Each year, the Arts & Culture Committee manages several recurring projects. A contest is run in the fall to commission a new artist for the San Miguel Stage mural, several walls are painted and added to the San Nicolas Residence Hall Stair Project, and National Music Week rolls around in May with a host of musical performances throughout the Dining Commons.
San Miguel Stage Mural
The San Miguel Residence Hall Stage Mural was conceived in 2014 by the Residential Housing Association (RHA). Their vision was to provide a medium to showcase student art in the community. Andrea Vargas, a UCSB alumna and former housing staff member, worked in collaboration with RHA and Residential Operations to make it happen. She devised a concept to frame and display four murals that would be rotated out one by one each year. The first mural was painted by Joseline Garcia. The mural project was assumed by the Arts & Culture Committee and in 2017, and the Committee worked with Sydni Baker, a UCSB Alumna, to define four themes for the different sections: the environment, I love UCSB, community, and diversity. The A&C Committee continues to manage the project and selects a different artist each year from submissions made in the Fall Quarter.
Please contact chirashima@ucsb.edu for more information.
2023-24 Muralist for the theme "I love UCSB" is Sophia Kachkeran.*
Mural Specifications: 4ft x 12ft (acrylic on wood)
*check out the 2023-24 muralist video!
National Music Week
HDAE celebrates National Music Week each year with a variety of performances and ensembles throughout the dining commons during the first full week in May. Former Ortega Dining Commons Manager, Pam Rodgers, suggested putting the inhouse piano to grander use (pun intended) and the celebration began with lunch time piano performances in 2017. A cappella groups like ‘Naked Voices’ and ‘Brothas from Otha Mothas’ were added a few years later, and now the week features jazz trios and folk duos.
*Naked Voices performing at Carrillo Dining Commons
San Nicolas Stairwell Project
In 2016, a pilot project was proposed by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) to encourage stairwell use for exercise and energy reduction on the UC campuses. Inspired by this idea, the Arts & Culture Committee developed design(s) for the San Nicolas Residence Hall stairwell. Wall graphics were created by Eric Zobel for the elevator area and first floor stairwell, and student artists were enlisted to paint the upper walls dividing each floor. The project is currently ongoing and the eventual plan includes repainting several floors each year to maintain a vertical art museum.