Filter by category, date, or area. Everything listed is in person, county-wide.
Showing 30 of 101 upcoming events · Art & Culture · from 2026-07-19 · to 2026-07-26
📍 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
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · $345
A one-week summer theater production of Moana Jr. for young performers, culminating in a performance.
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM · $895
A three-week summer theater intensive producing Moana Jr., with more rehearsal time and full production.
📍 Comicopolis
🕒 12:00 PM · FREE
It's time to get those crayons sharpened, paints mixed and markers at the ready for our Summer 2026 Pokémon Art Contest for kids 5-12! To join in, create a picture of your favorite Pokémon having a fun moment or striking a cool, dynamic pose. Submissions should be on 8.5 x 11 paper. You can use any medium you like, such as paint, marker, crayon, pencil, etc. No digital art. There will be prizes awarded to two age groups, 5-7 and 8-12. Entries accepted June 1st-July 31st. Winners will be announced on August 6th. BONUS: All participants will receive a free Pokémon:Chaos Rising 11x17 mini-poster (while supplies last) when you hand in your art.
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM · $395
A technical training camp for theater at All About Theatre in Santa Cruz, covering skills for behind-the-scenes production.
📍 Motion Pacific at The 418 Project
🕒 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM · See listing
This is Motion Pacific's Beginning Jazz Fusion class for adult dancers.
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $595
A staged production of the acclaimed musical Dear Evan Hansen, presented at All About Theatre in Santa Cruz.
📍 The 418 Project
🕒 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM · See listing
A weekly Afro-Brazilian dance class focusing on rhythm and movement.
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM · See listing
3 booked, 3 available Annika Bauerle
📍 The Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM · See listing
Santa Cruz Shakespeare leans into drag’s theatre roots with full sequined conviction. Pink Ladies of the Sonnets brings some of the Bay Area’s most talented drag queens and kings to the park for an evening where Shakespearean poetry, comedy, and drama meet the glittery cabaret of drag. Drawing inspiration from the sonnets, these performers carry on a tradition of gender play that runs through Shakespeare’s work from the very beginning This one-night extravaganza of Shakespearean proportions is sure to have the audience laughing, dancing, and singing along. Enjoy the show in drag, denim, however, feels right. After all, the Bard was always fabulous. -Shelly Novo; Good Times Santa Cruz
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM · $895
A three-week summer theater intensive producing Moana Jr., with more rehearsal time and full production.
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · $345
A one-week summer theater production of Moana Jr. for young performers, culminating in a performance.
📍 Comicopolis
🕒 12:00 PM · FREE
It's time to get those crayons sharpened, paints mixed and markers at the ready for our Summer 2026 Pokémon Art Contest for kids 5-12! To join in, create a picture of your favorite Pokémon having a fun moment or striking a cool, dynamic pose. Submissions should be on 8.5 x 11 paper. You can use any medium you like, such as paint, marker, crayon, pencil, etc. No digital art. There will be prizes awarded to two age groups, 5-7 and 8-12. Entries accepted June 1st-July 31st. Winners will be announced on August 6th. BONUS: All participants will receive a free Pokémon:Chaos Rising 11x17 mini-poster (while supplies last) when you hand in your art.
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM · See listing
0 booked, 4 available Glazing
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM · $395
A technical training camp for theater at All About Theatre in Santa Cruz, covering skills for behind-the-scenes production.
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 1:30 PM – 4:00 PM · See listing
1 booked, 7 available Maria Ayllon
📍 The 418 Project
🕒 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM · See listing
Weekly hula and Tahitian dance class at The 418 Project. Learn traditional Hawaiian and Polynesian dance in a supportive environment.
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM · $595
A staged production of the acclaimed musical Dear Evan Hansen, presented at All About Theatre in Santa Cruz.
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM · See listing
5 booked, 2 available Kathryn Pierno
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 7:00 PM – 9:15 PM · See listing
0 booked, 7 available
📍 Rio Theatre for the Performing Arts
🕒 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM · See listing
The hardest thing in the world is to live only once… Bookshop Santa Cruz and The Humanities Institute are pleased to welcome critically acclaimed author and staff favorite Ocean Vuong (Time Is a Mother, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous) for an event celebrating the paperback release of The Emperor of Gladness, Vuong’s bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. Vuong will be in conversation with UC Santa Cruz Professor Ronaldo V. Wilson. Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance. Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the American Book Award, he was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and currently splits his time between western Massachusetts and New York City. The Emperor of Gladness is his latest novel. More information at: Bookshop Santa Cruz – Ocean Vuong Co-Sponsored by The Humanities Institute
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · $345
A one-week summer theater production of Moana Jr. for young performers, culminating in a performance.
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM · See listing
0 booked, 14 available Noelle Lightbourne
📍 The 418 Project
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · See listing
A free weekly dance jam for babies and their caregivers at The 418 Project in Santa Cruz, with movement, music, and play in a joyful environment.
📍 Watsonville Library
🕒 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM · See listing
Event date: July 22, 2026 Event Time: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM Location: 2021 Freedom Blvd Freedom, CA 95019 Watsonville, CA 95076
📍 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
📍 All About Theatre
🕒 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM · $395
A technical training camp for theater at All About Theatre in Santa Cruz, covering skills for behind-the-scenes production.
📍 Watsonville Civic Plaza
🕒 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM · See listing
Event date: July 22, 2026 Event Time: 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM Location: 275 Main Street, Suite #100 Watsonville, CA 95076
📍 The 418 Project
🕒 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM · See listing
A regular tango class in Downtown Santa Cruz, offering a way to learn Latin dance in a social, cultural setting.
📍 Rio Theater
🕒 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM · See listing
The award-winning documentary Frequency: The Secret of Everything comes home to Santa Cruz — the community that helped create it. Evening opens with a talk by bestselling author and longtime local Dr. Bruce Lipton (The Biology of Belief), followed by the film and a Q&A panel with Lipton, Foster and Kimberly Gamble (Thrive), and filmmaker Kaia Roman (The Joy Plan). Sponsored by Coherence Education. dvance tickets recommended.
