The Creative Writing Program of the UC Davis Department of English is expanding its reading series with online and in-person readings by visiting writers, creative writing Master of Fine Arts candidates, lecturers in the Creative Writing Program, and projects created in collaboration with art and music students.
UC Davis College of Letters and Science graduate students aren’t letting the lack of a physical space stop them from celebrating and sharing their work with the public. The Arts & Humanities 2020 Graduate Exhibition, usually held at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, will instead take place on the museum website May 28–June 28.
UC Davis art history professor Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. The fellowships, given by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, recognize mid-career scholars, artists and scientists who have demonstrated a previous capacity for outstanding work and continue to show exceptional promise.
The most recent U.S. News & World Report ranking of university graduate programs places UC Davis fine arts programs as No. 15 in the nation. This is a jump from No. 27 three years ago and ties UC Davis with UC Berkeley. Master of Fine Arts programs in the College of Letters and Science include art studio, design, dramatic arts and creative writing.
Mark Ferrando (B.A., dramatic arts, ’11) has a résumé that illustrates his versatility: stunt performer, acrobat, actor, circus artist. Ferrando has channeled his passion for physicality and theater into a career that calls for both. As a student at UC Davis, he studied dramatic arts and was a part of the gymnastics club.
Sculptor Leonardo Drew, who has shown around the world and is included in many major museum collections, will give the sixth annual Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture on Feb. 6 at 4:30 p.m.
A new movie about AIDS activist Hank Wilson by a UC Davis cinema and digital media professor will be shown on campus Jan. 15. “Thanks to Hank,” directed by Bob Ostertag, is a tribute to Wilson, who radically altered LGBTQ+ life and rights in the Bay Area. The film includes archival footage, animation and interviews with collaborators and friends of Wilson, who died in 2008.
