MISSION

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

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is a think tank for the arts, a
genuinely interdisciplinary space that brings people together--from across the
university and beyond the university, from across the arts and beyond the arts--
for unexpected conversations, collaborations, and community-building. The Arts
Research Center serves as:

An Incubator
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 conferences and symposia, fellowships for faculty and students,
curriculum development grants, faculty seminars and salons, online discussion
forums, and artists' residencies. ARC programs are often created in partnership
with other universities, arts institutions, community organizations, and individual
artists.

An Advocate
ARC champions the centrality of the arts in public life and at our public university.
We promote the inclusion and support of the arts in a broad range of campus and
community initiatives.

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, School of Law, School of Public Health, and School of Public Policy,
as well as the UC Berkeley Art Museum and 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.