This May, step into something new. You can get hands-on at UBC Farm, explore work from emerging artists, build your career toolkit, or catch live performances and big-picture conversations across UBC Arts. See what’s on 👇
Elsewhere, Otherwise: UBC Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition 2026
May 1–31 | Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Free
Explore bold new work from emerging artists in UBC’s Master of Fine Arts program. Elsewhere, Otherwise showcases the culmination of two years of studio research, experimentation, and critical dialogue. Featuring a range of contemporary practices, this exhibition invites viewers to engage with diverse perspectives and evolving artistic approaches.
UBC Farm Community Workshops
May 3–31 | Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, 3461 Ross Drive
$30–95 (Discounts available for students)
Get your hands dirty at the UBC Farm! Whether you’re learning to bake sourdough, forage for wild plants, or cook a Cinco de Mayo feast, these workshops are a genuinely fun way to pick up a new skill. There’s also Ba Zhang (a Chinese leaf-wrapped dumpling made for the Dragon Boat Festival), pollinator gardening, and more. Dig into the full lineup below.
Arts Career Design Studio
May 5–6 | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM | UBC Robson Square
Free
Explore your path beyond the classroom with this two-day intensive for Arts students. Through workshops and real-world workplace visits, you’ll build job search skills, practice telling your story, and connect with professionals across industries.
Let’s Talk Humanities: A New International Order?
Monday, May 4 | 7:00–8:00 PM | VPL Central Library, Alice MacKay Room
Free
The international order has shifted, and UBC Arts professors Heidi Tworek (History) and Max Cameron (Political Science) are here to make sense of it. Join them at the Vancouver Public Library as they unpack what’s changed, what it means for Canada, and what comes next.
Chung | Lind Gallery Weekly Drop-In Tour
Wednesdays starting May 6 | 1:30–2:30 PM | Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Level 2
Free
Every Wednesday, archivists from UBC Library Rare Books and Special Collections lead a free drop-in tour through the Chung | Lind Gallery, exploring Gold Rush maps and photographs, rare documents on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and artifacts tracing the immigration and settlement of Chinese people in North America. Ask questions, make connections, and consider how these early histories shape BC today.
Eliades Ochoa
Friday, May 9 | 7:30–9:00 PM | Chan Shun Concert Hall, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Tickets: $30–119
One of the original members of the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club, Cuban guitarist and sonero Eliades Ochoa is bringing his quartet to Vancouver for a live performance of classics and new material from his latest album Guajiro, which ventures into blues and indie-rock alongside his Cuban roots. A rare chance to see a true master of Cuban music perform live.
Think like a recruiter to get hired
Wednesday, May 13 | 12:00–1:00 PM | Online
Free
Ever wish you could see your résumé through a recruiter’s eyes? UBC Arts alum Suchin Pawa (BA’15), Senior Associate at Boyden (one of Canada’s top executive search firms), is pulling back the curtain on exactly how hiring decisions get made. From résumé screening to the final offer, you’ll walk away with a clearer picture of what recruiters are actually looking for, and how to make sure you stand out.
Decolonization Tour
Wednesday, May 20 | 12:30–2:00 PM | UBC Bookstore, 6200 University Boulevard
Free
Reframe your view of the UBC campus. This 90-minute (1.5–2 km) walking tour highlights site-specific works by Indigenous artists, using them as entry points into deeper conversations about settler colonialism, decolonization, reconciliation, and the history of this land as the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people.
UBC Opera: The Grand Finale of Our 100th Anniversary Celebrations!
Saturday, May 30 | 2:00–4:00 PM | Old Auditorium
Tickets: $35–100
UBC Opera turned 100 this year, and they’re closing out the celebrations in style. UBC alumna and soprano Simone Osborne returns to the Old Auditorium stage alongside bass-baritone Gordon Bintner and conductor Gordon Gerrard, backed by members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, for an afternoon of opera, operetta, and musical theatre.
