“The land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.”

Creative Resistance

UC Santa Cruz, Digital Arts Research Center

April 22, 2026 10:00-10:00 PM

This Event is Free & Open to the Public

A Festival Made Together

Thank you to everyone for being part of the Arts & Ecology Festival on Earth Day!

On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, we gathered on the land together, with the rain, the shifting sky, the damp morning air, and all the small adjustments it asked of us. Rather than diminishing the day, it reminded us that we are never separate from the conditions around us. We work within them. We respond to them. We learn from them.

Because of our collective generosity, imagination, labor, and presence, the festival became something alive. It was shaped by voices filling rooms, hands exchanging ideas, films projected into the dark, conversations forming in hallways, people pausing to listen, and strangers becoming less strange to one another.

What took place was not only a series of events. It was a demonstration that gathering matters. In a time marked by fragmentation and urgency, to come together with intention is no small act. It is one way culture is renewed. It is one way futures begin.

Thank you, everyone, for bringing your work, your thoughtfulness, and your willingness to organize, advocate, and resist, to build, to care, and to share and learn from one another. Thank you.

With gratitude,

Jennifer Parker Arts & Ecology Festival

UCSC Arts & Ecology Festival is sponsored by UCSC Art Department, OpenLab Collaborative Research Center, with support from Cultivamos Excelencia Research Scholars program, Palace Arts & Office Supplies, UCSC Arts Research Institute, and UC Climate Action Arts Network (UC CAAN), the University of California, Office of the President’s Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grant program.

This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.