Overview

USC Visions and Voices is a university-wide arts and humanities initiative that was launched in 2006. Highlighting USC’s excellence in the arts and humanities, the initiative provides a transformative and provocative experience for all USC students, regardless of their major or year in school, and challenges them to expand their perspectives and become engaged citizens.

Emphasizing the university’s commitment to interdisciplinary approaches, the initiative features a spectacular array of events, many conceived and organized by faculty and schools throughout the university. Performances and presentations by acclaimed artists and distinguished speakers are offered free for USC students, and most are free to the general public. In addition to events held on the University Park and Health Sciences campuses, students are also offered a variety of opportunities to experience Los Angeles’s dynamic cultural landscape at events throughout the city. Each event invites audience members to dialogue and engage with artists, scholars, and other special guests. These interactions provide a vibrant experience of the arts and humanities and encourage active exploration of USC’s six unifying values: integrity; excellence; diversity, equity, and inclusion; well-being; open communication; and accountability.

In 2018, Visions and Voices launched Arts in Action, a public-facing series that plants seeds for positive social change by activating intensive arts projects between community partners, students, and faculty. These projects span a wide range of art forms and give students invaluable opportunities to apply their own creativity towards addressing complex issues in collaboration with faculty and community partners.

Exposure to and participation in the arts and humanities transforms lives. It makes every scientist a better scientist, every lawyer a better lawyer, every educator a better educator, every businessperson a better businessperson, and every artist a better artist.