GARDEN TOTEMS: HANDBUILDING (5/5)
4 booked, 10 available Noelle Lightbourne
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.
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Featured Event
Phamily Time, presented by Phreeborn is back with a summer edition you wonโt want to miss. There will be something for everyone, so bring the whole phamily! Get tickets for the whole day celebration here: TICKETS
Coming up
Dance for Parkinsonโs at Motion Pacific is a class for people with Parkinsonโs Disease and their caretakers. The class is based on the innovative and internationally renowned Dance for PDยฎ program designed by the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group. Trained Dance for Parkinsonโs teachers use prompts and multiple dance styles to inspire movement, creative expression, and community. Dancers may sit in a chair, use a barre, or stand. Dance for Parkinsonโs at Motion Pacific is open and free to the public. Classes are appropriate for anyone with Parkinsonโs, no matter how advanced. Movement modifications will be made available and there is no dance experience required. Dance for Parkinsonโs is offered every Wednesday from 1:00pm to 2:15pm, with the exception of the first Wednesday of the month, during which class is not held. Classes are offered in-person, in the Lobby at The 418 Project.
Coming up
The Plateau Jazz Band plays 20s -40s swing dance jazz at Woodhouse Brewing from 5:30-8:30 on Wednesday July 1st. Listen, lesson, dance, dine and drink. Bob Folker teaches a half hour introductory/intermediate swing dance lesson from 5:30-6, the band plays for the dancers till 7, then Bob teaches a second half hour lesson and the band plays another hour long set of music. Things wrap up around 8:30 or so. Listening is free. Lessons and dance $10 The Plateau Jazz Band is a six-piece traditional jazz band from Santa Cruz, California. They play New Orleans influenced, Preservation Hall inspired, prohibition era swinging dance jazz. Their repertoire includes hot jazz songs like Dr. Jazz & That's a Plenty, blues tunes like St. Louis Blues & St. James Infirmary Blues, and swing dance standards like Blue Skies, Dinah, & Iโm Going to Sit Right Down (and write myself a letter).
Coming up
A weekly beginning hip hop house dance class. Participants will learn foundational movements, rhythms, and combinations in a structured, studio setting.
Coming up
With a nearly decades long contemporary folk career, Alela Dianeโs work is akin to the changing of the seasons: a quiet, but extraordinary facet. Woven in with lovely guitar melodies, her ineffable voice soothes the listener with buoyant lilting and haunting harmonies. The lyrics in her latest album, Whoโs Keeping Track of Time, unveil her intimate fascination with the mystery of the changing seasons and passing moments. Gentle rhythm and soaring strings accentuate Alelaโs slow but steady lyrical honesty. Vulnerably grasping at how time comes for us all, Alelaโs music serves as a comfort to the weary heart. -Shelly Novo; Good Times Santa Cruz
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Showing 30 of 121 upcoming events ยท Art & Culture ยท from 2026-08-05 ยท to 2026-08-12
4 booked, 10 available Noelle Lightbourne
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 Shakespeare invites you to experience Shakespeareโs Much Ado About Nothing, un-der the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruzโs DeLaveaga Park this summer. Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare Directed by Charles Pasternak One of Shakespeareโs wittiest and most beloved comedies, the 2026 season will open with Shakespeareโs 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 โ 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.
Visit the IAS, UCSCโs premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10โAugust 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 โ 5 pm. Admission is free to the public. Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right Libia Posadaโs 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
A regular tango class in Downtown Santa Cruz, offering a way to learn Latin dance in a social, cultural setting.
The Sanctuary Exploration Center is excited to announce "She to Shining Sea," a new photography exhibition featuring several local artists. Their work captures the beauty of Monterey Bay from a different perspective, and will leave guests feeling inspired by the natural beauty and amazing talent present in the Monterey Bay. Join us on Wednesday, August 5, from 5:30โ8 p.m. at the Sanctuary Exploration Center in Santa Cruz for the opening reception: an evening immersed in the beauty of our sanctuary, exploring life as a wildlife photographer with the artists. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for seating and a panel featuring the exhibition photographers starts at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free, open to all ages, and no registration is required. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibition will be on display at the Sanctuary Exploration Center from August 5 - September 27, viewable during public hours, Wednesday-Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
A weekly beginning hip hop house dance class. Participants will learn foundational movements, rhythms, and combinations in a structured, studio setting.
0 booked, 6 available Chris Finnie
This is Motion Pacific's Advanced Contemporary Jazz Dance class for adults.
Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Shakespeareโs Much Ado About Nothing, un-der the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruzโs DeLaveaga Park this summer. Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare Directed by Charles Pasternak One of Shakespeareโs wittiest and most beloved comedies, the 2026 season will open with Shakespeareโs 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 โ 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.
A weekly evening of tango in Santa Cruz, offering a chance to learn, dance, and connect with a new community.
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.
1 booked, 8 available Katy Kenyon-Abel
0 booked, 4 available Glazing
Visit the IAS, UCSCโs premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10โAugust 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 โ 5 pm. Admission is free to the public. Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right Libia Posadaโs 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
This exhibition brings together a range of analog games โ including board, card, role-playing, and other participatory works โ 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. โ 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 โ such as housing and land ownership, capitalism, race and identity, civil rights and protest, fascism, and colonialism โ 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 โ they organize experience, distribute power, and produce meaning. Games are the art of agency. โ 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
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]
Are you interested in learning about technology? Visit us during our weekly Tech Cafรฉ 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 ยฟLe interesa aprender sobre tecnologรญa? Visรญtanos durante nuestro programa semanal Tech Cafรฉ, donde tendrรกs la oportunidad de obtener respuestas a preguntas bรกsicas relacionadas con la tecnologรญa y probar una nueva tecnologรญa. Este programa se llevarรก a cabo los jueves de 4:30 a 6:30pm en la Biblioteca Principal (a menos que se indique otro horario o lugar). La tecnologรญa que mostraremos cambiarรก cada mes; las tecnologรญas que se presentarรกn: - enero (el programa comienza el dรญa 15): Doodle Pens - febrero: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) - marzo: Impresora 3D - abril: Spheros (robots programables) - mayo: Cricut - junio: Glowforge - cortadora lรกser (este programa se llevarรก a cabo en la sucursal Freedom) - julio: iPad Stop Motion (pelรญculas) - agosto: Spheros (robots programables) - septiembre: Impresora 3D - octubre: Doodle Pens - noviembre: Cricut - diciembre: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) Audiencia: Para todas las edades
A weekly Congo dance class in Santa Cruz. Participants learn traditional African dance movements in a group setting at The 418 Project.
This is Motion Pacific's Adult Intermediate Modern class for adult dancers.
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
Something wicked this way comes, indeed. Starting this weekend and running through August 30th, Santa Cruz Shakespeare presents one of The Bardโs most infamous plays, Macbeth. Coincidentally the playโs 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, itโs easy to see why itโs lasted throughout the ages. Witches, murder, moral failings and tons of tragedy are beautifully sewn throughout the acts, stitched together with lines such as โBlood will have blood,โ and โthe wine of life is drawn.โ -Mat Weir; Good Times Santa Cruz
Join us for Coaster Stomp Line Dance at Brunoโs Bar and Grill! The fun starts at 7pm with two lessons and plenty of open dancing. Join their expert instructors as they guide you through a night filled with plenty of boot-scootinโ boogie. Stay for a little while or the whole event! $10 cover charge
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.
Grab some lawn chairs and some blankets and cozy up for this free movie night on Seabright! July 9: The SpongeBob Movie July 16: Legally Blonde July 23: Minecraft Movie July 30: Shrek August 6: Hoppers August 13: Goat
Thursday, August 06 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm Join us for an evening dedicated to the beauty and charm of our feline companions.
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
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
โConfluenceโ: 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. โConfluenceโ is exhibited alongside of 25+ local and regional artists whose work we adore. Live improvisational jazz music from โThe Leftoversโ at the opening on the First Friday of August from 6-8PM
Visit the IAS, UCSCโs premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10โAugust 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 โ 5 pm. Admission is free to the public. Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right Libia Posadaโs 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
91 more events further out
If it's happening in person anywhere in Santa Cruz County, whether it's a show, a market, a paddle-out, or a gallery night, we want it on the calendar. Submissions are free and reviewed by our editors.
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