2026/2027 Season

Each year, ARC curates, presents, and co-sponsors a season of events, under a unifying theme, and in coordination with our many partners on campus.


A lone snowboarder descends a steep, rippled snow slope beneath towering ice walls, bathed in dramatic orange light and shadow.

Hidden Layers: AI Infrastructures and Hallucinations

*co-sponsored event

Thurs Sept 3, 2026 | 4-6:30pm 
Worth Ryder Art Gallery, Anthropology & Art Building Rm 116

Attend the opening of Hidden Layers: AI Infrastructures and Hallucinations, an exhibition curated by Antonio Somaini with Hannes Bajohr, Sonja Thiel and Elena Yu, in dialogue with the France–Berkeley research initiative The Latent Spaces of Culture.

Presented by the Depts of German and Art Practice, co-sponsored by the Arts Research Center

Event poster for The Loft Hour: portraits of Mark Minch-de Leon and Latanya D. Tigner, dated Oct. 7, in pink and blue tones at UC Berkeley.

The Loft Hour: Mark Minch-de Leon + Latanya d. Tigner

in conversation with Tadiwa Madenga

Wed Oct 7, 2026 | 12-1pm 
Arts Research Center, Hearst Field Annex D23

Elevate your lunch break with The Loft Hour, a series that invites Berkeley Arts faculty to riff on their work over lunch, in an informal conversation moderated by an ARC-affiliated faculty member. The year will kick off in October with welcoming Mark Minch-de Leon (Associate Professor, Film & Media) and Latanya d. Tigner (Assistant Professor, Dance) in conversation with Tadiwa Madenga (Assistant Professor, English).

Presented by the Arts Research Center with support from the Dean’s Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities

A charred tree stump burns with small orange flames on a deserted road in an arid landscape, beneath a clear blue sky; stark, somber scene.

Trans Negativity Symposium

*co-sponsored event

Thurs Oct 8 - Sat Oct 10, 2026 
Maude Fife Room and The Lab SF

Engaging various senses of the negative and elaborating its implications for trans study, the Trans Negativity Symposium gathers scholars and artists working across psychoanalysis, aesthetics, theory, and political history, taking on negativity as an occasion for collective thought and practice.

Organized by Be Schierenberg and Simon(e) van Saarloos, co-sponsored by the Arts Research Center

Young Black woman in an “AIR” graphic T-shirt stands calmly in a bright white room with wood floors beside a folding worktable.

Steffani Jemison: Artist-in-Residence

Wed Oct 28 - Mon Nov 2, 2026 
Arts Research Center & BAMPFA

Interdisciplinary artist and writer Steffani Jemison visits the Arts Research Center as the first Open Rehearsal Artist-in-Residence, beginning a new three-year long Artist-in-Residence program at ARC.

Presented by the Arts Research Center in collaboration with BAMPFA

mixed media artwork with paint, paper, music sheets, writing

Ashon Crawley: Open Rehearsal 1

Thurs Nov 12, 2026 | 4-5:30pm PST
Online Event

Inaugurating the Open Rehearsal series is Ashon Crawley, a multidisciplinary artist working in the visual and the sonic and a Professor of Religious Studies and African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia.

Presented by the Arts Research Center with support from the Dean’s Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities

Two veiled figures in vivid blue and red embroidered fabric pose beneath a sunny sky; a tattooed hand with a symbol reaches forward, creating mystery.

Day With(out) Art 2026: seeds in a dying colony

*co-sponsored event

Tues Dec 1, 2026 
Online Digital Program

Join Visual AIDS for seeds in a dying colony, a program of four newly commissioned videos that move through the afterlives of colonialism and the ongoing HIV epidemic. Across fractured histories and landscapes marked by extraction, the works trace how systems of power shape the body, memory, and experiences of care.

Presented by Visual AIDS, co-sponsored by the Arts Research Center

Collage of colorful punk and activist zine covers and posters, featuring bold typography, protest art, music imagery, and confrontational counterculture themes.

Poetry for the People: A Blueprint for the Future

*co-sponsored event

Fri Dec 4, 2026 | 9am-9pm
David Brower Center

The day-long convening will bring UC Berkeley faculty, students, and staff together with Poetry for the People (P4P) program alumni, P4P instructors from around the country, and Bay Area community organizations to reflect on the past and envision the future of P4P at UC Berkeley and beyond. 

Presented by the Depts of African American and Gender & Women's Studies in partnership with Adrienne Torf, co-sponsored by the Arts Research Center

A dancer reaches outwards and backwards before a black background

Rosy Simas: ARC & TDPS Artist-in-Residence

Indigenous Performing Arts Residency
Mon Feb 22 - Fri Feb 26, 2027

Transdisciplinary and dance artist Rosy Simas will visit UC Berkeley as the 5th Artist-in-Residence in the Indigenous Performing Arts Residency program.

Co-presented by the Arts Research Center and the Dept of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies, with support from the Dean's Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities

Drummer with long dreadlocks plays a warm wooden drum kit in a rustic room, surrounded by cymbals and vintage decor, creating a calm mood.

Jessie Cox: Artist-in-Residence

Tues Apr 6 - Wed Apr 7, 2027
Arts Research Center, Hearst Field Annex D23

Jessie Cox is an Assistant Professor of Music at Harvard University and a composer, drummer, and scholar.

Presented by the Arts Research Center with support from the Dean’s Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities

Black-and-white portrait of a person seated on a chair, resting their cheek on one hand, with a strong shadow behind them; thoughtful, calm mood.

Imani Mason Jordan: Artist-in-Residence

Mon Apr 26 - Thurs Apr 29, 2027 
Arts Research Center, Hearst Field Annex D23

Imani Mason Jordan is an interdisciplinary writer, editor, artist and curator interested in performance and poetics. 

Presented by the Arts Research Center with support from the Dean’s Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities