Filter by category, date, or area. Everything listed is in person, county-wide.
13 upcoming events · Art & Culture · from 2026-07-29 · to 2026-07-29
📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 12:00 AM – 11:59 PM · See listing
Santa Cruz Shakespeare Family Days Santa Cruz Shakespeare is hosting Family Days with performances of Much Ado About Nothing on July 29 and Aug. 5. Kids age 12 and under are FREE with a paid adult ticket. Gates open at 10am show at noon. Prior to the performance, families can enjoy on-site activities and lunch at the Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga Park santacruzshakespeare.org/plan/familydays
📍 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.
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM · See listing
0 booked, 14 available Noelle Lightbourne
📍 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.
📍 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
📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 12:00 PM – 3:00 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.
📍 Garfield Park Branch Library
🕒 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM · See listing
Every week we will have a new project idea for you to build or explore. Projects will include Science, Arts & Crafts, including model building, and exploration of the environment around us. Children will need an adult present to help them. Expect to get messy!
📍 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.
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM · See listing
0 booked, 6 available Chris Finnie
📍 Motion Pacific at The 418 Project
🕒 6:30 PM – 8:15 PM · See listing
This is Motion Pacific's Advanced Contemporary Jazz Dance class for adults.
📍 Watsonville
🕒 6:30 PM · See listing
Have you ever had the chance to attend a live puppet show? Join us for a classic retelling of "Jack and the Beanstalk" brought to life by Fratello Marionettes on Wednesday, July 29 at 6:30pm at the Main Library. This program will be presented in English and the intended audience is families. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. ESPAÑOL ¿Alguna vez has tenido la oportunidad de asistir a un espectáculo de marionetas en vivo? Se le invita a una presentación para una versión clásica de "Jack y las Habichuelas Mágicas" que será presentada por Fratello Marionettes el miércoles, 29 de julio a las 6:30pm en la Biblioteca Principal. Este programa se presentará en inglés y la audiencia prevista son las familias. Los asientos estarán disponibles por orden de llegada.
📍 The 418 Project
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · See listing
A weekly evening of tango in Santa Cruz, offering a chance to learn, dance, and connect with a new community.
📍 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.
