship Comment end

Art & Culture Family 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
3

Bookshop Santa Cruz: Paula Arai | Of Mud and Lotuses

📍 Bookshop Santa Cruz
🕒 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE

FREE IN-STORE EVENT: Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Paula Arai (Bringing Zen Home) for a reading and signing of her new book Of Mud and Lotuses: Dreaming the Lives of Buddhist Women—a unique blend of personal reflection, creative histories, and interview-based nonfiction that vividly imagines the lives of Buddhist women over 2,500 years. Of Mud and Lotuses illuminates the hardships, resilience, and creative ways in which Buddhist women have applied the Dharma to daily life—often in ways that history has ignored.

Sep
4

Mothersong

📍 Watsonville
🕒 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM · See listing

Join us for Mothersong every first Friday of the month ~ sing and dance with us at our Main Library, Meeting Room at 10:30am. Audience: Families Se le invita a nuestro programa Mothersong cada primer viernes del mes ~ cante y baile con nosotros en nuestra Biblioteca Principal, Sala de Reuniones a las 10:30am. Audiencia: Familias

Art & Culture Family 📍 Watsonville Details →
Sep
4

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
4

Guided Tour

📍 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.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
4

Private Lives by Noel Coward, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga
🕒 2:00 PM · See listing

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Private Lives by Noel Coward, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Private Lives By Noel Coward Directed by Laura Gordon If you think Beatrice and Benedick go at it in Much Ado, wait until you see Amanda and Elyot. Both on honeymoons with new spouses, having violently divorced years before, Amanda and Elyot discover each other sharing adjoining balconies in the same hotel. Well, one thing leads to another, and… sometimes the line between love and hate is so thin. In Noel Coward’s masterpiece, we witness two selfish, passionate, egotistical, madly in love people drive each other absolutely crazy. How can they possibly survive together? But more importantly, perhaps, how can they survive apart? With Coward’s searing wit, you’ll laugh until you cry while they scream until they kiss. And vice versa. Private Lives will star Charles Pasternak as Elyot and Paige Lindsey White as Amanda. Private Lives runs September 4 – October 4. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information at https://santacruzshakespeare.org/tickets/ Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call 831-460-6399.

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
4

Presenting: Between the Dark and the Light with Jay Blakesberg, Grateful Forever at Nicely Gallery

📍 Nicely Gallery: Decor + Design
🕒 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM · See listing

Celebrating the life of Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir, the latest members of the Grateful Dead to have passed. Between the Dark and the Light- is a very personal slideshow as a 90 min. retrospective of Grateful Dead Rock n Roll Photography by Jay Blakesberg @Nicely.SantaCruz. 7:30-9 pm. (must have a ticket) We will be hosting a private event, slide show with stories and more from Jay and special guests via Eventbrite. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jay-blakesberg-between-the-dark-and-the-light-nicely-gallery-tickets-1995021735716?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true Come on down and shake your bones while enjoying company and wonderful memories of “The Boys”. We will have something special ALL “The Days Between” in the gallery; 1/2 LOADED with Rock n Roll Photography and 15 other local artists. Memorabilia and Memorial Gathering GATEFUL FOREVER.

Sep
4

Grateful Forever at Nicely Gallery

📍 Nicely Gallery
🕒 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

Celebrating the life of Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir, the latest members of the Grateful Dead to have passed. “The Days Between” as it has been deemed – are literally the days between Jerry’s birth and death date. We have 1/2 the gallery with Rock n Roll Photography by Jay Blakesberg: see resident artist @ NicelySC.com We will be hosting a private special event, slide show with stories and more from Jay and special guests. Will announce the ticketed event asap. Come on down and shake your bones while enjoying company and wonderful memories of “The Boys”. We will have something special ALL “The Days Between” in the gallery; 1/2 LOADED with Rock n Roll Photography and 15 other local artists. Memorabilia and Memorial Gathering GATEFUL FOREVER.

Sep
4
Treehouse

Treehouse Dispensary First Friday

📍 Treehouse Dispensary
🕒 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE

Treehouse Dispensary hosts a monthly First Friday event on the first Friday of every month. These events feature live music, local artists, makers, and an art market with up to 20 different vendors, along with shop-wide discounts and community activities. The shop is open 8:00 AM to 9:45 PM daily. We're proud to offer everyday savings for our community: New Members: 10% off your first order Wisdom Discount (65+): 5% off Medical Patients: 10% off Students & Teachers: 20% off with valid ID Veterans: 20% off *Please note that discounts do not stack with other deals. Ask staff for exclusions.

Cannabis Art & Culture 📍 Soquel Details →
Sep
4

Pole Fitness 101/Functional Movement + Fundamentals + Dance

📍 Ohana Studios Santa Cruz
🕒 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM · $20

Pole Fitness 101 is more than just aerial training. Get movement training you’ll use for life! ✅Pole technique with dance & fitness modules ✅Functional conditioning ✅Mobility & flexibility training ✅High level Xpert Xpole certified (L1-L4) ✅FRC certified Mobility Specialist (FRCms) Drop in on one class or attend the fully programmed module for 7 weeks! Fridays 6 pm. www.ohanastudiosantacruz.com

Art & Culture Wellness 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
4

Rio Theatre: Ocean Film Festival World Tour

📍 Rio Theatre
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $22

The Ocean Film Festival World Tour, now in its 13th year, is set to make a splash in 2026, returning with a powerful and visually stunning line-up of films that celebrate the ocean from every angle — above the surface, beneath the waves, and deep into the stories that connect us all to the sea. This year’s tour promises an unforgettable night out for ocean lovers, featuring six remarkable films. From high-stakes adventure and record-breaking journeys to intimate portraits of marine life and environmental restoration, the 2026 program is packed with breathtaking cinematography and inspiring characters. One of the standout films in the 2026 program is The Raftsmen, an epic story of courage and endurance. Twelve unlikely adventurers from seven different countries come together to attempt a feat few would dare imagine — crossing the world’s largest ocean on three handmade wooden rafts, guided only by the sun and stars. Battling storms, starvation, and the psychological toll of life at sea, their six-month journey remains the longest raft expedition ever completed. Now, fifty years later, the original 16mm footage has been beautifully restored into 4K, allowing modern audiences to witness the sheer scale of this once-in-a-lifetime ocean odyssey.

Art & Culture Surf 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
4

Ocean Film Festival World Tour Santa Cruz

📍 Rio Theatre for the Performing Arts
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $26.58

Supporting Save our Shores The Ocean Film Festival World Tour, now in its 13th year, is set to make a splash across the globe in 2026, returning with a powerful and visually stunning line-up of films that celebrate the ocean from every angle — above the surface, beneath the waves, and deep into the stories that connect us all to the sea. This year’s tour promises an unforgettable night out for ocean lovers, featuring six remarkable films from around the globe. From high-stakes adventure and record-breaking journeys to intimate portraits of marine life and environmental restoration, the 2026 program is packed with breathtaking cinematography, inspiring characters, and a deep respect for the ocean and the communities shaped by it. One of the standout films in the 2026 program is The Raftsmen, an epic story of courage and endurance. Twelve unlikely adventurers from seven different countries come together to attempt a feat few would dare imagine — crossing the world’s largest ocean on three handmade wooden rafts, guided only by the sun and stars. Battling storms, starvation, and the psychological toll of life at sea, their six-month journey remains the longest raft expedition ever completed. Now, fifty years later, the original 16mm footage has been beautifully restored into 4K, allowing modern audiences to witness the sheer scale of this once-in-a-lifetime ocean odyssey. Jemima Robinson, Founder and CEO of the Ocean Film Festival World Tour, says the 2026 season continues the festival’s mission to share ocean stories that move, inspire and connect audiences. Tickets available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ocean-film-festival-world-tour-tickets-1993720822650

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
4

Esplanade Park: Free Minecraft Movie at the Beach

📍 Esplanade Park
🕒 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM · FREE

Head to Esplanade Park bandstand stage and see a movie on the beach ! The movie will begin at dusk . Bring your own low back chairs and blankets to get comfy . Consider bringing a picnic dinner or dining locally at Capitola Village . Just make sure you don’t bring any alcohol or dogs with you to the movie, as they are not allowed at Esplanade Park .

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Capitola Details →
Sep
5

Soul Collage

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM · See listing

Call to register or if you have questions: 457-2273 Location will vary so call for details The facilitator will bring photos. You are responsible for purchasing materials (see below). Discover your Wisdom with SoulCollage® Let's explore our inner selves. Using images, imagination and intuition, you will begin to create your own personal deck of collaged cards. Part art project, part spiritual practice, SoulCollage® allows you to deepen your understanding of yourself and tap into your inner wisdom that can guide you on important life decisions. In a fun, creative, and relaxed environment, you will create cards that will reveal parts of your personality, your archetypes, and other guides, allies, and challengers. We will talk about the ways you can use your personal deck of collaged cards to tap into your inner wisdom. No art experience necessary. Anyone can create SoulCollage® cards! We use scissors, glue, and images cut from magazines to create our cards. You’ll take home several finished cards—and no doubt a love for this creative process! Please bring with you : * Scissors * Glue stick (best kind is Pioneer glue stick) * 8 x 5 mat board * Pen & Notebook

Art & Culture Wellness Details →
Sep
5

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
5

Annieglass Craftbar: Glass Coasters Workshop

📍 Annieglass
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · $85

Make your own beautiful set of four glass coasters with Smithsonian artist, Annie Morhauser. Everything you need will be provided—glass, stencils, colorful glass enamels, adhesive feet, and expert guidance throughout the process. You’ll design and decorate 4″ glass squares, then load them into the kilns (don’t worry—they’ll be off!). Annieglass will fire your pieces for you, and you can have them shipped to your home. Want a full set of eight? Book two workshops! You’ll also receive 15% off Annieglass first-quality pieces on the day of the event. Sparkling waters provided. Half bottles & bottles of wine available for purchase.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Watsonville Details →
Sep
5

Soul Collage

📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 1:00 PM · See listing

Saturday, September 05 2026 12:00pm - 3:00pm Manifest your visions, desires, and dreams through the art of Soul Collage!

Community Art & Culture Details →
Sep
5

Private Lives by Noel Coward, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga
🕒 7:00 PM · See listing

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Private Lives by Noel Coward, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Private Lives By Noel Coward Directed by Laura Gordon If you think Beatrice and Benedick go at it in Much Ado, wait until you see Amanda and Elyot. Both on honeymoons with new spouses, having violently divorced years before, Amanda and Elyot discover each other sharing adjoining balconies in the same hotel. Well, one thing leads to another, and… sometimes the line between love and hate is so thin. In Noel Coward’s masterpiece, we witness two selfish, passionate, egotistical, madly in love people drive each other absolutely crazy. How can they possibly survive together? But more importantly, perhaps, how can they survive apart? With Coward’s searing wit, you’ll laugh until you cry while they scream until they kiss. And vice versa. Private Lives will star Charles Pasternak as Elyot and Paige Lindsey White as Amanda. Private Lives runs September 4 – October 4. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information at https://santacruzshakespeare.org/tickets/ Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call 831-460-6399.

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
5

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Sep
6

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
6

Dungeons and Dragons for Adults

📍 Downtown Branch Library
🕒 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM · See listing

Come join the magical world of D&D storytelling, where you can be a bard, a wizard, or a barbarian for a few hours and let your creativity run free. Solve weird and wonderful problems with spells, cunning, or daggers and make some new friends in the process. Whether you're a complete beginner or a seasoned player you will be welcomed every 1st Sunday for an afternoon of collaborative storytelling at the Downtown Branch. Friendly game masters will be ready with dice, characters, and the start of a story; all we need is your creativity and enthusiasm. No prior experience is necessary. This program is for adults 18+. This program also happens on 3rd Saturdays at the Capitola Branch from 12-5. What is Dungeons and Dragons? D&D is one of many tabletop roleplaying games, in which players create and control fictional characters within a shared imaginary world. A Game Master guides the story and sets the scene, while the players make decisions for their characters, rolling dice to determine outcomes. TTRPGs encourage creativity, teamwork, and storytelling as players collaborate to overcome challenges and complete quests. Modern D&D has veered away from the combat-heavy game it used to be. While it's still possible to spend hours attacking monsters and finding loot, many groups now tell stories of mystery, intrigue, horror, or whimsy. Who are the game masters? This event is organized by Jeltje van Baren ( [email protected] ), who learned to play a few years ago and has been creating games for new players ever since. She will be assisted by a rotating group of diverse GMs from the local TTRPG community, all of whom are used to patiently explaining the rules and keeping the game fun for everyone.

Sep
6

Sunflower Paint Party!!

📍 Bruno’s Bar and Grill
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · $45

Sign up early and you could win a free entree!!! Whether you're a seasoned artist or picking up a paintbrush for the first time, this step-by-step class is designed for everyone. You'll create a beautiful sunflower masterpiece to take home while enjoying a creative, stress-free experience with friends, family, or fellow art lovers. ✨ No experience needed 🎨 All painting supplies included 🌻 Leave with a one-of-a-kind painting and great memories! Reserve your seat today and let your creativity bloom! What's Included: • Guided painting instruction • All painting supplies including canvas, paints, brushes, aprons etC • A completed 16x20” canvas to take home • A fun, relaxing, judgment-free atmosphere No experience necessary—just bring your creativity! Seats are limited to be sure to reserve yours today! The Paint Party will take place in the upstairs banquet room. Come early to check out the items for sale as well as order food and drink! Remember to think about the clothes you choose to wear to this event. While I will have aprons for your use, acrylic paint can stain clothes if not addressed with soap and water immediately. Thank you for your registration! I look forward to painting with you!! Frequently Asked Questions: 1. Do I need any painting experience? Not at all! Our events are beginner-friendly, and the Instructor will guide you step-by-step. 2. What’s included in the paint party? All supplies are provided—canvas, paint, brushes, apron, and easel. Just bring yourself and get ready to have fun! 3. How long does the event last? Most paint parties run between 2–3 hours, depending on the painting and group size. 4. Can I bring my own food and drinks? At Bruno’s Bar and Grill there is a great selection of appetizers, meals and drinks for purchase; and we want to thank them for letting us use their event room! 5. What should I wear? Wear something comfortable that you don’t mind getting a little paint on. Aprons are provided, but accidents happen! 6. Will I take my p

Art & Culture Food & Drink 📍 Scotts Valley Details →
Sep
6

Private Lives by Noel Coward, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga
🕒 2:00 PM · See listing

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Private Lives by Noel Coward, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Private Lives By Noel Coward Directed by Laura Gordon If you think Beatrice and Benedick go at it in Much Ado, wait until you see Amanda and Elyot. Both on honeymoons with new spouses, having violently divorced years before, Amanda and Elyot discover each other sharing adjoining balconies in the same hotel. Well, one thing leads to another, and… sometimes the line between love and hate is so thin. In Noel Coward’s masterpiece, we witness two selfish, passionate, egotistical, madly in love people drive each other absolutely crazy. How can they possibly survive together? But more importantly, perhaps, how can they survive apart? With Coward’s searing wit, you’ll laugh until you cry while they scream until they kiss. And vice versa. Private Lives will star Charles Pasternak as Elyot and Paige Lindsey White as Amanda. Private Lives runs September 4 – October 4. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information at https://santacruzshakespeare.org/tickets/ Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call 831-460-6399.

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
7

Dungeons and Dragons for Adults

📍 Downtown Branch Library
🕒 1:00 PM · See listing

Come join the magical world of D&D storytelling, where you can be a bard, a wizard, or a barbarian for a few hours and let your creativity run free. Solve weird and wonderful problems with spells, cunning, or daggers and make some new friends in the process. Whether you're a complete beginner or a seasoned player you will be welcomed every 1st Sunday for an afternoon of collaborative storytelling at the Downtown Branch. Friendly game masters will be ready with dice, characters, and the start of a story; all we need is your creativity and enthusiasm. No prior experience is necessary. This program is for adults 18+. This program also happens on 3rd Saturdays at the Capitola Branch from 12-5. What is Dungeons and Dragons? D&D is one of many tabletop roleplaying games, in which players create and control fictional characters within a shared imaginary world. A Game Master guides the story and sets the scene, while the players make decisions for their characters, rolling dice to determine outcomes. TTRPGs encourage creativity, teamwork, and storytelling as players collaborate to overcome challenges and complete quests. Modern D&D has veered away from the combat-heavy game it used to be. While it's still possible to spend hours attacking monsters and finding loot, many groups now tell stories of mystery, intrigue, horror, or whimsy. Who are the game masters? This event is organized by Jeltje van Baren ( [email protected] ), who learned to play a few years ago and has been creating games for new players ever since. She will be assisted by a rotating group of diverse GMs from the local TTRPG community, all of whom are used to patiently explaining the rules and keeping the game fun for everyone.

Art & Culture Education 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
8

Awe Lecture & Book Signing with Michael Amster

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM · See listing

Join Michael Amster, co-author of The Power of Awe , for an awe-inspired lecture & book signing! Michael Amster, MD, is a local pain management specialist, researcher at the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, co-author of The Power of Awe (Hachette 2023), and a Qi Gong/mindfulness teacher. A practitioner of meditation for over thirty years, he is also a meditation teacher trained at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and studied medical Qi Gong in China. He splits his time between clinical work, research on awe, teaching Qi Gong and mindfulness, and leading awe-inspiring retreats around the world.

Art & Culture Wellness 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
8

Dark Star: Reclaiming Lilith

📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 5:00 PM · See listing

Tuesday, September 08 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm Dark Star: Reclaiming Lilith is a mythic fantasy epic that follows a woman born with a cosmic legacy as she transforms from a powerful witch in the witch-hunt era into a protective warrior for Earth.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Sep
9

Laurie R. King, Those Who Are Gone

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

FREE IN-STORE EVENT: Bookshop welcomes beloved local writer Laurie R. King (New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series) for an event celebrating her new book T...

Art & Culture Free Details →
Sep
10

Open Archives

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

Step into the MAH's Archives Reading Room during our weekly Open Archives hours. Meet the archivist, see a unique item from the collection on display, and discover where Santa Cruz history is preserved. Please note: Open Archives is an informal drop-in experience, not a time for in-depth research appointments. If you'd like to schedule research time, please contact us in advance by email or phone. We usually pop open the archives every week-though every now and then we take a break. For more information, email [email protected]

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
10

Picture This: Belonging Builds Community

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

Beginning in 2026, Housing Matters presents Picture This: Belonging Builds Community, a quarterly storytelling and conversation series exploring belonging, connection, and community care in Santa Cruz County. Each event opens with a featured storyteller sharing a personal experience of belonging and what it means to feel seen, supported, and included. A local community partner then joins for a facilitated discussion on how belonging shows up in practice and how inclusive spaces are built across our County. The evening concludes with small-group reflection and a shared invitation to take one meaningful action toward a more connected community.

Art & Culture Community 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
11

Art for Healing

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM · See listing

Art for Healing: Using the power of the creative process to provide support, insight and a deeper relationship with yourself in a safe and nurturing environment. No art experience necessary. All art supplies provided.Meets 2nd Friday of the month, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm. (Space is limited so please check with WomenCARE re: availability) Facilitated by Dayna Lea

Wellness Art & Culture Details →
Sep
11

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
11

Guided Tour

📍 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.

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
11

Boardwalk Fall Campout

📍 Santa Cruz Boardwalk
🕒 4:00 PM · See listing

Boardwalk Fall Campout Head to the Boardwalk for an overnight event like no other! Perfect for family, friends, teams and school groups. Includes: • Camping under the stars on the Boardwalk • Movie on the beach • Exclusive Carousel time on Friday • Dinner and Breakfast • Free play in the Casino Arcade • Sand sculpture competition • Rides Wristband for Saturday • Discounted parking • $5 of each registration is donated to the American Cancer Society $99.95 per person Deadline September 6, 2026, or until full. Register Now: https://bit.ly/Boardwalk-Fall-Campout-fb

Art & Culture Family 📍 Beach & Boardwalk Details →
Sep
11

Pole Fitness 101/Functional Movement + Fundamentals + Dance

📍 Ohana Studios Santa Cruz
🕒 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM · $20

Pole Fitness 101 is more than just aerial training. Get movement training you’ll use for life! ✅Pole technique with dance & fitness modules ✅Functional conditioning ✅Mobility & flexibility training ✅High level Xpert Xpole certified (L1-L4) ✅FRC certified Mobility Specialist (FRCms) Drop in on one class or attend the fully programmed module for 7 weeks! Fridays 6 pm. www.ohanastudiosantacruz.com

Art & Culture Wellness 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
12
★ Featured

43rd Annual Capitola Art & Wine Festival

📍 Capitola Village
🕒 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Stroll the festival with friends and family, sipping exceptional wines from Santa Cruz Mountain wineries while admiring the artistic talents of over 100 fine artists. Sway to live music and be inspired by local dance groups while taking in the ocean breeze and breathtaking view of the Monterey Bay. Feed your cravings with tantalizing cuisine from local food purveyors, and cruise through the Artisans Marketplace for locally handcrafted goods. If that isn’t enough, Capitola Village is filled with restaurants for every taste and charming boutiques to satisfy a shopper’s dream. Art, wine, music, and gourmet cuisine in the enchanting beach-side setting of Capitola Village…summer’s last hurrah, and truly a weekend in paradise! This event is from 10am to 6pm on Saturday, September 12 and from 10am to 5pm on Sunday, September 13. See link to the event in the orange box above.

Food & Drink Art & Culture 📍 Capitola Details →
Sep
12

Writing Circle

📍 WomenCARE
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing

Writing Circle: Open to the writer in each of us, this group allows for creative exploration in a supportive space right where you are. Each session is a surprise. Your creations are prompted by writing activities and the stories of your life—bring your notebook and invite your muse. Meets the 2nd Saturday of every month, 10 am to 12 noon at WomenCARE’s Soquel office.

Art & Culture Wellness 📍 Soquel Details →
Sep
12

Zentangle Art

📍 Capitola Branch Library
🕒 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing

The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. Join Certified Zentangle Teacher Lisa Hoesing for an introductory workshop and monthly meetup to practice the method. The monthly meetup will take place on the second Saturday of each month in the Ow Community Room. All supplies will be provided at the event, thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Capitola Library . Periodic workshops to welcome new beginners will also take place. Take a look

Wellness Art & Culture 📍 Capitola Details →
Sep
12

Zentangle Art

📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 11:30 AM · See listing

Saturday, September 12 2026 10:30am - 12:00pm The Zentangle Method is a fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. Join Certified Zentangle Teacher Lisa Hoesing for an introductory workshop and monthly meetup.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Sep
12

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
12

Private Lives by Noel Coward, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga
🕒 2:00 PM · See listing

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Private Lives by Noel Coward, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Private Lives By Noel Coward Directed by Laura Gordon If you think Beatrice and Benedick go at it in Much Ado, wait until you see Amanda and Elyot. Both on honeymoons with new spouses, having violently divorced years before, Amanda and Elyot discover each other sharing adjoining balconies in the same hotel. Well, one thing leads to another, and… sometimes the line between love and hate is so thin. In Noel Coward’s masterpiece, we witness two selfish, passionate, egotistical, madly in love people drive each other absolutely crazy. How can they possibly survive together? But more importantly, perhaps, how can they survive apart? With Coward’s searing wit, you’ll laugh until you cry while they scream until they kiss. And vice versa. Private Lives will star Charles Pasternak as Elyot and Paige Lindsey White as Amanda. Private Lives runs September 4 – October 4. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information at https://santacruzshakespeare.org/tickets/ Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call 831-460-6399.

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
12

Boardwalk Fall Campout

📍 Santa Cruz Boardwalk
🕒 4:00 PM · See listing

Boardwalk Fall Campout Head to the Boardwalk for an overnight event like no other! Perfect for family, friends, teams and school groups. Includes: • Camping under the stars on the Boardwalk • Movie on the beach • Exclusive Carousel time on Friday • Dinner and Breakfast • Free play in the Casino Arcade • Sand sculpture competition • Rides Wristband for Saturday • Discounted parking • $5 of each registration is donated to the American Cancer Society $99.95 per person Deadline September 6, 2026, or until full. Register Now: https://bit.ly/Boardwalk-Fall-Campout-fb

Art & Culture Family 📍 Beach & Boardwalk Details →
Sep
12

Best Coast Burlesque Presents: Bawdy! Spectacular

📍 Colligan Theater
🕒 7:15 PM – 10:00 PM · $38

Best Coast Burlesque returns Saturday September 12th for an evening of the very best in burlesque and variety! Starring Ginger Lee Valentine from Los Angeles Featuring performance by Renegade Theater Vyxen Monroe Valerie Veils Rizzo Rogue Babraham Lincoln & More! Now located at Coligan Theater in the Tannery Arts Complex, join us at 8:00 for one spectacular show! Doors at 7:15 Offering 3 tiers of seating: VIP (Right up in the action! Front row seats) Preferred (Still in the splash zone, rows B and C) General Admission (with extra high rise from one row to the next, there isn't a bad seat in the house!) VIP seating is limited, so grab your seats now! Save time in line, purchase your beverage tokens ahead of time! 21 & Up Show. As a small and independently run business, we are no longer able to issue refunds for tickets. If you are no longer able to attend, you may transfer your tickets via private sale or request a ticket transfer to one of our 2025 season shows. Thank you for your support and understanding! We couldn't do it without you!

Art & Culture Adults 21+ Details →
Sep
12

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Sep
13

M. K. Art Gallery: Confluence

📍 m.k. contemporary art gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

“Confluence”: where separate currents meet. This beautiful exhibition pairs the work of Santa Cruz artists Susana Arias and Glenn Carter, on view August 7 through September 13 at M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery. “Confluence” is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from “The Leftovers” at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM

Community Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
13

Confluence - Art Exhibition

📍 M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Confluence: where separate currents meet. The exhibition brings together two distinct practices, each shaped by its own materials, process, and point of view - meeting at a single point within the gallery. Carter's work begins from a place of not knowing, letting intuition guide the encounter between material and chance. Arias describes her work as primitive contemporary, presenting her sculptures as if they belonged in a history museum - objects that carry the weight and presence of relics. Together, their work forms a quiet conversation about what separate paths can become when they meet. "Susana and Glenn each bring such a deeply distinctive artistic voice to their work," said Rose Sellery, exhibition curator. "Confluence explores the fertile ground where two creative currents meet. Their work remains unmistakably their own, yet in conversation with one another it reveals new layers of meaning, beauty and possibility." Confluence is shown alongside work from more than 25 local and regional artists whose work the gallery is proud to represent, reflecting M.K. Contemporary's ongoing commitment to the Santa Cruz arts community. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception on August 7, featuring live improvisational jazz from The Leftovers. The public is invited to attend.

Sep
13

Private Lives by Noel Coward, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga
🕒 7:00 PM · See listing

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Private Lives by Noel Coward, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Private Lives By Noel Coward Directed by Laura Gordon If you think Beatrice and Benedick go at it in Much Ado, wait until you see Amanda and Elyot. Both on honeymoons with new spouses, having violently divorced years before, Amanda and Elyot discover each other sharing adjoining balconies in the same hotel. Well, one thing leads to another, and… sometimes the line between love and hate is so thin. In Noel Coward’s masterpiece, we witness two selfish, passionate, egotistical, madly in love people drive each other absolutely crazy. How can they possibly survive together? But more importantly, perhaps, how can they survive apart? With Coward’s searing wit, you’ll laugh until you cry while they scream until they kiss. And vice versa. Private Lives will star Charles Pasternak as Elyot and Paige Lindsey White as Amanda. Private Lives runs September 4 – October 4. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information at https://santacruzshakespeare.org/tickets/ Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call 831-460-6399.

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
13

World Class Music Live Presents: Ballaké Sissoko & Piers Faccini

📍 Kuumbwa Jazz
🕒 7:00 PM · See listing

Two decades after their first ever collaboration, British-Italian folk songwriter, Piers Faccini, and Malian kora virtuoso, Ballaké Sissoko, return with a mesmerizing album. This new and captivating musical dialogue — between a prodigious instrumentalist at the height of his powers and a gifted songwriter and wordsmith — deftly bridges continents and traditions, inventing new song forms. The seeds of Our Calling were first planted when Sissoko and Faccini met at Label Bleu in the early 2000s. Their friendship grew as they linked and explored uncharted paths between Manding traditions and folksong forms. With its ten finely crafted tracks, Our Calling is a sonic and narrative praise song for migration in all its manifestations: seeds borne by the winds; Nightingales flying between West Africa and Europe at the turn of the seasons; humans, across the centuries, and along trade routes, sharing musical practices and rhythms. The album’s originality is that it feels deeply Malian at its core, while also being seamlessly infused with an essence of folk songwriting; the two elements blending without one ever overshadowing the other. The duo’s ambition when they began imagining the album was clear: the musical language begins and ends with Manding traditions and modes. The songs had that creative brief. Their melodies, although sung in English, are constructed and stepped along Manding lines. The originality of Sissoko and Faccini’s dialogue is best exemplified with the song “If Nothing is Real” — a song that succeeds in finding a home away from home, both on the African and European continents. It is a testament to the Nightingale, or Sorofé Kono in Bambara, the songbird that first inspired these old friends to compose music of their own calling. Ballake Sissoko Website info/tickets/questions: worldclassmusic.live/contact or Ticketing Page

Sep
15

Smoke Cabaret starring Lori Rivera

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM · $28

Community Revels: Smoke Cabaret Love – it’s not for the faint of heart. In this one-woman show, the incomparable Lori Rivera brings to life two endearing characters – the innocent Celeste, looking for Mr. Right with a dangerously open heart, and the worldly Francesca, master of erotic strategy. Prepare to fall – Hard! One night only: Tuesday, September 15 @ 7PM Santa Cruz Shakespeare's Community Revels are special performances by local area artists, held on select Tuesday nights at the Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park, offering a lively, intimate alternative to the main repertory season.

Art & Culture Music 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
16

Pedro Martin, Mexikid Dreams: A Graphic Memoir

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM · See listing

FREE IN-STORE EVENT: Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes award-winning author and illustrator Pedro Martin to celebrate the release of Mexikid Dreams: A Graphic Memoir. In this extraordinary companion to...

Art & Culture Free Details →
Sep
17

Submerge - Going Deep in Dance

📍 Santa Cruz Yoga
🕒 12:00 AM · See listing

SUBMERGE exists for the dancers and for the artists. It's a dance party, a movement meditation and a fantastic workout all at once. Drawing inspiration from the great dances of music festivals and burning man, as well as the best parts of the ecstatic dance movement, SUBMERGE exists to provide dancers a deep canvas for movement, and also for experienced artists (often with decades of wisdom) to get fairly paid. 100% of ticket revenues go to the artists.

Art & Culture Wellness Details →
Sep
17

Zentangle Club

📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 11:30 AM · See listing

Thursday, September 17 2026 10:30am - 12:00pm The Zentangle Method is a fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. Join Certified Zentangle Teacher Lisa Hoesing for an introductory workshop and monthly meetup.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Sep
17

Confluence - Art Exhibition

📍 M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Confluence: where separate currents meet. The exhibition brings together two distinct practices, each shaped by its own materials, process, and point of view - meeting at a single point within the gallery. Carter's work begins from a place of not knowing, letting intuition guide the encounter between material and chance. Arias describes her work as primitive contemporary, presenting her sculptures as if they belonged in a history museum - objects that carry the weight and presence of relics. Together, their work forms a quiet conversation about what separate paths can become when they meet. "Susana and Glenn each bring such a deeply distinctive artistic voice to their work," said Rose Sellery, exhibition curator. "Confluence explores the fertile ground where two creative currents meet. Their work remains unmistakably their own, yet in conversation with one another it reveals new layers of meaning, beauty and possibility." Confluence is shown alongside work from more than 25 local and regional artists whose work the gallery is proud to represent, reflecting M.K. Contemporary's ongoing commitment to the Santa Cruz arts community. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception on August 7, featuring live improvisational jazz from The Leftovers. The public is invited to attend.

Sep
17

Maps of Elsewhere: A Collage Workshop with Iris Weaver

📍 Tumbleweed Found
🕒 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM · $45

A Collage Workshop about Place, Memory & Imagination What if a map didn’t just tell us where to go? What if maps could show where we’ve been, where we long to go, and the landscapes we carry inside ourselves? In this collage workshop, we’ll explore the idea of mapping as a way to explore memory, imagination, longing, and personal experience. Using found images, vintage photographs, maps, textures, symbols, and fragments of language, we’ll create three unique visual maps. Some maps may be recognizable. Others may be imagined, emotional, dreamlike, or entirely invented. This is an invitation to move beyond geography and explore the places that shape us, the places we imagine, and the landscapes we carry within. Iris Weaver studied art on weekends at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam while living and teaching in the Netherlands. Her work has recently been exhibited at Gallery 881 with Broad Magazine in Vancouver, British Columbia (2024) and Postales desde el Limbo in Zaragoza, Spain (2025). Her work has also been featured in Contemporary Collage Magazine, Kolaj Magazine, and Why Collage? Magazine.

Art & Culture Education Details →
Sep
17

Fools, Monsters, and Marvels of the Old World Carnival: A lecture & book signing with author Al Ridenour

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

Join us at the MAH for a wonderful presentation from author Al Ridenour! Based on his book, A Season of Madness: Fools, Monsters, and Marvels of the Old-World Carnival (Feral House, 2025), Ridenour's lively and immersive presentation employs slides, video, props, and other surprises to illustrate a history reaching back to 4th-century Rome and widespread from Sardinia to Bulgaria. A Season of Madness focuses primarily on old (yet still extant) Carnival traditions echoing the customs of village life, medieval Christianity, and paganism. Much of this revolves around the activities of costumed groups visiting homes or interacting with spectators in public spaces. Their behavior is often chaotic or intimidating and their appearance bizarre, even monstrous, yet contact with them is said to bring luck and fertility. Often costumed in shaggy sheepskins, horned masks, and almost always wearing bells, these figures invite comparison to the Krampus.First encountering them while researching The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas (Feral House 2016), Ridenour was intrigued and began studying the historical intertwining of these traditions. Tonight's presentation will explore that connection and provide an overview of the regional celebrations detailed in A Season of Madness, a volume described by Dr. Paul Koudounaris (Empire of Death, Heavenly Bodies, Faithful unto Death) as "sumptuously illustrated and written with clarity, eloquence, and wry humor."

Festivals Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
17

Private Lives by Noel Coward, presented by Santa Cruz Shakespeare

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga
🕒 7:00 PM · See listing

Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Private Lives by Noel Coward, under the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Private Lives By Noel Coward Directed by Laura Gordon If you think Beatrice and Benedick go at it in Much Ado, wait until you see Amanda and Elyot. Both on honeymoons with new spouses, having violently divorced years before, Amanda and Elyot discover each other sharing adjoining balconies in the same hotel. Well, one thing leads to another, and… sometimes the line between love and hate is so thin. In Noel Coward’s masterpiece, we witness two selfish, passionate, egotistical, madly in love people drive each other absolutely crazy. How can they possibly survive together? But more importantly, perhaps, how can they survive apart? With Coward’s searing wit, you’ll laugh until you cry while they scream until they kiss. And vice versa. Private Lives will star Charles Pasternak as Elyot and Paige Lindsey White as Amanda. Private Lives runs September 4 – October 4. Tickets available for purchase starting May 1. More information at https://santacruzshakespeare.org/tickets/ Seasonal box office hours beginning May 1 are Tuesday through Friday from 12p.m. to 4p.m. Call 831-460-6399.

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
18

Confluence - Art Exhibition

📍 M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Confluence: where separate currents meet. The exhibition brings together two distinct practices, each shaped by its own materials, process, and point of view - meeting at a single point within the gallery. Carter's work begins from a place of not knowing, letting intuition guide the encounter between material and chance. Arias describes her work as primitive contemporary, presenting her sculptures as if they belonged in a history museum - objects that carry the weight and presence of relics. Together, their work forms a quiet conversation about what separate paths can become when they meet. "Susana and Glenn each bring such a deeply distinctive artistic voice to their work," said Rose Sellery, exhibition curator. "Confluence explores the fertile ground where two creative currents meet. Their work remains unmistakably their own, yet in conversation with one another it reveals new layers of meaning, beauty and possibility." Confluence is shown alongside work from more than 25 local and regional artists whose work the gallery is proud to represent, reflecting M.K. Contemporary's ongoing commitment to the Santa Cruz arts community. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception on August 7, featuring live improvisational jazz from The Leftovers. The public is invited to attend.

Sep
18

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Sep
19

Zentangle

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing

A fun and easy-to-learn way of drawing structured patterns to create beautiful images. The Zentangle Method makes drawing patterns, or tangles, accessible to almost anyone of all ages since tangles are created from basic pen strokes. If you can write your name, you can create art with Zentangle. As you draw tangles you will likely experience increased focus, calm, creativity and well-being. For those of you who attended the Introductory Zentangle class on February 20, this class will also introduce Zentangle and review the Zentangle Method. However, we will be doing variations of previously taught tangles and/or new tangles, so you will create a completely different Zentangle tile than before. Meets the 3rd Saturday of each month from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm.Facilitated by Cynthia Balthaser.

Art & Culture Family Details →
Sep
19

Confluence - Art Exhibition

📍 M.K. Contemporary Art Gallery
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Confluence: where separate currents meet. The exhibition brings together two distinct practices, each shaped by its own materials, process, and point of view - meeting at a single point within the gallery. Carter's work begins from a place of not knowing, letting intuition guide the encounter between material and chance. Arias describes her work as primitive contemporary, presenting her sculptures as if they belonged in a history museum - objects that carry the weight and presence of relics. Together, their work forms a quiet conversation about what separate paths can become when they meet. "Susana and Glenn each bring such a deeply distinctive artistic voice to their work," said Rose Sellery, exhibition curator. "Confluence explores the fertile ground where two creative currents meet. Their work remains unmistakably their own, yet in conversation with one another it reveals new layers of meaning, beauty and possibility." Confluence is shown alongside work from more than 25 local and regional artists whose work the gallery is proud to represent, reflecting M.K. Contemporary's ongoing commitment to the Santa Cruz arts community. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception on August 7, featuring live improvisational jazz from The Leftovers. The public is invited to attend.

Sep
19

"Script Please"

📍 Market Street Theater and Senior Center
🕒 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM · $15

"SCRIPT, PLEASE!” - Six short plays by two local playwrights to be performed as Staged Readings. Performances will be held on Saturday, September 19th and Sunday, September 20th, at 2pm, at The Market Street Theater and Senior Center, 222 Market Street, Santa Cruz, CA. If you have enjoyed the Reader’s Theatre Short Play Festival, offered by NextStage Productions, or 8 10’s@8, “Best of the Rest,” you will love this afternoon of live theater. Requested donation: $15

Art & Culture Details →
Sep
19

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Sep
20

Downtown Santa Cruz: Makers Market

📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Makers Market
🕒 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Enjoy the Downtown Santa Cruz Makers Market every THIRD Sunday in 2026! Featuring 40+ local makers & artists, this market hosts a wide range of locally handmade goods. Find some of your favorite Santa Cruz makers AND brand new ones…the variety of goods at the market is always exceptional. Friendly leashed pups are welcome! Check out their website for the full list of participating vendors! Sponsored by Farm Fresh to You Supported by Downtown Santa Cruz Presented by SCM Makers Market

Markets Art & Culture 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
20

"Script Please"

📍 Market Street Theater and Senior Center
🕒 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM · $15

"SCRIPT, PLEASE!” - Six short plays by two local playwrights to be performed as Staged Readings. Performances will be held on Saturday, September 19th and Sunday, September 20th, at 2pm, at The Market Street Theater and Senior Center, 222 Market Street, Santa Cruz, CA. If you have enjoyed the Reader’s Theatre Short Play Festival, offered by NextStage Productions, or 8 10’s@8, “Best of the Rest,” you will love this afternoon of live theater. Requested donation: $15

Art & Culture Details →
Sep
22

Companions of the Sun

📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 4:00 PM · See listing

Tuesday, September 22 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm Learn about Iranian rituals and beliefs in relation to dance, as well as how Iranian culture has impacted global music and dance traditions.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Sep
22

The SCS Cast Sings! A Night of Cabaret

📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM · $28

Community Revels: Luke Shepherd and Friends Join us for a cabaret evening with the incredible Luke Shepherd and many SCS cast superstars singing some of their favorite tunes live with Luke on the piano. Fancy dress encouraged! All proceeds from The SCS Cast Sings! A Night of Cabaret with SCS and Luke Shepherd will go to supporting SCS educational campaigns. Luke's work with SCS has included sound design and composition. He was the music director for Into the Woods in 2025, for Christmas Carol in 2024 and 2025, and will be the music director for The Last Five Years in 2026. One night only: Tuesday, September 22 @ 7PM Santa Cruz Shakespeare's Community Revels are special performances by local area artists, held on select Tuesday nights at the Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park, offering a lively, intimate alternative to the main repertory season.

Music Art & Culture 📍 Midtown Details →
Sep
23

Felton Community Crafters

📍 Felton Branch Library
🕒 10:30 AM – 2:30 PM · See listing

Join us each 4th Wednesday of the month for a relaxing time crafting with your neighbors. The Community Crafters are a diverse group of makers and they love to share their knowledge. We weave, spin yarn, make baskets, felt, and so much more. All crafters are welcome! We hope you will join us in creating community and beautiful things!

Community Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Sep
24

MAH Art Travel Program - Silicon Valley

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 9:15 AM – 7:00 PM · $175

Join MAH Executive Director Ginger Shulick Porcella for a full day of art, food, and community as we explore the greater Silicon Valley. Together we'll be led on guided tours of museum exhibitions, then gather for tapas, dinner, and wine at PintxoPote. This trip is open to all MAH members, and space is limited. If you have any dietary needs or mobility considerations, please reply to this email so we can ensure your experience is comfortable and enjoyable. Itinerary 9:15am - Convene in MAH Atrium for pastries and coffee 9:30am - Depart MAH in luxury passenger van Anderson Collection 11:00am - Private Museum Tour of Anderson Collection 12:00pm - Lunch at Tootsie's in ICA San Jose 1:45pm - Private Tour of Greg Ito's To Give and Take New Museum Los Gatos 3:00pm - Private Tour of New Museum Los Gatos Monte Sereno 4:00pm - Tour of Monte Sereno Eichler Homes 5:00pm - Dinner at PintxoPote 7:00pm - Arrive back at MAH We can't wait to explore the Silicon Valley art scene with you!

Art & Culture Food & Drink 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
24

Felton Community Crafters

📍 Felton Branch Library
🕒 10:30 AM · See listing

Join us each 4th Wednesday of the month for a relaxing time crafting with your neighbors. The Community Crafters are a diverse group of makers and they love to share their knowledge. We weave, spin yarn, make baskets, felt, and so much more. All crafters are welcome! We hope you will join us in creating community and beautiful things!

Community Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Sep
24

Yappy Hours @ the MAH!

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM · See listing

Join us for Yappy Hours in the Kincentricity Garden every last Thursday of the month! Meet the pups that are up for adoption (paperwork to fill out onsite), sip on a few "Barktinis", and enjoy furry-friend festivities like the option for dogs to make their very own paw paintings!

Art & Culture Family 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
25

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Sep
26

Castro Adobe State Historic Park: Open House

📍 Castro Adobe State Historic Park
🕒 10:30 AM – 2:00 PM · FREE

If you love California history and our state’s cultural heritage, come celebrate with us at the Castro Adobe State Historic Park! Visit at the next open house. This tour that repeats every 90-minutes throughout the day will surely have you falling head over heels with all the park has to offer! This 90-minute tour is led by State Park docents who will share the history of the Castro family, and the two-story adobe hacienda built over 170 years ago. Enjoy a relaxing afternoon touring Rancho San Andres Castro Adobe State Historic Property in Watsonville, CA. Learn about the Vaquero culture and living during the Mexican Rancho Period of California History. *This event requires pre-registration through the link in the orange button above.

Family Art & Culture 📍 Watsonville Details →
Sep
26

Role-playing Games at the Library

📍 Freedom Branch Library
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · See listing

Watsonville Public Library and the Santa Cruz County Roleplayin g Games Group invite anyone in the community interested in tabletop role-p laying games (TTRPGs) to come and learn how to play multiple role-playing games. Several games will be presented at the same session at different ta bles. The focus for this session is for people to experience the ga mes without the commitment of lots of sessions or money spent. Everything needed to play will be provided, and all skill levels are welcome! Audience: Adults. https://www.watsonville.gov/calendar.aspx?EID=7417

Art & Culture Community 📍 Watsonville Details →
Sep
26

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Sep
27

The Art of Unwinding Wellness Retreat

📍 La Bahia Hotel & Spa
🕒 6:00 AM – 11:00 AM · $3000

Restore balance on the Santa Cruz coast at La Bahia Hotel & Spa. This September 25–27, join us for a two-night wellness retreat designed to calm the nervous system, release burnout, and restore your energy. Led by Santa Cruz yoga instructor and wellness educator Marissa Victoria, the retreat blends yoga, meditation, sound healing, a guided wellness workshop, nourishing cuisine, and restorative time at the spa, pool, and beach. Through thoughtfully guided movement, mindfulness, and restorative practices, you'll reconnect with yourself and gain practical tools to support lasting well-being. You'll leave feeling refreshed, renewed, and inspired long after the retreat ends as you experience the Art of Unwinding. $3,000 for one guest | $1,500 for an additional guest sharing a Standard King guestroom.

Wellness Art & Culture 📍 Beach & Boardwalk Details →
Sep
27

Rite Life - A Writing Group Amongst the Dead

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM · See listing

This monthly series of writing workshops in Evergreen Cemetery is facilitated by local poet Gabriel Kittle-Cervine. Rite Life is a workshop that blends the act of automatic writing, with our individual practices of ancestor veneration, to confront that which haunts us, and to celebrate that which allows us to live. The workshop was born in 2016 from the vision of a profound poet and spiritual teacher named Honeysun, just a couple of years before she passed beyond this life. Her initial concept for the Rite Life workshop is preserved in the way it's practiced today; still facilitated by Gabe, her friend and pupil, alongside a bright circle of local writers and practitioners of craft. Learn more at www.blankmetafour.com or follow @unclegabe831 on Instagram. All ages welcome, and we'll be there rain or shine-see y'all in the cemetery!

Art & Culture Family 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Sep
28

Coffee with the Curators

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM · See listing

Grab a cup of coffee and hang out with a MAH curator! Coffee with the Curators is a morning at the museum where you can chat, ask questions, and hear behind-the-scenes stories about the exhibitions and collections. Coffee and good conversation are complimentary with museum admission.

Sep
28

Reading Poems Together

📍 Capitola Branch Library
🕒 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM · See listing

Come join a community of readers who meet the 4th Monday of each month to hear poetry and discuss its curious powers. Come join a community of readers who meet the 4th Monday of each month to hear poetry and discuss its curious powers. Discussions facilitated by Paola Bruni, Elaine Fletcher Chapman, and Jessica Cohn. Registration encouraged. Walk-ins welcome. https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/14321587 Poets in 2026 January 26 Joy Harjo February 23 Billy Collins March 23 Eavan Boland April 27 Arthur Sze May 18 * Emily Dickinson June 22 Gary Snyder July 27 Dean Young August 24 Lucille Clifton September 28 Sharon Olds October 26 Juan Felipe Herrera November 23 Ada Limon December 28 Jericho Brown *Note: Third Monday in May because of Memorial Day

Art & Culture Community 📍 Capitola Details →
Sep
28

Reading Poems Together

📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
🕒 1:00 PM · See listing

Monday, September 28 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm Come join a community of readers who meet the 4th Monday of each month to hear poetry and discuss its curious powers.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Oct
1

Drop-In Drawing at the MAH

📍 Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

Ever been inspired to drop everything and create when visiting an exhibition at the MAH? Join us for a Drop-In Drawing session in the gallery from 6-8pm on the first Thursday of every month. This is not a formal lesson, but an opportunity to bring in your own art supplies and sketch what you see. Dry media only (no markers or paint). All ages welcome. Free with admission. The museum will provide stools, feel free to bring a cushion or folding chair if space allows. Groups of 5+ please give advanced notice by emailing [email protected] . Drop-In Drawing Calendar 2025 September 4 - Art Forum Gallery / Ed Penniman: Landscapes of Home October 2 - Art Forum Gallery / Ed Penniman: Landscapes of Home November 6 - Art Forum Gallery / Ed Penniman: Landscapes of Home December 4 - Art Forum Gallery / Ed Penniman: Landscapes of Home 2026 January 1 - NONE (New Years Day) February 5 - Solari Gallery / Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship March 5 - Solari Gallery / Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship Comment end

Art & Culture Family 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Oct
1

Miriam Pawel, California Dreams

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing

FREE IN-STORE EVENT: Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Miriam Pawel for a reading and signing of her new book California Dreams: The Making and Remaking of the Universi...

Art & Culture Free Details →
Oct
2

Fall Girl Scout Overnight

📍 Santa Cruz Boardwalk
🕒 4:00 PM – 3:00 AM · See listing

Calling all Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, and Seniors—this exciting overnight adventure is just for you! Includes: • Camping Under the Stars on the Boardwalk • Exclusive Free Play in the Arcade • Dinner & Breakfast • Outdoor Movie • Exclusive time on the Looff Carousel & Pirate Ship Friday night • Sand Sculpture Competition • Event Patch • Ride Wristband for Saturday • Discounted Parking Package Price: $99.95 per person Deadline September 27, 2026, or until full. Register today! bit.ly/Fall-Girl-Scout-Overnight

Art & Culture Family 📍 Beach & Boardwalk Details →
Oct
2
Treehouse

Treehouse Dispensary First Friday

📍 Treehouse Dispensary
🕒 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE

Treehouse Dispensary hosts a monthly First Friday event on the first Friday of every month. These events feature live music, local artists, makers, and an art market with up to 20 different vendors, along with shop-wide discounts and community activities. The shop is open 8:00 AM to 9:45 PM daily. We're proud to offer everyday savings for our community: New Members: 10% off your first order Wisdom Discount (65+): 5% off Medical Patients: 10% off Students & Teachers: 20% off with valid ID Veterans: 20% off *Please note that discounts do not stack with other deals. Ask staff for exclusions.

Cannabis Art & Culture 📍 Soquel Details →
Oct
2

First Friday Santa Cruz

📍 Multiple locations throughout Santa Cruz County
🕒 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE

On the first Friday evening of every month, Santa Cruz galleries, shops, and cultural venues open their doors to showcase the works of Santa Cruz County artists. With a block party-like vibe, the multi-venue event provides an opportunity to discover local creative talent in a fun and festive setting. Many venues entice attendees with yummy cheese-and-wine-filled spreads, while others have food trucks joining in on the fun.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Oct
2

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Oct
3

Soul Collage

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM · See listing

Call to register or if you have questions: 457-2273 Location will vary so call for details The facilitator will bring photos. You are responsible for purchasing materials (see below). Discover your Wisdom with SoulCollage® Let's explore our inner selves. Using images, imagination and intuition, you will begin to create your own personal deck of collaged cards. Part art project, part spiritual practice, SoulCollage® allows you to deepen your understanding of yourself and tap into your inner wisdom that can guide you on important life decisions. In a fun, creative, and relaxed environment, you will create cards that will reveal parts of your personality, your archetypes, and other guides, allies, and challengers. We will talk about the ways you can use your personal deck of collaged cards to tap into your inner wisdom. No art experience necessary. Anyone can create SoulCollage® cards! We use scissors, glue, and images cut from magazines to create our cards. You’ll take home several finished cards—and no doubt a love for this creative process! Please bring with you : * Scissors * Glue stick (best kind is Pioneer glue stick) * 8 x 5 mat board * Pen & Notebook

Art & Culture Wellness Details →
Oct
3

Fall Girl Scout Overnight

📍 Santa Cruz Boardwalk
🕒 4:00 PM · See listing

Calling all Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, and Seniors—this exciting overnight adventure is just for you! Includes: • Camping Under the Stars on the Boardwalk • Exclusive Free Play in the Arcade • Dinner & Breakfast • Outdoor Movie • Exclusive time on the Looff Carousel & Pirate Ship Friday night • Sand Sculpture Competition • Event Patch • Ride Wristband for Saturday • Discounted Parking Package Price: $99.95 per person Deadline September 27, 2026, or until full. Register today! bit.ly/Fall-Girl-Scout-Overnight

Art & Culture Family 📍 Beach & Boardwalk Details →
Oct
3

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Oct
4

Dungeons and Dragons for Adults

📍 Downtown Branch Library
🕒 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM · See listing

Come join the magical world of D&D storytelling, where you can be a bard, a wizard, or a barbarian for a few hours and let your creativity run free. Solve weird and wonderful problems with spells, cunning, or daggers and make some new friends in the process. Whether you're a complete beginner or a seasoned player you will be welcomed every 1st Sunday for an afternoon of collaborative storytelling at the Downtown Branch. Friendly game masters will be ready with dice, characters, and the start of a story; all we need is your creativity and enthusiasm. No prior experience is necessary. This program is for adults 18+. This program also happens on 3rd Saturdays at the Capitola Branch from 12-5. What is Dungeons and Dragons? D&D is one of many tabletop roleplaying games, in which players create and control fictional characters within a shared imaginary world. A Game Master guides the story and sets the scene, while the players make decisions for their characters, rolling dice to determine outcomes. TTRPGs encourage creativity, teamwork, and storytelling as players collaborate to overcome challenges and complete quests. Modern D&D has veered away from the combat-heavy game it used to be. While it's still possible to spend hours attacking monsters and finding loot, many groups now tell stories of mystery, intrigue, horror, or whimsy. Who are the game masters? This event is organized by Jeltje van Baren ( [email protected] ), who learned to play a few years ago and has been creating games for new players ever since. She will be assisted by a rotating group of diverse GMs from the local TTRPG community, all of whom are used to patiently explaining the rules and keeping the game fun for everyone.

Art & Culture Adults 21+ 📍 Downtown Santa Cruz Details →
Oct
9

Art for Healing

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM · See listing

Art for Healing: Using the power of the creative process to provide support, insight and a deeper relationship with yourself in a safe and nurturing environment. No art experience necessary. All art supplies provided.Meets 2nd Friday of the month, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm. (Space is limited so please check with WomenCARE re: availability) Facilitated by Dayna Lea

Wellness Art & Culture Details →
Oct
9

Fall Scout Overnight

📍 Santa Cruz Boardwalk
🕒 4:00 PM · See listing

Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, Venturers, and Scout family and friends—you're invited to experience this exciting overnight event! Includes: • Camping under the stars on the Boardwalk • Exclusive Free Play in the Arcade • Dinner & Breakfast • Outdoor movie • Exclusive time on the Looff Carousel & Pirate Ship on Friday night • Sand Sculpture Competition • Event patch • Ride Wristband for Saturday • Discounted parking $99.95 per person Deadline October 4, 2026, or until full. Register today: bit.ly/Fall-Scout-Overnight

Art & Culture Family 📍 Beach & Boardwalk Details →
Oct
9

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Oct
10

Writing Circle

📍 WomenCARE
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing

Writing Circle: Open to the writer in each of us, this group allows for creative exploration in a supportive space right where you are. Each session is a surprise. Your creations are prompted by writing activities and the stories of your life—bring your notebook and invite your muse. Meets the 2nd Saturday of every month, 10 am to 12 noon at WomenCARE’s Soquel office.

Art & Culture Wellness 📍 Soquel Details →
Oct
10

Fall Scout Overnight

📍 Santa Cruz Boardwalk
🕒 4:00 PM · See listing

Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, Venturers, and Scout family and friends—you're invited to experience this exciting overnight event! Includes: • Camping under the stars on the Boardwalk • Exclusive Free Play in the Arcade • Dinner & Breakfast • Outdoor movie • Exclusive time on the Looff Carousel & Pirate Ship on Friday night • Sand Sculpture Competition • Event patch • Ride Wristband for Saturday • Discounted parking $99.95 per person Deadline October 4, 2026, or until full. Register today: bit.ly/Fall-Scout-Overnight

Art & Culture Family 📍 Beach & Boardwalk Details →
Oct
10

Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour Adventure Night

📍 Rio Theatre for the Performing Arts
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $27.45

Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival is one of the largest and most prestigious mountain festivals in the world! Hot on the heels of the Festival that is held every fall in beautiful Banff, Alberta, the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour hits the road. With stops planned in over 600 communities and more than 40 countries across the globe, the Banff World Tour celebrates amazing achievements in outdoor storytelling and filmmaking worldwide. From the over 400 entries submitted to the Festival competition each year, award-winners and audience favorites are among the films that are carefully selected to play in theatres around the world.Traveling to remote vistas, analyzing topical environmental issues, and bringing audiences up-close and personal with adrenaline-packed action sports the 2025/2026 World Tour is an exhilarating and provocative exploration of the mountain world. Join us when we screen this all new Adventure line up of films (see below) featuring the BEST DAY EVER, the Audience Choice Award Winner and Best Film: Mountain Sports and five other engaging films.This year’s event will once again support the Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship.

Art & Culture Outdoors 📍 Midtown Details →
Oct
10

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Oct
14

Various SC Theaters: Santa Cruz Film Festival 2026

📍 Visit Santa Cruz County
🕒 12:00 AM – 11:59 PM · $20

The Santa Cruz Film Festival is not the kind of festival where you simply watch a movie, clap politely, and head home. Step inside the wonderfully unpredictable world of independent film—where original stories, fearless filmmakers, curious audiences, and the creative spirit of Santa Cruz come together for five unforgettable days. Explore narrative films, documentaries, animation, experimental work, environmental stories, student projects, locally produced films, and voices that challenge the familiar. Meet the filmmakers behind the screen, ask questions during live Q&As, and discover how an idea becomes a script, a production, and eventually a story shared with an audience. And because some of the best conversations happen after the credits roll, the festival experience extends far beyond the theater. Enjoy industry panels, filmmaker mixers, live music, culinary events, beer and cider tastings, mixology demonstrations, beachside s’mores, parties, and gatherings in some of Santa Cruz’s most memorable locations. Whether you are a lifelong film lover, a filmmaker searching for inspiration, a student exploring the industry, or simply someone who enjoys discovering something new, Santa Cruz Film Festival offers a place to connect, celebrate, learn, laugh, and be surprised. Come for the films. Stay for the stories, the food, the people, the parties, and the wonderfully cinematic energy of Santa Cruz. This October, don’t just watch the festival. Be part of it.

Festivals Art & Culture Details →
Oct
16

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Oct
17

Zentangle

📍 Santa Cruz
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing

A fun and easy-to-learn way of drawing structured patterns to create beautiful images. The Zentangle Method makes drawing patterns, or tangles, accessible to almost anyone of all ages since tangles are created from basic pen strokes. If you can write your name, you can create art with Zentangle. As you draw tangles you will likely experience increased focus, calm, creativity and well-being. For those of you who attended the Introductory Zentangle class on February 20, this class will also introduce Zentangle and review the Zentangle Method. However, we will be doing variations of previously taught tangles and/or new tangles, so you will create a completely different Zentangle tile than before. Meets the 3rd Saturday of each month from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm.Facilitated by Cynthia Balthaser.

Art & Culture Family Details →
Oct
17

Open Studios Art Tour: All County

📍 All of Santa Cruz County
🕒 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM · FREE

Open Studios is your opportunity to explore creativity in Santa Cruz County. For more than 35 years, their goal has been simple: connect artists with people who love art. For the first three weekends in October, artists from the redwoods to the bay open their studios so that friends, neighbors, and strangers from near and far can discover art in this stunning county.

Community Art & Culture Details →
Oct
17

Roaring Camp: Sequoia Lights

📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
🕒 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $15.9

This nighttime experience will bring you a magical and immersive perspective on the ancient forest at Roaring Camp. During the 0.8-mile loop walk, you will view 26 unique, lighted lanterns, hung approximately 50 feet above the ground. The lanterns were crafted by local artists including Anna Bobisuthi, Roaring Camp’s resident blacksmith, and Chris Butler, who also created the lighting design for Sequoias at Night. Tickets are available at the link in the orange button above. Kids under two enter for free. Roaring Camp’s food services and gift shop will be open.

Outdoors Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →
Oct
22

Felton Community Crafters

📍 Felton Branch Library
🕒 10:30 AM · See listing

Join us each 4th Wednesday of the month for a relaxing time crafting with your neighbors. The Community Crafters are a diverse group of makers and they love to share their knowledge. We weave, spin yarn, make baskets, felt, and so much more. All crafters are welcome! We hope you will join us in creating community and beautiful things!

Community Art & Culture 📍 San Lorenzo Valley Details →

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