The Arnhold Arts and Humanities Commons is a collaboration between UCSB’s Office of Teaching and Learning and the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts in the College Letters and Science. The Commons invites UCSB students and faculty to explore what it means to be human through immersive, hands-on, and interdisciplinary learning.
The Commons is supported by a generous gift by John and Jody Arnhold.
Program Highlights:
The Arnhold Arts and Humanities Commons launched in 2025. Below are just a few examples of our impact so far:
200+ students enrolled in Arnhold Commons Courses
$120,000+ in scholarships
94% of student survey respondents would recommend an Arnhold course to a friend
Students from 35 distinct majors across UCSB took Arnhold courses
This course helped me regain my passion for reading and writing. I also made a few friendships that I could really see blossoming.
Courses taught within specific departments often have a narrow focus. This interdisciplinary course allowed me to see the topic from many different perspectives and emphasized the idea that things are not often as cut and dry as they seem.
My world view has expanded. I take more points of view into consideration when approaching any topic.
This class helped me reconnect with communicating with a community about contemporary issues. Being put into a space that had a lot of diverse voices helped me re-learn how to navigate my thoughts into talking points for our discussion.
Learning in a creative way has shown me another side of UCSB as a freshman taking STEM courses.
