UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences

A great circle of netting hangs on a deep teal wall, a whale’s eye stitched into it in fine pale thread, watching. Below, on a shipping pallet, sixty pale ceramic teeth lie heaped like a jaw let go. Beyond the doorway, an ocean map glows blue.
A wall-sized photograph of a snowbound Arctic village fills the gallery: low buildings, a satellite dish, power poles in blue winter light. In front, a long lit table is laid with rows of small photographs and documents, a radio resting among them.
A raised garden bed thick with green herbs and shrubs sits on a ground of dry pine needles, a slender trellis rising from its center. Behind it, a pale gallery building and tall dark trees catch the late afternoon sun.
Title
UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences
Description
A university art and research center at UC Santa Cruz that uses exhibitions, research, and public programs to engage the critical issues of the present, bringing the arts together with the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Founded in 2014 to expand the visual arts at UC Santa Cruz, it opened the university's first professional, climate-controlled galleries on the Westside of Santa Cruz in 2023 under director and chief curator Rachel Nelson. Its Art + Science programs focus on climate resilience. Chief among them is An Aesthetics of Resilience, a research initiative with the Friedlaender Lab that brings scientists, artists, humanists, and activists together to examine vulnerability in the face of climate change, and that produced the exhibition and catalog Weather and the Whale (2025–26). Other programs include Visualizing Abolition, LASER Talks, the Coha Nowark Art + Science Pilot Residency, graduate student fellowships, and paid undergraduate internships.
Organization Type
Gallery
Climate & Ecology Themes
Climate Justice
Adaptation and Resilience
Oceans and Coasts
Biodiversity and Species Loss
Concepts
More-than-Human Relations
Methods & Approaches
Art and Science Collaboration
Public Programming
Education and Pedagogy
Discipline / Field
Arts & Design
Natural Sciences
Interdisciplinary
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Academic / Research
Community
Geographic Scope
Regional / Multi-County
Full Address
Santa Cruz, California
Website
ias.ucsc.edu
Rights
Rights held by institution
Current Status
Active
Date
2014
Contributor
Rachel Nelson, Alexandra Moore, Louise Leong, Tam Welch, Veriche Blackwell, Anthony Alejandrez, Hayley Sanchez, Gina Dent, Ari Friedlaender, Kailani Polzak, Claudio Bueno
Publisher
UC Santa Cruz
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Santa Cruz
Media
A great circle of netting hangs on a deep teal wall, a whale’s eye stitched into it in fine pale thread, watching. Below, on a shipping pallet, sixty pale ceramic teeth lie heaped like a jaw let go. Beyond the doorway, an ocean map glows blue.Carolina Caycedo and Courtney M. Leonard, When Whale looks at Human and BREACH #2
A wall-sized photograph of a snowbound Arctic village fills the gallery: low buildings, a satellite dish, power poles in blue winter light. In front, a long lit table is laid with rows of small photographs and documents, a radio resting among them.Sharon Daniel, Distant Early Warning
A raised garden bed thick with green herbs and shrubs sits on a ground of dry pine needles, a slender trellis rising from its center. Behind it, a pale gallery building and tall dark trees catch the late afternoon sun.Jackie Sumell and Tim Young, Solitary Garden
UCSC Institute of Arts & Sciences