Cal Performances brings the world’s most exciting artists to the Bay Area. We share live art at its most powerful, visionary, and entertaining—set in a culture of fearless thinking.
Our stages welcome a rich variety of music, dance, theater, interdisciplinary arts, and speakers across approximately 80 performances each season. You’ll be transported by must-see renowned performers and emerging talent. In both grand and intimate venues, you’ll enjoy classics and world premieres—and explore both timeless themes and the pressing questions of today. Our productions reflect the full spectrum of human experiences, igniting joy and awe and opening up new ways of seeing the world.
Driven by the innovative, intellectual spirit of UC Berkeley, we bring together the highest caliber of artistry with boundary-pushing ideas. And both onstage and off, we provide meaningful learning opportunities for the whole Bay Area community.
We also operate a robust venue rental program in multiple spaces as a service to the University and other clients.
Join us for performances as wide-ranging as your curiosity—and be moved, thrilled, and inspired.
Mission
Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley unites exceptional artists, ideas, and audiences through live performance to enlighten and enrich lives.
Vision
A world where the performing arts inspire a life filled with wonder, empathy, curiosity, and enjoyment for all.
We will partner with outstanding artists and the peerless public university we call home to amplify a rich global tapestry of stories, experiences, and perspectives and provide unparalleled opportunities to encounter the world through someone else’s eyes. We will make bold investments in innovation and artistic risk-taking to enable groundbreaking work, elevate new artists, and advance the future of the live performing arts. We will activate the performing arts lovers and supporters of tomorrow through direct connections to students, both on the UC Berkeley campus and off.
Guiding Principles
Our Goals, 2024-2029
In June 2024, Cal Performances adopted a plan to ground our work for the next five years. This plan is designed to embrace growth, expand our impact, and build on our existing strengths while enhancing our organizational sustainability. High-level goals are outlined below.
In the coming five years, we will advance our leadership in the field by making bold investments in the future of the live performing arts through the cultivation of new works and artists new to our audiences while also deepening long-standing artistic partnerships. As a vibrant center of globally recognized artistic curation, including commissioning, we will expand opportunities for our community to experience life-affirming encounters with the performing arts. We will maintain our reputation as a creative home where artists feel empowered and welcome to do their best work and connect with our uniquely inquisitive audiences on our stages and off-stage through initiatives like Illuminations.
Leadership
Over the coming five years, we will focus our audience growth efforts on these constituencies, while continuing to serve our current patrons. As we expand our audience, we will also work to understand and remove barriers to attending our performances and ensure our audiences feel a sense of belonging.
Development
Integration
Over the next five years, we will pursue a plan for measured growth and inspire transformational investments to enhance the value we are able to deliver. We will work toward balanced operating budgets every year of this plan and, by the end of the plan, we will be building annual operating surpluses in order to increase reserves. We recognize that achieving balanced budgets every year of the plan is an ambitious target. We seek to set a consistently high standard for financial management efforts and will maximize the potential of all possible revenue sources—earned, contributed, investment income, and program support from campus—to more fully leverage our funding streams and continue to efficiently manage our expenses. We will implement strategies that build sustained and predictable long-term support for our programs, including significantly growing our endowment and the resulting annual funding it provides.
Strength
& Venues
