Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Irvine

Title of entry: UC Irvine Arts 60th Anniversary Timeline Wall

About this entry: Created to celebrate two major institutional milestones, the 60th anniversary of UC Irvine and the 25th anniversary of the naming of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, the timeline wall transforms a public corridor into an environmental graphic that communicates the school’s legacy, interdisciplinary impact and continued evolution within Orange County’s cultural landscape. The project was conceived as a foundational storytelling element for anniversary programming and required extensive archival research to ensure a representative and historically accurate narrative. Over three months, the senior director of marketing and communications and senior communications specialist collaborated with the Research Librarian for Performing Arts, meeting weekly to review thousands of archival records, programs and photographs. Together they identified defining moments from the departments of art, dance, drama and music to construct a cohesive institutional history. The design strategy reinforces both storytelling and visitor movement. Installed in a newly renovated performance space, the timeline follows a left to right orientation that mirrors the natural path through the corridor, allowing visitors to experience the school’s history chronologically as they move through the space. The research developed for the installation now supports additional anniversary storytelling initiatives, including two future timeline installations across campus. During a milestone anniversary event, visitors were also invited to contribute personal memories through an interactive activation, transforming the installation into a living archive of the school’s creative impact.