Growth and Experimentation: The UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts (2000-2025)
- Encore Content
- Sep 15, 2025
- 6 min read
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by Peter Lefevre for UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts
It’s the turn of the millennium. We’ve escaped the mortal threat of Y2K. Beanie Babies are the next big thing. And the UC Irvine School of the Arts is launching itself into a new and transformative era.
It started with a new name. Orange County resident and Oscar-winning actress Claire Trevor had been a welcome presence at the school, committing her time and expertise to the young performing artists at UCI, attending rehearsals, sharing professional insights, and encouraging their pursuit of artistic and academic excellence.
When she passed away in April 2000, her stepsons Donald and Peter Bren paid tribute to her legacy with a transformative gift to the campus. That donation transformed the School of the Arts into the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts, and with the new name came a renewed commitment to artistic expansion and creative vitality.
All the pieces were in place to build a preeminent home for the arts. Drawing on the school’s initial commitment to experimental, radical artistic expression, the Claire Trevor School of the Arts was now poised—through bold leadership, investment in a bigger campus footprint, and a critical mass of energized, visionary creative artists—to enhance its reputation as one of the nation’s great arts incubators.
As Tiffany López, Dean of the Arts at the school, says, “Our history of boundary-pushing work is how the artists who came to UCI came to think about the school. They were in labs of creativity with world-class artists, around the best scientists in the world, and they were in this extraordinary school devoted to being on the cutting edge, to forward thinking. This was not just excellence for the community, but something that had national and global impact.”
Artists need space to create, and one of the major developments then was the founding of the Beall Center for Art + Technology. Designed as a museum/gallery where art, science and engineering work hand-in-glove to promote experimental works and new ways to create, the center has consistently operated on the edge of technology. Soon after this home for innovation opened, the campus welcomed the opening of the William J. Gillespie Performance Studios and the Art Culture & Technology building, thanks to a generous donation from Gillespie in 2009. Both are key facilities for the school’s creative artists. Adding to the expansive range of creative spaces on campus in 2011 was the Contemporary Arts Center, featuring a black box theater, gallery space and a recording studio, and these spaces were soon home to new creative work from distinguished artists.
In 2006, UCI welcomed the highly influential choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer as the first Distinguished Professor in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Experimental, minimalist, feminist, lesbian, author of the infamous “No Manifesto” (1965), which authoritatively rejected modern dance conventions of the time, Rainer added significantly to the School’s national reputation.
The art of dance at UCI also saw a landmark production in 2015 as “Dance Visions,” the Department of Dance’s annual faculty showcase, and a staged a revival of founding chair Eugene Loring’s 1938 ballet, “Billy the Kid” in celebration of the university’s 50th anniversary.
Professor Molly Lynch, who at the time was Artistic Director of “Dance Visions,” honors Loring as one of the school’s key figures.
“His philosophy was that everyone should be trained to do everything well,” she says. “Dancers should be well-rounded, flexible and able to cross over. He came from ballet, but also did movie musicals, film and television. He was ahead of his time. Loring had high standards of professionalism for the program.”
The new millennium also saw two major developments for the Department of Drama. It launched its first Ph.D. program, a critical move towards deeper scholarly engagement with the artform, and it kicked off the New Swan Shakespeare Festival in 2012. Under the guidance of Eli Simon, Chancellor’s Professor of Drama and founding artistic director, the Festival forged a Shakespearean community of artists, scholars and audiences through its summer repertory performances.
UCI Drama continues to be ranked as one of the top theater programs in the country, a testament to the legacy of its early years and the continued commitment of its current faculty. Successful graduates, in fact, are part of the School’s history. Prominent alumni include SNL’s Jon Lovitz and current Broadway stars and Tony nominees Beth Malone and Jenn Colella.
“We definitely are looking toward the future,” says Joel Veenstra, Chair of the Department of Drama. “How can we do what we do better? How can we support people in better and more exciting ways? We’ve always been innovative, so how can we continue to do what we do to create education within this space? What are the ways we’ll challenge our students?
“I’ve visited several alumni who are working on Broadway, in regional theaters and locally in Southern California, and it’s thrilling that we’re successful at training people to succeed in the field.”
Of the many advances made by the Department of Music since 2000, the launch of the Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology (ICIT) Program in 2009, stands out as emblematic of the School’s creative and adventurous spirit. Melding classical composition, computer music, improvisation and jazz, ICIT welcomed its first cohort of Ph.D. students in 2016.
Michael Dessen, Professor and Robert & Marjorie Rawlins Chair of Music, prizes ICIT’s unique multidisciplinary approach.
“Among music Ph.D. programs, ICIT is very unusual in that it explicitly frames those three areas – improvisation, composition and technology – as part of an integrated approach to musical creation and research,” he says. “The creative work of both faculty and grads in ICIT can't really be categorized through traditional binaries like classical/jazz, western/non-western, or composition/improvisation, and instead reflects a much more diverse, hybrid field of musical exploration.”
The post-2000 musical reputation of UCI was further enhanced in 2024 when the UCI Chamber Singers, led by Professor Irene Messoloras, performed Ola Gjeilo’s “Twilight Mass” at Carnegie Hall.
Of course, any history of the 2000s has to factor in the global pandemic of 2020-2021. At UCI, students accustomed themselves to online instruction and the arts began to pivot from live to digital experiences. The Department of Art gave online exhibitions, Department of Dance performances were created especially for the camera, the drama department presented two virtual productions, “She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms” and “The Jubilee and Me – Songs I Never Got to Sing,” and UCI Music used advanced software to coordinate live online performances at a distance.
In short, the past 60 years for the arts at UCI have embraced the fullness of artistic expression, pushing towards radical expression while insisting on professional standards.
Says López, “These anniversaries are always a chance to reflect on legacy and to celebrate. When you talk about this school’s early inception, people will reflect on the celebratory pride points, but it’s also a time to think about our legacies. What does that mean to think about the future 25-50 years from now? What will people say about this present moment and what legacies we’re building?
“The careers the students step into will be ones they invent, expand, and that means looking at the roots of doing art that transforms and voices that matter. That’s what we’re creating. I’m looking at all these pieces of the school and how we can wield them together as a force multiplier. My hope is that we show how that amazing history is part of our present now, and what we’re doing to build into the future.”
