Santa Cruz County Art, Culture & Media Digest

UC Santa Cruz will provide a ”first of its kind” bachelor of arts in Creative Technologies beginning in fall 2024.

Pasadena is the only California city named a travel destination for 2024 by The New York Times. This comes despite the Los Angeles-area city being just the 45th-largest city in the state.

Philadelphia-based Audacy, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with $1.9 billion in debts, owns six radio stations in the Bay Area. These include 95.7 The Game, KCBS and 102.1 Jams.

Although childhood is often considered the most innocent time in a person's life, not all memories are rosy.

Under new state laws, five cities will test cameras to catch speeding drivers and cruising bans will be lifted statewide. The first is supposed to improve road safety, but critics of the second say it will endanger the public.

State audits of the University of California and the California State University found both systems have failed to comply with decades-old state and federal laws mandating the return of Native ancestral remains and cultural artifacts. Only UCLA and Cal State Long Beach have returned a majority of their collections.

Those looking for holiday cheer can push play on “Good News Great Joy” from Twin Lakes Church. The tune can be heard on Spotify, iTunes and other streaming sites.

A new graphic novel by Santa Cruz’s Reverberations Books, “Tales of the Urban Wild: A Puma’s Journey,” depicts the life cycle of pumas, the challenges they face and what people can do to help.

For the past 48 years, Barry and Joyce Vissell have been devoted to helping other people through their nonprofit, The Shared Heart Foundation.

In “As You Like It,” Jacques famously proclaims, “One man in his time plays many parts.” That is certainly true of Lorne Dechtenberg, who has served as a musician, nonprofit director and music director.

Christmas at Closter Park returns to Salinas for its third year with different family activities live performances, arts and crafts, real snow and raffled Christmas trees, which sponsors decorate and donate.

With its hilly terrain, parts of Los Angeles aren’t always the easiest to build in. But that didn’t stop an architect from building a unique structure in Silver Lake.

The Rotary Club of Freedom has assembled a group of local musicians to pay tribute to the beloved once-local folk singer while also raising funds for Pajaro flood victims.

Former Santa Cruz Sentinel writer Peggy Townsend has shifted her storytelling skills to the realm of fiction. Her latest novel, “The Beautiful and the Wild.” draws from her experiences as a journalist.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which has operated for 154 years, sold to controversial Alden Global Capital last year. It’s not looking great for the paper’s future.

Robert Irwin, an artist and MacArthur genius grant recipient, died in San Diego at 95 on Oct. 25. Michael Govan, who heads the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, offers a colorful retrospective on Irwin's work.

Looking at a dearth of accessible textbooks reflecting the diversity of Chicano/Latino/Mexican American/Latinx lives, two local professors set out to write one.

Through this new program, artists, culture bearers, and California Native American tribes will be eligible to receive funding to create artwork throughout state and local parks.

Written by Center for Biological Diversity scientist Tiffany Yap and illustrated by artist Meital Smith, “Tales of the Urban Wild: A Puma’s Journey” takes the reader through diverse habitats, across busy freeways and inside science labs to learn about one mountain lion’s survival story.

“A Dark and Rising Tide,” the latest novel from former KION-TV news director Debra Castaneda, is directly inspired by Capitola’s experience with the Storm of ’23.

Dust rises from the crowd dancing at the front of the stage. They mimic the dances of Arivu, the main performer of the night, chanting Tamil lyrics along with the performers.

A book being released by UC Santa Cruz graduate yves. features short stories of monsters and suspense but also deeper themes of familial relationships, LGBTQ+ discrimination and the ways society treats those who are different.

Aiming to showcase the “endless” pool of Santa Cruz County arts talent, the group show “Ten” opens Saturday at the Radius Gallery at the Tannery and M.K. Contemporary Art, formerly Curated By the Sea.

Linda Burman-Hall, an ethnomusicologist, musician and longtime UC Santa Cruz professor who brought the annual Baroque Festival to town, died suddenly while traveling in Malaysia. She was 78.

The “Dancing Waters” installation on the downtown River Front Garage is 32 panels of stained glass, documenting Santa Cruz’s relationship with water. It’s ambitious public art, and maybe just the beginning as redevelopment flows along.

Aptosians weigh in on Microsoft’s new default font, which typeface designer Steve Matteson named after the town.

Ritchie Lovejoy wrote a novel more than 80 years ago, and he was able to do it because of John Steinbeck’s faith in his talent. That novel, “Taku Wind,” finally got published last month, albeit in a very limited edition—24 copies.

As Cabrillo College navigates the process of changing its name, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Cabrillo Stage are keeping an eye on developments.

Park Hall has roots dating back to 1908, but the establishment of a public trust that transferred ownership of the hall to the residents of Ben Lomond in 1923 proved it was here to stay.

Ruth Rosenheim Solomon, born on June 10, 1935, in New York City, passed away this month. She was the founder of the dance program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, which she ran until her retirement in 1995.

KSQD, the community radio station run by Natural Bridges Media, successfully fundraised to purchase two new radio licenses.

Mosaic artists are working on a stained-glass art piece that is expected to be unveiled sometime in June on what is known as the River Front parking garage.