Based in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center of the University of California Santa Barbara, Isla Vista Arts promotes the arts as a catalyst for social growth and change in the neighboring Isla Vista community. I.V.A. approaches Isla Vista as an asset to the UCSB campus and surrounding Santa Barbara and Goleta community. Isla Vista has an exciting energy typical of densely-populated urban environments, the tolerance for experimentation and innovation that often inspires and liberates artists, and an unrivaled spectacular natural beauty.

Through our website, promotions, and programming, I.V.A. brings coherence and visibility to disparate arts initiatives, and aims to enhance the downdown Embarcadero loop as a vibrant civic space.

I.V.A. aims to promote a habit of cultual attendance, and in order to accomplish this, we believe arts programming needs to be presented and promoted habitually. I.V.A. co-sponsors weekly arts programming, such as Magic Lantern Films and I.V. LIVE/Improvability and on-going projects like Shakespeare in the Park, WORD: Isla Vista Arts & Culture Magazine, and Nuestra Voz.

I.V.A. supports projects that bring together student initiative with concrete, demonstrable university support to buttress and amplify those initiatives.

I.V.A. aims to connect spaces of living and learning, so students experience cultural stimulation throughout the day, not just while in the classroom.

Finally, I.V.A. is committed to disrupting segregation. Isla Vista has a history of certain undeniable and undesirable dysfunctions. I.V.A. works on the assumption that many of I.V.'s "problems" can be traced to a habitual segregation. Age segregation is the community's most promiment feature, with most residents being under the age of 24. However ethnic and class segregation also play a role. We believe that nothing breaks through barriers like the arts. The arts disrupt old patterns, establish new ones, and bring people together in communal spaces to experience transformation.

Isla Vista Arts is affiliated with Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, a national consortium of colleges, universities, and cultural institutions dedicated to supporting the civic work of university artists, humanists, and designers.