Check back often as events will be added to the website frequently — right up until Homecoming weekend!
Get to know the campus on this student-led walking tour highlighting architecture and history. If you’re a Cal parent, this tour is especially for you, but you may also join any other tour throughout the weekend.
Short films by Los Angeles-based artist Pat O’Neill, a key figure in West Coast experimental cinema for the past fifty years, will be shown on our giant outdoor screen as part of the exhibition MATRIX 262.
Screenings begin on the hour.
This exhibition highlights the diverse collection of comics and graphic novels owned by the UC Berkeley Library. Comics and graphic novels — renowned and obscure — from USA, Egypt, Poland, South Africa, Israel, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Colombia, Japan, and other countries will be on display.
Explore the libraries that have served the campus for more than 100 years. Be awed by grand spaces including North Reading Room, Heyns Reading Room, and the Stacks, which hold 52 miles of shelves. Delve into exhibits in the Bernice Layne Brown Gallery and more.
Signed by President Woodrow Wilson in August 1916, the Organic Act created the National Park Service (NPS), the federal bureau that protects our national parks and monuments. Several UC Berkeley alumni with conservationist interests and the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco played key roles in its development. This exhibition explores the origins of the NPS with materials drawn from the University Archives and the Bancroft Library collections.
With more than 2.2 million specimens representing all plant groups from around the world, the herbaria hold the largest collection of their kind at a U.S. public university. Visit on your own time to see these delicately preserved specimens, from marine algae to California flowers, or join a guided tour at 1 or 3 p.m.
Stop by to celebrate Homecoming with complimentary refreshments and light snacks. Cal Alumni Association (CAA) members will receive a free, Cal-themed souvenir. Visit alumni.berkeley.edu for more information about CAA.
Tiny House in My Backyard (THIMBY) is an interdisciplinary team of UC Berkeley graduate and undergraduate students working together to design and build a 100% solar-powered, off-grid tiny house. The team will compete in the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s 2016 Tiny House Competition in mid-October. Visit the house to learn more about living small!
Sather Tower, also known as the Campanile, is one of UC Berkeley’s most beloved and well-known symbols. Visible for miles, the Campanile is the third-tallest bell and clock-tower in the world, standing at 307 feet. Get a spectacular, sprawling view of the Bay Area from the observation platform. Enjoy daily carillon concerts at 7:50 a.m., 12 p.m., and 6 p.m. The Campanile truly cannot be missed. Admission is free for Homecoming guests, just show your name tag.
Learn about campus architecture, history, and university life during a 90-minute walking tour led by a campus ambassador.
Explore the university’s public science center. Put your engineering skills to the test as you design, build, and experiment in Design Quest; catch a showing of Asteroid: Mission Extreme or Tiny Giants 3D in the National Geographic 3D Theater; and take in the sweeping views of San Francisco, the Bay, and the Berkeley campus. It’s all free with your Homecoming weekend name tag, and you’ll get a discount at the Discovery Corner Store.
The new Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, located across the street from the West Crescent, welcomes Cal alumni, parents, and friends. Come discover our new landmark building, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with its signature swooping stainless-steel volume draped over a repurposed Art Deco printing plant. Stop by the corner of Oxford and Addison Streets to see experimental films by artist Pat O’Neill on our giant outdoor screen. Current gallery exhibitions highlight treasures from our encyclopedic collection: Berkeley Eye: Perspectives on the Collections; Hans Hofmann: Push and Pull; Buddhist Art from the Roof of the World; and Sojourner Truth, Photography, and the Fight Against Slavery. Admission is free for all registered participants. Just show your name tag at the admission desk!
Explore three exhibitions revealing the experiences of the Jewish Diaspora: I-Tal-Yah: An Island of Divine Dew, which investigates the global significance of Jewish culture in Italy; From Mendelssohn To Mendelssohn: German Jewish Encounters in Art, Music, and Material Culture, a depiction of the private and public lives of the Mendelssohn family and their role in German Jewish history; By Design: American Jewish Education in the “World Over” Cover Art (1946–57) which investigates the cover art designed by Ezekiel Schloss for World Over, A Magazine for Boys and Girls, published between the years 1946–57.
Explore the incredible diversity of plant habitats from six continents — including redwood forests, deserts, tropical forests, and wetlands — at the UC Botanical Garden. Feast your eyes and nose on special collections of orchids and carnivorous plants, the Garden of Old Roses, and spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Each tour is a unique experience focused on plants at their seasonal best and tailored to your interests. Garden admission is free for Homecoming guests, just show your name tag.
The University of California Museum of Paleontology contains more than five million specimens: invertebrate fossils and microfossils, ancient North American mammals, crocodilians, turtles, marine reptiles, and even massive dinosaurs who once roamed Montana and California. In this exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour, learn why these collections are critical to understanding global change past and present. Limited to 25 people on a first-come, first-served basis.
