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Welcome to the weekend (almost)

In this week’s Arts Blog, you can catch artist Ruby Neri talking about her art at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art and an opera at The Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. (Tickets are almost out for the opera though). Also, the annual Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed lecture features Mexican American painter Enrique Chagoya. All these events are free. And there’s much more. 

Also, in the Arts Blog, catch a story about a �������� historian who discovered an opera written by a free Black man in the 1800s that is only now being performed for the first time.

Karen Nikos-Rose, Arts Blog Editor

Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture features Mexican American painter, printer, educator Enrique Chagoya

Thursday, Jan. 30, 4:30 p.m., in the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at ��������, free

Using his art to comment on social and environmental issues, Enrique Chagoya’s prints, drawings, collages and multiples offer critical commentary on the global reach of the United States and its cultural, political and historical tensions with Latin America.

Chagoya is a Mexican-born American painter, printmaker and educator. He received an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute and has won awards and fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, National Academy of Arts and Letters, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation. He received the Lifetime Achievement in Printmaking Award from Southern Graphics Council International and was inducted into the National Academy of Design in 2021. Chagoya is a Professor of Art at Stanford University. 

Read more about 

This week’s Shinkoskey Noon Concert features solo guitarist Andy McKee

Thursday, Jan. 30, 12:05 p.m., Recital Hall at the Ann E. Pitzer Center, free

Andy McKee’s crossover success has helped him achieve millions of YouTube viewers, underscoring his emergence as one of today’s most unique and influential artists. His song Drifting became one of the first YouTube viral videos with almost 60 million views.

Live performances of McKee's have become a point of fascination with his loyal followers. So, in late 2015, McKee decided it was time to release a live album. This week’s Shinkoskey Noon Concert features works from this live album.

“I’ve always wanted to do a live album; for quite a few years I’ve felt it’s something that has been missing from my collection of releases. This album will feature some of my YouTube hits like ‘Drifting’ and ‘Rylynn,’ some songs from my 2014 EP Mythmaker, and a cover of a Michael Hedges song called ‘Because It’s There’ played on harp guitar that I haven’t released before.” — McKee

Program

To be announced from stage.

The Human Rights Film Festival screens ‘So Surreal: Behind the Masks’

Thursday, Jan. 30, 7-9 p.m., Room 1002, Cruess Hall, free

The Human Rights Film Festival — a collaboration of Human Rights Studies, Cinema and Digital Media, Global Affairs and the College of Letters and Science at �������� —  begins with a screening of “So Surreal: Behind the Masks” on Jan. 30.

The festival’s screenings are part of a larger academic series, "The UC Confronts Hate, Violence and Mass Atrocity: Conversations about Human Rights, Humanity and Peacemaking" administered by Human Rights Studies at �������� with funding from the UC Office of the President to develop educational programs to “combat antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bias, bigotry and discrimination.”

So Surreal: Behind the Masks unveils the fascinating connection between the work of famed Surrealist artists and Yupʼik and Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw ceremonial masks, and the quest to bring some of the masks back home. The film premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

Following the film there will be a discussion with Chuna McIntyre (Yup’ik) — who is featured in the film — and moderated by Professor Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (Seminole, Muscogee, Diné), faculty director of the Gorman Museum of Native American Art.

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of �������� and The Global Tea Institute’s Annual Colloquium

Thursday, Jan. 30, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., �������� Conference Center, 550 Alumni Lane

The Global Tea Institute celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a Colloquium on Tea and Peace: Bringing Communities Together. The speakers will discuss the role that tea plays in bringing people together and the wonderful properties that tea can provide. During this daylong event, experts will demonstrate through engaging presentations how the theme of tea can impact culture, society, science, health, and other industries. Katharine Burnett, director of the  , or GTI, is also a co-chair of the Department of Art and Art History in the College of Letters and Science.

To get tickets, please go to . To read more about tea and The Global Tea Institute, read Maria Sestito’s in-depth article here: .

Art Spark is back with new themes for a new year

Saturdays and Sundays 1-4 p.m., at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art in the Carol and Gerry Parker Art Studio, free

Spark your creativity this winter with an afternoon in the Carol and Gerry Parker Art Studio. Drop in to experiment with new materials, make art with others, and express yourself. In February, take inspiration from the artists featured in Through Their Eyes and create sculptures using items of clothing, compose colorful contorted portraits, make images with yarn, and combine text with found images.

Ruby Neri gives artist talk 

Sunday, Feb. 2, 2-5:30 p.m., at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, free

Artist talk featuring Ruby Neri in conversation with curator Ginny Duncan will be from 3:30-4:30 p.m.

Celebrate the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art's winter season with Through Their Eyes: Selections from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, the first U.S. presentation of the renowned contemporary art collection, and Ruby Neri: Taking the Deep Dive, Neri’s first solo museum exhibition. The exhibitions join . Neri is the daughter of renowned artist and late �������� Professor Emeritus Professor Manuel Neri.

Experience art and space through a new interactive work created especially for the museum galleries by Dorte Bjerre Jensen, Danish artist and current �������� Ph.D. student. Jensen’s practice explores how we experience art through relational presence, offering a fresh opportunity to see and sense the exhibitions from new perspectives.

Parking update: On Feb. 2, the parking lots around the Manetti Shrem Museum will be subject to event parking rates starting at 2 p.m. due to the opera event at the Mondavi Center. Those parking in nearby lots — Visitor Parking Lot 1 and the Gateway Parking Structure — will be charged a $17 event fee if using the AMP pay-by-phone app.

Rising Stars of Opera

�������� Symphony Orchestra, singers from the San Francisco Opera Center, come together in performance

Sunday, Feb. 2, 2 p