UCSC Night at the Museum is an annual event series that features scholars in conversation in a museum setting. The juxtaposition of thematic discussion with the objects and exhibitions of the museum invite the public into the work of The Humanities Institute and spark deeper engagement.

The Coha-Gunderson Creativity Workshop, housed in The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz, presents a multi-media exhibition by UCSC graduate and undergraduate students and alumni winners of the Coha-Gunderson Prize in Speculative Futures. The exhibition includes installations, performances, visual art, film & video, and a computer game, distributed throughout the museum’s spaces.

Doors and exhibits open at 6pm, event program will begin at 7pm.

Prizewinners come from a range of disciplines, including Anthropology, Art, Computational Media, Environmental Art and Social Practice, Film and Digital Media, Literature, and Politics.

The Coha-Gunderson Prize in Speculative Futures prize was established by THI’s Speculatively Scientific Fictions of the Future project and is made possible by alumni Peter Coha (Kresge ’78, Mathematics) and James Gunderson (Rachel Carson ’77, Philosophy, and UCSC Foundation Board Trustee).

The exhibition opens on June 5th, 2025 in conjunction with The Humanities Institute’s annual Night at the Museum event, which will also feature a panel discussion about speculative fiction to engage scholars, practitioners and publics in creative speculation with and about the works.