Courtesy photo.
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures welcomes Jenna Hamilton-Rolle as Director of Education & Community Engagement. Hamilton-Rolle was the Director of Education at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Sea Center, and brings substantial experience with community outreach, K-12 field trips, hands-on educational programming, and site-specific experiential learning to her new role with Arts & Lectures.
“I believe everyone in our community deserves access to engaging, high-quality educational opportunities. In alignment with UCSB Arts & Lectures mission, my career goals revolve around inspiring, educating, and engaging an increasingly diverse public” said Hamilton-Rolle. She also said that she has “admired A&L’s commitment to excellence, cogent programming, and dedication to accessibility” since her time as a graduate student at UCSB.
UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Associate Director Meghan Bush expressed the organization’s enthusiasm for the hire, saying that “Jenna brings many community connections with her, including administrators and educators at the Goleta and SB Unified school districts, and as a former instructor at Santa Barbara City College.” Additionally, Bush pointed out Hamilton-Rolles’ significant leadership experience, citing the fact that “she currently serves as Chair of the Community Development and Human Services Committee for the City of Santa Barbara.”
Hamilton-Rolle earned her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and her Master of Science in Geological and Earth Sciences from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Hamilton-Rolle will officially join the A&L team on August 15th. Adding a personal note, Associate Director Bush said that she was “excited to have a scientific mind join the team. As a multidisciplinary arts and culture organization, it is important that we evolve and bring new perspectives to the work that we do.”
ABOUT THE UCSB ARTS & LECTURES EDUCATION PROGRAM
Each season, the Arts & Lectures Education program brings world class musicians, performers and leaders into direct contact with students and faculty through events in UCSB’s classrooms, rehearsal studios and auditoriums. Participants in the 2022-2023 season’s on campus activities met and learned from distinguished visitors including Yo-Yo Ma, Maria Ressa, Tracy Kidder, Danny Trejo, David Gergen and Isabella Rossellini. In the words of UCSB undergraduate dance student Chris Sellgren, “When visiting dance companies come to teach, it feels like the world of dance expands.” This same principle applies to every dimension of the Arts & Lectures Education program, which aims to provide world-expanding experiences to all students and segments of the Santa Barbara population, both at the university and beyond.
More than 52,000 students and community members attended public events and outreach activities presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures in the 2022-2023 season. The program’s K-12 component delivered four school day matinee performances at the Granada Theatre featuring acclaimed ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro, the Soweto Gospel Choir, Cirque Flip Fabrique and Ballet Hispánico. These performances, known as Arts Adventures, served between three and four thousand students from all over Santa Barbara County and included subsidized transportation to and from the venue.
The County’s K-12 students also benefited from Arts Up Close, a program that brings artists into the schools for workshops, masterclasses, lectures, Q&A sessions, demonstrations and more. In 2023, students at three area junior high schools experienced a residency with the Los Angeles-based dance company Versa-Style. Versa-Style provided these schools with a performance and instruction in the art of hip hop dance. Other visiting artists who participated in Arts Up Close included U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, science writer Ainissa Ramirez, members of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and members of the Mark Morris Dance Group.
¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! was created in 2006 to bring people together to share the rich cultural heritage of Latin America. In the 2022-2023 season, more than 8,000 students and community members enjoyed these free performances in schools, community centers and neighborhood spaces from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara, Isla Vista and Guadalupe. Featured artists included Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar, Tres Souls, Las Cafeteras and Grandeza Mexicana.
The Arts & Lectures Education program provided a wide range of other community outreach opportunities in 2022-2023, ranging from a celebration of Ukrainian culture outside the Granada before the DakhaBrakha concert to a conversation between doctors at the Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara and Pulitzer Prize-winning physician and author Siddhartha Mukherjee. Through the Thematic Learning Initiative (TLI), Arts & Lectures provides intimate salon-style conversations, workshops and film screenings that inspire lifelong learning and encourage growth and empowerment.
ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
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Press photos are available upon request. Contact Arts & Lectures Senior Writer / Publicist Charles Donelan, charles.donelan@artsandlectures.ucsb.edu or WaveComm’s Chris Davis, chris@wavecommsb.com.