News & Events

Playwright Christopher Chen is a homegrown talent. Hailing from the Sunset District of San Francisco, a neighborhood his family has lived in for generations, he went on to study music composition at UC Berkeley, where he got his...Read more about Sunset Noir: Christopher Chen’s Play Explores the Landscape of the Mind in a San Francisco Setting (California Magazine)

Pulitzer-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen '92, Ph.D. '97 found at UC Berkeley the intellectual home, identity, and political passion that ultimately led to his creative success.Read more about Viet Thanh Nguyen (English B.A. '92, Ph.D. '97) on finding himself at Berkeley

Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, the two principals of Oakland, California–based design studio Rael San Fratello, aren’t traditional architects....Read more about Metropolis: Rael San Fratello 3D Prints Architecture with a Political Edge

Before she was a chef and an internationally-known cookbook author, Samin Nosrat (B.A. '01) was an English major at Berkeley. She talks about the writing process—and why a day of writing is so hard—in this Freakonomics Radio interview.Read more about Author and alum Samin Nosrat (English '01) on writing and finding a career path

The Robert B. Silvers Foundation today announced art historian T. J. Clark and critic Tausif Noor as the winners of its second annual Grace Dudley Prize for Arts Writers. Clark is professor emeritus of art history at the University of California, Berkeley, and most recently the author of...Read more about T.J. Clark and Tausif Noor win 2023 Grace Dudley Prize for Art Writing

Before the development of film and television, no art form but theater was more closely suited to bring stories to life. Yet rarely are stories told by and for an entire people as neglected in theater as those of Native Americans.

Through the month, Bay Area audiences will have a unique...Read more about Datebook: Native American voices, actors come to the stage in 2 new Bay Area plays

The Arts Research Center—a think tank for the arts at UC Berkeley—is partnering with AlterTheater to present a rolling world premiere of an award-winning new comedy, Pueblo Revolt...Read more about Arts Research Center partners with AlterTheater to premiere award-winning play by Native American writer and Artist-in-Residence

In Berkeley Talks episode 160, world-renowned South African artist William Kentridge discusses the process of making the 2019 chamber opera Waiting for the Sibyl. He also touches on why artists should stay open to new ideas, the complex relationship between humans and...Read more about Townsend AIR William Kentridge on staying open to the ‘less good’ ideas

UC Berkeley professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Hilton Als has worked with UC Berkeley alumna and pioneer of New Journalism Joan Didion (Sacramento, California, 1934 - Manhattan, New York, 2021) throughout his career, even writing the foreword to her final book of essays...Read more about Professor Hilton Als brings UC Berkeley alumna’s written consciousness to life with exhibition Joan Didion: What She Means

UC Berkeley English professors Hilton Als (for My Pinup) and Solmaz Sharif (for...Read more about Hilton Als and Solmaz Sharif make the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists

Francesca Rochberg, Catherine and William L. Magistretti Distinguished Professor Emerita of Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, has been named as one of the 2023 Martin...Read more about Francesca Rochberg will present the 110th Martin Meyerson Faculty Research Lecture, the highest honor bestowed on Berkeley faculty

IN AN ESSAY on the uncompromising brilliance of Toni Morrison’s oeuvre, published just months before the passing of this inimitable writer, Namwali Serpell observes: “There are many ways to be ‘difficult’ in this world: stubborn, demanding, inconvenient, complex, troublesome,...Read more about Artforum: The Difficulty of Black Women (A Response)

Originally published June 22, 2011

A few years ago, when I was composing a concerto for myself as vocalist, I rediscovered some tapes I had made when I was 6 years old. Back then one of my favorite things was a portable Aiwa cassette recorder and I used it to make non-...Read more about From the NYT Archive: Finding the Score Within

This Fall, the Division of Arts & Humanities hosted the 2022 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, or MMUF, Western Regional Conference in partnership with the University of New Mexico. This was UC Berkeley’s first time hosting the regional conference in 10 years and the...Read more about Division of Arts & Humanities Hosts the MMUF 2022 Western Regional Conference at Berkeley

A surprising number of acclaimed women artists have come out of Berkeley, working in a wide array of mediums and styles and hailing from different backgrounds. Here are a few we’d like to draw your attention to because their work was/is startlingly original and their messages carry a lasting...Read more about Arts & Humanities Women Artist Trailblazers

The Berkeley Public Library Foundation is pleased to announce that it has selected The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life as its 2023 Fred & Pat Cody Award recipient.

Founded in Berkeley in 1962, The Magnes was one of the first Jewish museums in the US. Today, it is widely...Read more about The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life Chosen to Receive 2023 Cody Award

Eniola Fakile’s creations live in another world.

Fakile is a photographer. A performance artist. A filmmaker. A sculptor. A costume designer. She works in textiles, ready-made objects and assemblage. She’s not constrained by what has been or should be. Instead, she expands...Read more about Artist Eniola Fakile asks: What if a hamburger had feelings?

Berkeley, CA—The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life (The Magnes) and the Division of the Arts & Humanities at UC Berkeley are pleased to announce the appointment of Hannah Weisman as its first Executive Director.

Weisman’s...Read more about Hannah Weisman will be Executive Director of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life