arts

End-of-year exams, projects can take unorthodox forms.

Here’s the pitch: A brilliant neuroscientist who can identify psychopaths by studying their brain imaging scans and genetic data makes a startling discovery. After learning there are eight killers among his ancestors — including notorious ax murderer Lizzie Borden, a distant cousin — he finds that he shares their biological predisposition to murder. Mitigating environmental […]

When Jeff Greenberg, casting director for “Modern Family,” first tried to sell the network on actor Ty Burrell for the part of Phil Dunphy, the doofus dad on the hit television show, the executives balked. “We had to keep bringing him back” for auditions, Greenberg recalls. “They didn’t see it at first.” The suits eventually adopted his choice for […]

UCI celebrates prolific career of dance pioneer Donald McKayle.

Upcoming play ‘Galileo in America’ explores collision of art, science and politics.

Matt Fradkin, a fourth-year student in UC Irvine’s School of Medicine, was doing research at CHOC Children’s Hospital when he saw firsthand how music could relieve a patient’s suffering. A boy of about 7 with cancer had been lying in bed complaining constantly of pain when a music therapist entered his room and began playing […]

Art aficionados can retrace Barbara T. Smith’s journey from Pasadena homemaker to performance art pioneer at UC Irvine’s University Art Gallery, which is hosting “The Radicalization of a ’50s Housewife” through Dec. 4. Featuring paintings, drawings, sculpture, personal letters and a video installation, the exhibit is a tribute to Smith’s seminal 1981 work “Birthdaze,” which […]

Drama students mount outdoor production of modernized ‘Antigone.’

Bridget Cooks sheds light on African American art, cultural imagery.

Many students had a hand in creating a new mural for UCI’s Cross-Cultural Center. The 12-by-18-foot collaborative artwork will be officially unveiled Sept. 22, during UCI Welcome Week.