Art & Culture

UC Merced Aerial Picture
Three-year Grant Lifts Joy Provided by UC Merced Children’s Opera
October 20, 2025
UC Merced Children’s Opera, a performance that delights and enlightens thousands of schoolchildren a year while giving Bobcat students experience in theater, has received support from a generous grant from the Central Valley Opportunity... Read More
UC Merced Celebrates 15 Years as a Hispanic-serving Institution
October 8, 2025
Fifteen years ago, UC Merced was designated as a Hispanic-serving institution. And though recent developments at the federal government have left what that designation means in limbo, the mission of serving the university’s largest... Read More
UC Merced Arts Opens Season with East L.A. Band Las Cafeteras
October 3, 2025
UC Merced Arts has announced its 2025-26 season of performances, exhibitions and public art programs, beginning with the return of East L.A.’s electrifying band Las Cafeteras. The band’s Día de los Muertos-themed production, “Hasta La... Read More
Writer-in-Residence Mark Arax Chronicles California's Lifeblood: Water
September 18, 2025
UC Merced has debuted a writer-in-residence program with one of California’s premier chroniclers of its history, especially the titanic power plays for land and water that have shaped the state’s growth and loom over its future. Mark Arax... Read More
Humanities Grad Student Advocates for Student Parents
July 24, 2025
When Nicolette Lecy began her graduate studies at UC Merced, life was anything but typical. It was August 2020, in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lecy’s classes were held remotely, and she had limited access to campus. Another... Read More
New Dining Space Mural Honors Native Heritage, Student Perseverance
June 6, 2025
Hidden for a year behind two large barn-style doors, a powerful new mural now adorns the walls of the Yablokoff-Wallace Dining Center. The latest piece of public art on the UC Merced campus explores Native past and future with themes of... Read More
Into the Woods: Nature Works its Magic in Shakespeare in Yosemite
April 15, 2025
If Arden, the sprawling, wild forest in William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” were in the United States instead of the Bard’s imagination, it would certainly be a national park. Like Yosemite. That is why this light comedy is an ideal... Read More
Central Valley Stories Seminar Connects Students to Community
March 18, 2025
Among the UC Merced students’ impressive creations in the dimly lighted room — dioramas, poems, photo collages, paintings in bold colors — Derek Miller’s creation attracted attention. Because it gurgled. It was a tall box open on one side... Read More
Stargazing and Lecture Offer Unique Perspectives on Stars and Exoplanets
February 27, 2025
The night sky is filled with countless mysteries and worlds yet to be explored but that someday might be visited by spacecraft. In a free event titled “Celestial Tales: Stars, Exoplanets and the Myths That Connect Us,” on March 6, the... Read More
Center Engages Campus, Community with Africa and its Diaspora
February 27, 2025
This story is part of a series for Black History Month. Read more stories highlighting Black excellence at UC Merced. The brutal deaths of African Americans George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and others at the hands of police officers five years... Read More