Public Art

Guardians: Spirits of Protection, Expands to the Arboretum

A poetry path, a reflection bridge, a Dakhil (a traditional Islamic act of devotion that often involves tying fabric to a tree or anything one considers sacred), and more can be found in the Arboretum through April 30. The exhibit is a temporary installation in support of design MFA students Niloufar Abdolmaleki and Edward Whelan’s theses and an extension of Professor Emeritus Ann Savageau’s exhibit at the campus design museum through April 24 entitled, “Guardians: Spirits of Protection.”

Popular ginkgo tree showcases cross-cultural addiction

Art installation created by Rocio Perez, a student in Professor Robin Hill's Intermediate Sculpture Class entitled Addiction, 2019, features dozens of fake plaster cell phones hanging from a popular ginkgo tree in the UC Davis Arboretum's East Asian Collection.

Fish out of water: student-created art enlivens Arboretum sidewalk

The Aggie Public Arts Committee, funded mostly by the Nelson Gallery and in part by ASUCD, commissioned a mural on the sidewalk near the Nelson Gallery, along Arboretum Drive. Conceptually, the mural is based on reimagined landscapes and wildlife, using 3-D illusions of space with an element of fantasy. Next time you are in the Arboretum, we hope you’ll stop by to see it, but don’t get too attached to this design; according to Crystal Han, committee chairwoman, new artistic elements will be added before the fall 2015 school year.

YOU ARE INVITED: Community-created mural dedication

Join the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden and the City of Davis for the dedication of the community-created mural brightening the walls of the bike tunnel joining a newly-restored section of the Putah Creek Parkway with a newly-constructed portion of the UC Davis Arboretum. For the last six weeks, thanks to a grant from PG&E obtained by the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, Caryl Yasko, Community Built Association member and nationally-recognized muralist, collaborated with Davis community members to design and paint this passageway.

Students design sustainable birdhouses

As the result of a collaboration between the UC Davis Arboretum  and Public Garden and the UC Davis Department of Design, the arboretum and other parts of the Davis campus will become student galleries for Ann Savageau’s “Sustainable Design” class.

Shovel Gateway sculpture opens!

It’s open! On Sunday, October 27, 2013 community members, donors and stakeholders from the campus and city gathered to dedicate the “Shovel Gateway”—a sculpture created from over 400 community-donated shovels.