UCI Illuminations: The Chancellor's Arts and Culture Initiative

Building on UCI’s demonstrated excellence in the creative arts and cultural programming, Illuminations aims to ensure that all of our students, regardless of major, have serious and meaningful exposure to the creative arts. In addition, we seek to strengthen the connections between UCI and our regional arts and culture centers and institutions. Making the arts a deeper and more pervasive part of the student experience will reinforce the sheer joy of creation and discovery that is at the heart of all academic inquiry and expression, and will highlight the fundamental contributions made by the creative arts to our understanding of the world and our place in it. It will enable our students to grow in ways unavailable to them in any single field of study, and it should equip them to participate more fully in the continuing dialogue between science and the humanities as that dialogue addresses the most enduring questions of human culture and social value. Illuminations will feature an array of structured activities and events that are conceived by faculty, staff, and students from across the campus and produced within our various schools and programs. Intended primarily for our undergraduates, these activities will offer an immersive experience in the arts with a reflective component but no formal lectures or requirements. These events will be overseen by a faculty and student council, which will award small grants to faculty and students who want to explore the arts, cultures, and creative processes in relation to their own fields of study. Illuminations will also introduce students to Southern California’s dynamic cultural landscape at important venues throughout the region.