50th Anniversary Weekend celebration

Founded half a century ago by Walt and Roy Disney as a multidisciplinary “community of the arts,” CalArts has attracted generations of artists who have set the leading edge of contemporary practice across the performing and visual arts.

To celebrate its first 50 years—and launch the next—CalArts invites the public to join the party with three days of art, music, theater, dance, performance, food, and festivities. The Valencia, California campus will be transformed into a theme park of artistic exploration and experimentation with multiple, simultaneous exhibitions, concerts, performances, and “happenings” unfolding throughout the buildings and grounds. Come celebrate with us at CalArts’ 50th Anniversary Weekend April 28 through 30.

Selected Events
Everybody (performance): April 28–29
A comedic retelling of the anonymous 15th-century drama Everyman.

CalArts Alumnx Reunion: April 28–30
A gathering of alums from throughout CalArts’ five-decade history.

Happenings: April 28–29
More than 75 durational, experiential, and immersive art installations and performances unfold across campus.

Spring Dance Concert: April 28–29
Works by students, faculty, and alumni of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance.

World Music Festival: April 28–30
CalArts’ annual festival of musical traditions from around the globe.

Bookends (conversation): April 29, 11am–1pm
Robert Fitzpatrick, Ravi Rajan, and Carey Lovelace discuss CalArts’ past, present, and future.

School of Art Graduate open studios: April 29, 2–6pm
A behind-the-scenes glimpse into the evolving practices of emerging new voices in contemporary art.

Here Be Sirens by Kate Soper: April 30, 3pm
An experimental opera set in the pre-archaic Greek past and the post-apocalyptic US future.