Arts and Culture on Campus and Beyond

Engage your senses, ignite your intellect, and inspire your creativity with the wide array of arts and cultural happenings at the University of California, Riverside.

Literary enthusiasts will delight in UCR’s annual Writers Week, the longest-running, free literary event in California. And students in our Department of Creative Writing can pursue the only Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing in the UC system or an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts — all while learning from established writers and poets, including Tom Lutz, founder of the Los Angeles Review of Books. 

Our interdisciplinary Center for Ideas and Society provides fellowships, research workshops, and public events to strengthen the intellectual and creative life of the university and, by extension, the Riverside community and beyond. The Riverside community also benefits from our Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts, which provides free arts outreach experiences to schools, eldercare homes, museums, and libraries in the most underserved areas of our city. 

Music and movement abound at our year-round concerts, events, and outdoor music festivals, including showcases by our Department of Dance. And, of course, nothing exhibits Highlander pride quite like our annual Block Party, Spring Splash, or Homecoming Scot Fest — or being privy to a performance by the UCR Pipeband.