This week's Weekender is a reminder why at the Arts Blog, we start our weekends on Thursday! This week, the noon concert is followed by a talk at the Library and a special event at TANA in Woodland. All free. All Thursday. Plenty to look forward to next week. Catch all of our museum exhibitions at UC Davis in this Blog entry from a few weeks ago. It explains them in detail.
Get a "tour" of the new 'Breathe' exhibition at Manetti Shrem through the eyes of UC Davis scholars in this story posted yesterday. DO NOT miss what alum Jessica Wimbly is doing — in and for — an LA Metro Station. Enjoy. Karen Nikos-Rose, Arts Blog Editor
Ars Pacifica Trio plays at noon concert Thursday
Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025 - 12:05 p.m. – 1 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, UC Davis, free
Iryna Klimashevska, violin
Jon Anderson, horn
I-Hui Chen, piano and UC Davis lecturer in music
Program
W. A. Mozart: Allegro from Horn Quintet in E-Flat Major, K. 407 (K. 386c)
Johannes Brahms: Horn Trio in E-flat Major, op. 40
A Shinkoskey Noon Concert
Author Talk: 'The Nature of Her Business', Thursday evening at library
Author and UC Davis alumna Janet Kaidantzis will share the stories of trailblazing women who built successful tourism businesses in the early 20th century and a glimpse into her research process in her talk, The Nature of Her Business: Female Proprietors of Summer Resorts at Lake Tahoe, 1900-1930. The event is Thursday, 5:30 to 7 p.m., Shields Library, UC Davis campus.
As part of that research, Kaidantzis relied on materials, including diaries, personal correspondence, and photographs, from two collections in the UC Davis Library’s Archives and Special Collections: the Pierce Family Papers (D-022) and the Glen Alpine Springs Collection (D-698). Selected items from the collections will be on display during the event.
TANA has launch event; Conversation with Stan Padilla
Print Launch & Artist Talk: A Conversation with Stan Padilla; Thursday, Oct. 9;: 6:30 p.m., 1224 Lemen Avenue, Woodland, TANA / Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer
Join TANA in Woodland Thursday for an exclusive artist talk and print launch featuring renowned artist Stan Padilla, introduced by distinguished art historian and curator Terezita Romo. This event celebrates the release of the limited-edition print, "Nostalgic Flight: The Last Muralist Paints His Way to Mictlán," a collaboration between La Raza Galeria Posada (LRGP) and TANA (Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer) marking the RCAF’s 50th anniversary of the Dia de los Muertos in Sacramento.
The "Nostalgic Flight” signed print by Stan Padilla is a 22 x 30-inch limited-edition of 60, produced by TANA as part of its Special Editions Program. Proceeds from the $250 print sales will support the RCAF's annual Día de Muertos observance at St. Mary’s Cemetery, La Raza Galeria Posada, and TANA's Special Editions Program. The print will be available for purchase at the event.
Stan Padilla is a celebrated Yaqui and Chicano multi-media artist, muralist, educator, and social activist whose work is deeply rooted in traditional Indigenous knowledge, spirituality, folklore, and social justice. Stan Padilla's “Nostalgic Flight" print is a powerful reflection on the Chicano Movement, honoring his RCAF comrades and their enduring spirit. His talk will center on the imagery and meaning of his new print as well as his trajectory as a community-based artist.
Terezita Romo is a Sacramento-based art historian and curator known for her scholarship on Chicano/a artists. Along with introducing Padilla, she will talk about her upcoming exhibition, "Rebels with La Causa: Royal Chicano Air Force Art and Activism, 1970-1990" at the Crocker Art Museum in Spring 2026. This exhibition is one of the centerpieces of La Raza Galeria Posada’s “InFormation: A Celebration of the Royal Chicano Air Force,” regional celebration of the RCAF's legacy.
Take a moment to watch this short film by Jonah Gutierrez, and join us for a special talk and print launch celebration
Library exhibit features 'Bound in Time: Women’s Journeys Through Scrapbooks and Photo Albums'
Catch the exhibition, exemplified in photo above, in in front of Archives and Special Collections Department at Shields Library, UC Davis.
Art alumni
Public Art by alum Jessica Wimbley
Jessica Wimbley, The True Story of Edges: Leimert Park, Courtesy of Metro Art (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority)
UC Davis Alum Jessica Wimbley (MFA, art studio, ‘05) and former Manetti Shrem Museum employee was among the 10 artists who contributed work to “Love, Leimert,” a love letter to Leimert Park in Los Angeles, which presented moving-image artworks in a diverse range of styles and subject matter.
The public art project used archival images, Super8, animation and collage; the artworks celebrate the cultural vibrancy of Leimert Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. The public art can be viewed as part of Metro Art, Leimert Park Station, Los Angeles …”Love, Leimert.”
For details, visit art.metro.net.
Robert Ortbal at Pence
UC Davis Alum Robert Ortbal (MFA, art studio, '89) will have a solo exhibition at the Pence Gallery in Davis opening Friday, Oct. 10 and running trhough Nov. 30. On Oct. 18, Ortbal will give an artist talk at the gallery in conjunction with the exhibition. More information here.
Coming up
Public Talk: Anne Ellegood
The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies
Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, 5:30-7 p.m., 1002 Cruess Hall
Anne Ellegood has been the executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles since September 2019. She was senior curator at the Hammer Museum from 2009 to 2019, and has held curatorial posts at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. She has organized numerous group exhibitions, including Made in L.A. 2018, Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology (2014), All of this and nothing (2011), and The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture (2006).
Ellegood is the fall quarter spotlight artist in The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies.
This event is organized by The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residences in the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program. Read more>
Legacy of Hawaiian Song and String Raiatea Helm at Mondavi Center
Raiatea Helm is a master of leo ki‘e ki‘e, the art of Hawaiian falsetto
Honored in Hawai’i four times as Female Vocalist of the Year, her crystalline voice is “poised and utterly elegant” (The New York Times). Showcasing her most recent album, A Legacy of Hawaiian Song and String, Helm next Wednesday presents a passionate musical snapshot of Hawai’i’s rich culture and independent spirit. This Hawai’ian music, once a global phenomenon, helped shape genres from country and bluegrass to rock. As project collaborator Kilin Reece notes, “It’s an incredibly vibrant and untold story.”
Tickets here for this concert next Wednesday.
UC Davis on Capital Stage
A number of UC Davis affiliated creatives are collaborating on Capital Stage’s regional premiere of the Tony Award-winning comedy Eureka Day.
The show’s design team includes Professor Ethan Hollinger as projections designer, costume shop director Rebecca A. Valentino as costume designer and head electrician Patrick O’Reilly as lighting designer. Hollinger is assisted by alum EJ Agata while O’Reilly works with alum Naomi Wiemken and undergraduate student Ryan McKinney. Alum Hailey Bowland continues her year-long internship at Capital Stage working in support of the production.
The acclaimed comedy is set at The Eureka Day School in Berkeley, California, a bastion of progressive ideals: representation, acceptance, social justice. In weekly meetings Eureka Day’s five board members develop and update policy to preserve this culture of inclusivity, reaching decisions only by consensus. But when a mumps outbreak threatens the Eureka community, facts become subjective and every solution divisive, leaving the school’s leadership to confront the central question of our time: How do you build consensus when no one can agree on truth?
Eureka Day begins performances on Oct. 15 and runs through Nov. 16. For details and tickets, visit capstage.org.
Michael French, College of Letters and Science
Media Resources
Contact: Karen Nikos-Rose, Arts Blog Editor, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu
The UC Davis Arts Blog appears each Thursday in the form of a "weekender" full of activities on campus and throughout the region, and periodically throughout the week in the form of art features curated from throughout the campus and beyond. There is an Arts Blog newsletter published quarterly.
Karen covers arts, social sciences, the grad schools of business, law and education as well as a portion of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. She is a quilter, and teaches quilting at the UC Davis Craft Center.