News & Stories

Explore

Department

Media or Press Inquiries?

Reach out to:

Jaime DeJong
Director of Marketing & Communications (949) 824-2189
jdejong@uci.edu

Book cover illustration on a black background: two hands, drawn in thin white line art, hold a red outlined pair of calipers stretched between them, with a green line marking the measurement point. Below, large white text reads “Skill,” followed by the subtitle “Making, Embodied Cognition, Neuroscience.”

Art

Simon Penny's New Book Rethinks the Divide Between Skill and Intelligence

October 29, 2026

Skill arrives from Routledge in December

Matt Bailey, wearing a dark blazer over a black T-shirt and black-framed glasses, stands with one hand in his pocket in a darkened gallery surrounded by glowing, symmetrical digital artworks in vivid rainbow colors.

Art

School

Matt Bailey Doubles His Investment in the UCI Arts Department of Art

October 27, 2026

Inspired by the impact of his first gift, Matt Bailey gives again

Professor Monica Majoli talks with two students in a paint-spattered studio filled with metal easels. One student sits at a worktable assembling a small brass and metal sculpture, while the other stands nearby holding a tool.

Art

Body of Work

October 27, 2026

Art professor and Guggenheim Fellow Monica Majoli looks for the female gaze

A low-angle view of the Contemporary Arts Center, with bronze letters spelling its name along a red-orange entrance canopy, a facade of teal and navy glass panels and a red brick wall against a clear blue sky.

Art

Dance

Drama

Music

Research

School

UCI Arts Summer 2026 Faculty Highlights

October 23, 2026

A look at faculty news and creative activity from summer 2026

Dr. Kelli Sharp smiles at the camera, wearing a bright blue blazer over a white blouse. Anatomical illustrations of the human skeletal and muscular systems are displayed on the wall behind her.

Dance

Remembering Dr. Kelli Sharp, Chair of the Department of Dance

October 22, 2026

Honoring the late professor who built bridges between dance and medicine

Camilo Zamudio plays marimba behind a drum kit as co-leader Wilfrido Terrazas gestures beside a cajón and a table of singing bowls and frame drums during a rehearsal in a wood-paneled studio.

Music

Research

Cauces Sónicos to Perform at UC Irvine

October 21, 2026

The concert will feature music from artists in Southern and Baja California that explores life on the borde

Side-by-side portraits. On the left, Sepideh Moafi, with long brown hair and gold hoop earrings, wears a black satin blouse against a gray background. On the right, Jenn Colella, with short auburn hair, smiles in a navy sweater against a light background.

Dance

UCI Arts Names Sepideh Moafi, M.F.A. ’13, as the 2026 Lauds & Laurels Recipient

October 20, 2026

In addition to Moafi's recognition, Broadway powerhouse, Jenn Colella, M.F.A. ’02, hosts this year’s celebration

On a sunlit wooden stage dressed as a beachside boardwalk, with signs for “Windsor Cove” and “Shallow’s Surf Shack,” a laughing man in an open white shirt dips a smiling woman in a yellow polka-dot top and full yellow skirt as she kicks one leg high. Audience members seated around the stage edge look on and smile.

Drama

Research

At New Swan Latine Artists Bring Themselves to Shakespeare

October 12, 2026

A fall panel looks back at The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove and the artists who shaped it

Emily Parise, in a white sweater and periwinkle dress, smiles beside a railing on the River Thames, with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in the background.

Drama

UCI Arts Alumna Emily Parise Joins Baylor University Faculty

October 9, 2026

The Shakespeare scholar and dramaturg begins a tenure-track position in theatre arts

An artist holding a bouquet of flowers smiles beside three framed works on a white gallery wall. The works are soft, layered abstractions in blue, gold and green that suggest water and sky.

Art

Tai Nguyen ’23 Presents Portraits of a Living Past at Heritage Museum of Orange County

October 8, 2026

UCI Arts alum explores the past and future of local environments in a new exhibition