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University of California, Riverside

University of California, Riverside

Change Things arts installation at UC Riverside

Arts and Culture

Ray of Light

Immerse Yourself in Our Arts and Culture

At UC Riverside, we pride ourselves on our multicultural roots — and that extends to the richness of our arts and culture scene. In fact, we’re known as the City of Arts and Innovation. Both on campus and off, we offer everything from the visual arts to literary works and musical performances. So prepare to be immersed — and inspired!

Head downtown to stimulate your senses through the array of art exhibitions, films, events, and performances at UCR ARTS. Here, you’ll find the Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts and the California Museum of Photography. With more than 500,000 pieces in its collection, the museum is the largest photographic center in the western United States, housing the region’s most comprehensive public camera collection.

Interior of The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture

On the corner of Mission Inn Avenue and Orange Street, you can check out our newest high-profile museum, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture — better known as The Cheech. The museum, which opened in June 2022, is a public-private partnership between the Riverside Art Museum, the City of Riverside, and comedian Cheech Marin. Visit to view, celebrate, and learn more about Chicano art!

Photo Credit: Riverside Art Museum

Students practice “Mountain and Water Remembrance Ritual” during their class, Dance as Ritual

UCR offers a variety of dynamic performing arts programming — including dance, theater, and music — on campus and in downtown Riverside. First in the nation to offer a PhD in dance studies, today UC Riverside is the only University of California campus with PhD programs in dance and music.

UCR Writers Week

At UCR’s annual Writers Week, the longest-running free literary event in California, you’ll hear from renowned and upcoming authors. Students can also improve their literary skills through our Department of Creative Writing — home to the only Bachelor of Arts in creative writing in the UC system and an MFA in creative writing and writing for the performing arts. Tom Lutz, award-winning author and founding editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, is on the faculty!

Looking for more ways to engage?

Our Center for Ideas and Society — an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research support center — offers fellowships, research workshops, and public events to strengthen the academic, social, and creative life of the university and beyond. And through our Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts, UCR students share their talents with our community via free arts outreach experiences in select schools, eldercare facilities, museums, and libraries.

On our vibrant campus, there are always opportunities to celebrate the arts and culture — from showcases by the Department of Dance to music festivals, film screenings, and other special events coordinated by our Associated Students Program Board (ASPB).

And if you make it out to our annual Block Party, Spring Splash, or Homecoming concerts, be sure to bring your Highlander pride. You never know… at some of these events you may even catch a performance by our very own UCR Pipe Band.

 

Arts and Culture News

A woman views the "Shadow Archive" exhibition at UCR ARTS
March 26, 2025
UCR ARTS unveils its three spring exhibitions
On Saturday, March 22, UCR ARTS held a reception heralding the California Museum of Photography's three exhibitions for spring
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National Book Award event
March 18, 2025
UCR to host its first National Book Awards event
The National Book Foundation, or NBF, will bring the award-winning writer Claire Wahmanholm to campus on March 31 for a free event, “Eco-Poetics and the Modern Apocalypse.” The event is part of an NBF tour with 16 events across 10 cities, and marks the first time UCR has been selected to host a National Book Award, or NBA, event.  
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Lost in the Wilderness exhibition at UCR Arts
March 12, 2025
Exhibition contrasts Ansel Adams’ orderly world, chaotic ’60s
When the name Ansel Adams is mentioned in conversation, people think of the romantic and mythic photographs he made throughout the American West, especially in Yosemite and the iconic shots of El Capitan and Half Dome.
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A scene from UCR's performance of Macbeth
February 12, 2025
UCR Theatre Presents 'Macbeth'
The first performance of UCR's staging of “Macbeth” will be Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. in the Studio Theatre. Additional performances of the play, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Miles Anderson, will run through Feb. 22.
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Events