The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts opened in September, 2002, but that landmark date was but one crescendo in the long history of performing arts on the UC Davis campus.
In the mid-1950s the Committee for Drama, Lectures and Music was formed, with responsibility for organizing events and lectures on the UC Davis campus. The group changed its name to the Committee for Arts and Lectures in 1960 and to UC Davis Presents in 1990. For decades, the group organized events in venues throughout Davis and Sacramento, featuring some of the finest artists and thinkers from around the world.
I have long felt that there is one major resource that is lacking on this campus. That resource is a center for the performing arts, a facility that will symbolically and practically stand as UC Davis’s commitment to the arts and humanities. At major universities around the world, the performing arts center is the point of convergence where the achievements of the university are celebrated, new ideas debated, scripts and musical compositions tested, and the treasures of the world’s literary and performing traditions are given life. It is a laboratory for the fine arts and humanities. And it is a facility that we must have.
— Chancellor Emeritus Larry N. Vanderhoef, 1994 Inaugural Address
Building the Mondavi Center
Vanderhoef was joined in his vision for a performing arts center by a number of visionary donors, whose support made the Mondavi Center a reality. The first donation, announced at the 2000 groundbreaking for the building, was from the Rumsey tribe, which is now recognized for its initial gift by the Yocha DeHe Grand Lobby. Critical contributions from Larry and Rosalie Vanderhoef, Barbara K. Jackson and Robert and Margrit Mondavi helped give life to the dream of a performing arts center on the UC Davis campus.
Robert and Margrit Mondavi
Robert Mondavi was legendary in the development of the California wine industry. In 1966, he, his eldest son, R. Michael Mondavi, and family founded the Robert Mondavi Winery in the Napa Valley with the goal of producing wines that would rival the finest wines of Europe. During the decades that have followed, the Robert Mondavi family has continued to set ever higher standards for winemaking. The family-run company has grown to include multiple wineries and extensive vineyard holdings in California and partnerships with prominent wine families in France, Italy, Chile, and Australia. Robert’s wife, Margrit Biever Mondavi, who joined the winery in 1967, shared her husband’s passion for uniting wine with fine art, music, and culinary artistry
Barbara K. Jackson
Barbara K. Jackson was a founding philanthropist of the Mondavi Center. Along with Larry and Rosalie Vanderhoef and Robert and Margrit Mondavi, Barbara Jackson helped give life to the dream of a performing arts center on the UC Davis Campus – a dream first described by Chancellor Vanderhoef at his inaugural convocation. Jackson’s generous gift to name the Center’s largest performance space as Barbara K. and W. Turrentine Jackson Hall played a significant role in launching this great performing arts center. Since 2010, Jackson’s love for opera and philanthropy have combined to make the Barbara K. Jackson Rising Stars of Opera concert free to the public. A generous endowment will insure the continuation of this annual concert. In addition, Barbara’s philanthropy reached out to support other disciplines at UC Davis (the Music and History Departments); other arts organizations in Sacramento; and young opera artists through the Adler and Merola programs at the San Francisco Opera.
Larry N. Vanderhoef
A soft-spoken administrator whose management mantra was “listen, listen, listen,” Chancellor Emeritus Larry N. Vanderhoef led UC Davis for 25 years—first as provost/executive vice chancellor (1984-1994) and then as chancellor (1994-2009). That quarter-century is arguably the period of UC Davis’ greatest physical and academic growth.
Vanderhoef made good on an inaugural promise to build a world-class performing arts center at UC Davis—just one of numerous state-of-the-art facilities constructed on his watch—and led the university itself to a more prominent place on the world stage. Thousands of Interstate 80 commuters daily pass by his realized vision of an impressive and welcoming new south entry to the Davis campus, including the soaring Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, a conference center and hotel, and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.
Setting the Stage: the Mondavi Center's Opening - A 2002 article on the opening of the Mondavi Center offers a more complete history of the performing arts on campus.
The Mondavi Center has become a welcoming home for arts lovers from across Northern California. The building is also a landmark for the thousands of cars on Interstate 80 that pass by an impressive and welcoming new south entry to the Davis campus including our neighbors the Walter A. Buehler Alumni Center, the Graduate School of Management, the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, The UC Davis conference center and hotel and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.