In 2010, UCR ARTSblock brought together the California Museum of Photography (founded in 1973), the Jack and Marilyn Sweeney Art Gallery (1963), and the Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts (2010). Located three miles from UCR’s main campus, ARTSblock is located on a single block in adjacent historical buildings along the pedestrian mall in downtown Riverside. Housed in two renovated department stores from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ARTSblock’s adaptive reuse enlivens the city’s downtown core. ARTSblock serves as a cultural anchor for both the University and the broader Inland Empire communities
California Museum of Photography at U.C. Riverside
In 2010 the California Museum of Photography is devoted to showing the work of contemporary artists who use photography, to collaborating with UCR faculty and students to bring their varied expertise to the public in exhibitionary form, and to preserving and making accessible its vast holdings of photography and related apparatus.
The UCR/CMP collection is comprised of four sub collections: the Bingham Technology Collection, University Print Collection, the UCR/CMP Study Center Library Collection, and the Digital Virtual Collection. On view are a sampling of these collections, which offer a glimpse into photographic methods and artistry. Exhibits explore broad associations between photographic works, the instruments of photography, and society's evolving relationship with the photograph.
Jack and Marilyn Sweeney Art Gallery
The Sweeney Art Gallery presents significant regional, national, and international art, and hosts annual MFA and Senior Show exhibitions for students in UCR’s Department of Art. As an artistic laboratory, the gallery engages diverse audiences with exhibitions committed to experimentation, innovation, and the exploration of art in our time. Sweeney Gallery presents exhibitions of contemporary and historic works of art each year.