For nearly half a century, Cabrillo College’s original theater hosted world-renowned musicians, Hollywood actors and generations of young artists. It has been dark since 2009. Now, amid a shortage of performance spaces in Santa Cruz County, some are asking whether its 470 empty seats could have a future.
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Made in Santa Cruz: Why Art Matters | Mattie Leeds
“Made in Santa Cruz: Why Art Matters” is a video series, published every other Sunday, exploring the artists who shape Santa Cruz County’s creative landscape. Each episode offers a peek into an artist’s practice, the places and experiences that inform their work, and the ways creativity helps us see our community differently. Today’s artist is Bonny Doon potter and painter Mattie Leeds.
Posted inEvents
Weekender: Block party finale, music fest, line dancing
Your cheat sheet for eating well and going out this weekend around Santa Cruz County.
Posted inEvents
Best of Santa Cruz County entertainment, arts & food events this weekend, Aug. 27-30
With the weekend nearly here, check out things to do around Santa Cruz County, with a recommendation from Lily Belli and a specially curated list from Lookout’s BOLO events calendar.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We fought over it. Now what will we make of our new library in downtown Santa Cruz?
Santa Cruz’s new downtown library and affordable housing project has hardly been without controversy — but after years of debate, the building is rising, writes affordable housing advocate and former mayor Don Lane. Now the question is less about who supported the project and more about what we want this new civic space to become. With its expanded Life Literacies Center, free resources and room for people to gather, Lane believes the library could become downtown’s living room – and a place to bring a divided community together.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Dolly Parton, music star, actor and beloved figure who spanned generations, dies at 80
Dolly Parton, the country music icon whose soaring vibrato vocals, poignant songwriting and sparkling costumes defined her rise from a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains to the height of stardom and acclaim, has died. She was 80 years old.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Santa Cruz Shakespeare goes big: Eight shows take the stage in 2027
Santa Cruz Shakespeare is going bigger than ever in 2027, with eight productions stretching from spring through winter, including a record four-show summer season. But at a warm gathering in the Audrey Stanley Grove on Monday night, the company also looked back, surprising former artistic director Mike Ryan by naming the Grove stage in his honor.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Willie Ito’s incredible journey from a WWII incarceration camp to Disney animation comes to life in ‘Hello, Maggie!’
At 92, legendary animator Willie Ito is still drawing on his childhood experience in a Japanese American incarceration camp to tell stories of hope. The former Disney, Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera animator will visit Santa Cruz on Wednesday for a screening of “Hello, Maggie!”, the animated short based on his childhood friend’s story of a boy who finds joy and friendship inside a World War II incarceration camp.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Weekender: Dahlias, firefighter fundraiser and chardonnay tasting
Your cheat sheet for eating well and going out this weekend in Santa Cruz County.
Posted inEvents
Best of Santa Cruz County entertainment, arts & food events this weekend, Aug. 20-23
With the weekend nearly here, check out things to do around Santa Cruz County, with a recommendation from Lily Belli and a specially curated list from Lookout’s BOLO events calendar.
