Quick Take
A committee of arts professionals and community activists has announced plans to establish a new 10-day annual festival called "Ripple Effect" to take place in spaces all over Santa Cruz County starting in April 2026.
There is a big new arts festival on the horizon in Santa Cruz County, but note the date. It’s a long horizon.
A committee of arts professionals and community activists has announced plans to establish a new 10-day annual festival to take place in spaces all over the county starting in April 2026.
Much like the Olympics, “Ripple Effect” is planning to sandwich a vibrant arts festival between a spectacular opening event and an even bigger closing event, from April 16 to 26, 2026. The idea is to embrace Santa Cruz County’s broad diversity of both visual and performing arts, with a literary element as well.
“There is still a lot to figure out,” said one of the festival’s chief organizers, Santa Cruz artist Rose Sellery. “There’s so much cultural richness in Santa Cruz, and we’re all working in our separate corners. In this event, we want to bring ourselves together to create some excitement and generate some new audiences for the arts.”
In the 16 months between now and the festival’s kickoff, organizers will mount a website and an app and develop partnerships with local nonprofits and arts organizations to stage events, including the big bookend events. The broad effort to this point has been largely by Sellery, gallery owner/curator Melissa Kreisa of M.K. Contemporary Arts and Marla Novo, a longtime staffer at the Museum of Art & History now serving as the MAH’s interim director.
Sellery said the festival’s committee might plan a smaller introductory event for 2025, to illustrate what Ripple Effect has in mind.
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