ARC (noun): a luminous bridge of electricity reaching across a gap

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is:

An Incubator
The Arts Research Center (ARC) fosters individual and collaborative research
in the arts, supporting both published scholarship and new creative activity. ARC
provides a forum to share, test, and critique new work by UC Berkeley artists,
arts scholars, and visiting fellows.

A Nexus
ARC sponsors a broad range of programs that advance interdisciplinary arts
research, including fellowships for faculty and graduate students, curriculum
development grants, faculty seminars and salons, online discussion forums,
conferences and symposia, and artists' residencies. ARC programs are often
created in partnership with other universities, arts institutions, and individual artists.

An Advocate
ARC promotes the centrality of the arts in public life and at our public university. We
argue for the inclusion and support of the arts and creativity in a broad range of
campus initiatives and across the disciplines.

Our History
ARC was established in 2001 as the first research unit at UC Berkeley devoted
exclusively to the arts. Its affiliated faculty are drawn from the college of Letters &
Science, College of Environmental Design, College of Engineering, Graduate School
of Journalism, and School of Public Policy, as well as the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific
Film Archive and Cal Performances. ARC grew out of the Consortium for the Arts
(1998-2008), an interdisciplinary organization that brought together all the arts
departments and presenters at UC Berkeley.

Photos above, from left to right: the work of ARC artists-in-residence Marianne Weems /
The Builders Association, Ignacio Rabago, Erika Chong Shuch / Campo Santos,
Shannon Flattery / Touchable Stories.