After two years of virtual Picnic Day, the annual UC Davis event (picnic lunch optional) takes place Saturday, April 23. Bring a blanket and sit to enjoy the parade, then move on to all the arts you can handle. We feature the highlights. There's plenty of other activity too. See the story and full schedule of Picnic Day here. See arts highlights below.

Manetti Shrem offers shade activities, art in the AC; Design Museum open

Stop by the Manetti Shrem Museum on Picnic Day for art viewing and art making! Gather under the Grand Canopy for games and creative activities in the shade. Make a colorful composition of your own or bring a sketch to life with flipbook animation. Head inside to cool off and experience From Moment to Movement: Picturing Protest in the Kramlich Collection, and the final few weeks of Mary Heilmann: Squaring Davis and William T. Wiley and the Slant Step: All On the Line.

The museum is Free for All!

Arboretum art and design — a festival of color

See the story in the Arts Blog about what Design students have built in the arboretum. On view through Sunday. The Design Museum is open, too. See that separate story here.

Picnic Day: 'Musical Expedition' offered

10:30 a.m. – noon

Outside front of the Main Theatre, Wright Hall (look for the “Yin and Yang” Eggheads)

Meet-the-Instruments, 10:30 a.m.

Come meet samba and mariachi musicians! Get to know them and their instruments, and then watch them perform!

Mariachi Performance, 10:30 a.m.

Mariachi UC Davis, directed by Tito Talamentes, a UC Davis lecturer in music, performs in the many traditions, among them including Són Jalisciense, Canción Ranchera, Corrido, and some contemporary styles.

Samba Performance, 11:15 a.m.

Samba School at UC Davis, directed by Brian Rice, a UC Davis lecturer in music, performs in the traditional music of Carnaval!

Jazz Combo Performance, 12:45 p.m.

One of UC Davis’s student jazz combos will perform selections from the Great American Songbook.

Percussion & ‘All That Jazz,' at Recital Hall

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Noon-1:30 p.m.

Percussion Ensemble, Noon

UC Davis percussion students directed by Chris Froh, a UC Davis lecturer in music, will demonstrate the versatility of the modern percussion ensemble repertoire.

Soundlab Experience, 12 – 2 p.m.

Art Annex, 221 Cushing Way, UC Davis

Michael Seth Orland and Jacqueline Chew, Pianos

April 21, 12:05 – 1 p.m.

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free, a Shinkoskey Noon Concert

Michael Seth Orland, a UC Davis lecturer in music, and Jacqueline Chew, both longtime collaborators, will present two-piano music by Béla Bartók and Ferruccio Busoni.

Program to be announced. See more here.

Arboretum Art and Design

See the story in the Arts Blog about what Design students have built in the arboretum. On view through Sunday.

More this week: Oscar Strasnoy, composer: A Valente Lecture, Thursday

April 21, 4 – 5:30 p.m.

Room 266, Everson Hall

Oscar Strasnoy is a French-Argentine composer, conductor and pianist. He has composed twelve stage works, including operas performed at Spoleto, Rome, Paris (Opéra Comique, Théâtre du Châtelet), Hamburg, Bordeaux, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires), Berlin State Opera; a live-accompanied silent film score for Anthony Asquith’s Underground which premiered at the Louvre in 2004 and was subsequently played at the Cine Doré in Madrid, the Mozarteum Argentino, Kyoto, and Tokyo) and a secular cantata, Hochzeitsvorbereitungen (mit B und K). He has also composed several pieces of chamber, vocal, and orchestral music, including his song cycle Six Songs for the Unquiet Traveller, which premiered in 2004 performed by the Nash Ensemble and Ann Murray in a concert to inaugurate the newly refurbished Wigmore Hall in London. Strasnoy’s works are primarily published by Universal Edition (Vienna) Chant du Monde (Paris) and Billaudot (Paris). His opera Midea is published by Ricordi (Milan).

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra: 'Effects and Dances'

Thursday, April 21, 8 – 9 p.m.

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, $12 Students and Children / $24 Adults

See the full Arts Blog story published here.

In its “Effects and Dances” program, Christian Baldini and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra bring two thrilling orchestral pieces to the Mondavi Center in a short program starting at 8 p.m.

Find a direct link to the livestream here.

Earth Day/Week/Month: Sketch Crawl

Sustainability Sketch Crawl With Pete Scully — Free, with all materials provided. Noon-1:30 p.m. Friday, April 22, meet at the UC Davis Earth and Physical Sciences Building.

Baroque Orchestras of UC Davis and Davis High School

Sunday, April 24, 3 – 5 p.m.

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, $12 Students and Children / $24 Adults

The program includes Johann David Heinichen: Orchestral Suite, Henry Purcell: Chaconne from King Arthur, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer: The Fencing School, Johann Christoph Pez: Chaconne, Arcangelo Corelli: Sinfonia, Jacques Morel: Chaconne, and George Frideric Handel: Concerto a quattro.

Find a direct link to the livestream here.

PUSH / PULL by Nick Shepard at The Garage on the Grove

Through May 14

PUSH / PULL is artist Nick Shepard’s imposing rework of the Garage’s interior, and the next level in his exploration of the relationship between photographic images and the physical spaces in which they are viewed. Visitors immediately find themselves, not in a light and airy gallery, but in a narrow passageway of obscured sightlines and controlled movement, pressed close to the walls and pushed forward into the shadows.

Abstract photographs born of the Garage rafters and in-process installation materials are hung either too close to the viewer or too far, and sometimes are partially revealed or just out of sight. Their rich color shifts and striking shallow depth of field comfort with a pleasing, velvety texture, while challenging visitors to piece together a sense of the whole from mere fragments.

TGTG is pleased to present PUSH / PULL in conjunction with Photography Month Sacramento 2022.

There will be an artist reception on Saturday, May 14, 7 – 10 p.m. Open viewings include Thursday, April 21, 6 – 8 p.m., Saturday, April 30, 2 – 4 p.m., and Wednesday, May 4, 6 – 8 pm.

Artists Jen Merrill and Jefferson Eisenberg co-founded TGTG in 2018 to add to and participate in the Sac art scene, and to create a new space for artists and the public to engage with experimental projects grounded in a contemporary art framework. They are located at 2287 Grove Ave., Sacramento.

Madagascar: A Musical Adventure, in Woodland

Friday, April 22 – Sunday, May 8, 2022. Shows on Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday & Sunday at 2 p.m.

Woodland Opera House, 340 Second St., Woodland

Coming  to the Historic Woodland Opera House is a show that’s jam packed with fun for the whole family! Presented by Jennifer Goldman and Amy Thu Tran is the Theatre For Families production of Madagascar: A Musical Adventure. Based on the 2005 smash DreamWorks animated motion picture, Madagascar, you’ll see all of the familiar characters from the movie come alive on stage.

The story line follows all of your favorite “crack-a-lackin’” friends as they escape from their home in New York’s Central Park Zoo and find themselves on an unexpected journey to the madcap world of King Julien’s Madagascar. Alex the lion (Shane Burrows) is the king of the urban jungle. He and his best friends — Marty the zebra (Erik Catalan), Melman the giraffe (Collin Robinson-Burmester), and Gloria the hippo (Marie Campbell) — have spent their whole lives in blissful captivity before an admiring public and with regular meals. Marty lets his curiosity get the better of him though and makes his escape!

Reserved Seating Tickets: $16 Adults, $14 Seniors (62+), and $8 Children under 17. Balcony Seating Tickets: $10 Adults and $5 Children 17 and under. Purchase tickets online at www.woodlandoperahouse.org or by phone / in person at the Woodland Opera House box office (340 Second Street, Woodland / (530) 666-9617). Box office hours are Tuesday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. & 2 – 5 p.m., and two hours prior to each performance.

COVID Policy effective March 1, 2022: In accordance with the updated indoor mask requirements from the State of California and Yolo County, masks are no longer required in the Woodland Opera House facilities.

Davis Art Call

The City of Davis invites qualified artists or collaborative teams to submit a Request for Qualifications to design and create a new piece of public art that will enhance a neighborhood park improvement project in the N Street Park.

Complete information and instructions to apply can be found at N Street Park Public Art RFQ or by contacting City of Davis Arts and Culture Manager Rachel Hartsough at 530-747-5640 or rhartsough@cityofdavis.org.

 A direct link to the application can be accessed here on Café.

 Interested applicants wishing to respond to this RFQ must apply by Friday, June 3 at 5 pm.

Coming up next week

'Voices of Spring:' Students from the Voice Studio of Jonathan Nadel

April 26, 12 – 1:30 p.m.

Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, Free

Karen Rosenak, piano

Selections will include art songs and arias such as ”Saper vorreste,” ”L’invitation au voyage,” ”My one and only love,” ”Das Veilchen,” and others.

Find a direct link to the livestream here.​

Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil: spotlight artist in residence at The California Studio

April 28, 4:30 – 6 p.m.

Anne E. Pitzer Center

In 2005, with Ann Hamilton, Mercil began The Living Culture Initiative, a project integrating their art practices within the core research framework of Ohio State University — a public land-grant college dedicated to teaching the “mechanical, agricultural and liberal arts.” In 2006, Mercil planted The Beanfield as an agri/cultural experiment with the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Social Responsibility Initiative in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Because good farmers rotate crops, in 2008, Mercil converted The Beanfield into The Virtual Pasture (2008 – 2011) where he has proposed installing a green energy park and carbon storage bank called, Wind|Farm.

Find more information here.