Arts and Culture

Three-year Grant Lifts Joy Provided by UC Merced Children’s Opera

October 20, 2025

UC Merced Children’s Opera, a performance that delights and enlightens thousands of schoolchildren a year while giving Bobcat students experience in theater, has received support from a generous grant from the Central Valley Opportunity Fund. The three-year, $90,000 grant to the opera and...

"Richard II" is a 12-part web series featuring a range of UC Merced students and faculty with more than two hours of content that can be enjoyed by both English and Spanish speakers.

Bilingual Shakespeare Sets the Stage for Future Productions

Shakespeare can feel stuffy and difficult to understand. Native English speakers often struggle with decoding the Bard’s works, so imagine how difficult it would be to appreciate Shakespeare if...

Give to UC Merced 2020 draws 487 donors and raises $163,000 to support students and campus initiatives.

Month of Giving Surpasses Fundraising Goal

During December, the Give to UC Merced 2020 initiative tripled the campus’s goal of raising $50,000. The final tally: $163,000 raised for a variety of campus initiatives and programs. The...

Professor’s Latest Film Examines Latinx Women’s Experience in a Divided America

Global Arts Studies Professor Yehuda Sharim has released his latest project, a short film titled “Red Line Lullaby” or “Cancion de Cuna Colorada,” which examines the varied...

UC Merced recently acquired the Ernest Lowe collection, a rich collection of images showcasing Central Valley farm-working communities in the 1960's.

Library Acquires Ernest Lowe Photography Collection Documenting 1960s Rural California Communities

In the 1960s, Ernest Lowe took his camera into the rural towns of California’s Central Valley, documenting the lives and struggles of farm-working communities. Sixty years later, these photos...

Global arts Professor Yehuda Sharim’s 2019 documentary “Songs That Never End” examines the feelings of displacement refugees grapple with upon relocating somewhere new.

Documentary on Refugee Experience to Premiere at UC Merced and Abroad

Global arts Professor Yehuda Sharim’s 2019 documentary “Songs That Never End” will continue to be screened at several international venues over the course of the coming weeks....

Founding UC Merced Faculty Member Appointed to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has announced that UC Merced Art History Professor ShiPu Wang has joined the museum’s Board of Commissioners for a four-year term. His appointment...

Modesto-based Valley Wolf's performance will go online on Aug. 8

Central Valley Musicians to Perform Online in the Levitt AMP Virtual Music Series

UC Merced and the City of Merced, through the Levitt Foundation, are hosting a virtual concert in August as part of the current Levitt AMP Virtual Music Series. The series was moved online in...

Professor’s Documentary Film about Refugee Family Honored at Vienna International Festival

“Songs that Never End,” Professor Yehuda Sharim’s intimate film about a family transitioning from Iran to life in Texas, is a finalist contender in the International Documentary...

UC Merced Professor Arias Wins Guggenheim Fellowship

Arturo Arias, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation professor in the Humanities at UC Merced, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his ground-breaking study of contemporary...