Artist & Scholar
N'ap Balansé (Saved by…) by Gina Athena Ulysse
Large calabashes, cowrie strings, copper, cowries, wrapped bottle, wrapped sticks, and Haitian têt gridap lamps. Community rattle created with found, gathered, purchased and donated beads and family heirlooms at a community workshop at the MAH.
Transitions between solo, paired, and collective movements are central to Contredanse, a Haitian folkloric dance that creolized French Baroque styles. This ongoing historical entanglement and the balance between self, relationship, and group inspire layered multiplicity of forms, materials, and processes in Na’p balansé (Saved by…).
Created with raw materials from the Central Coast, West Africa, and featuring a community rattle made in workshops at the MAH and other gatherings in Santa Cruz, the work is a site-specific regrouping of African diasporic resonances in the Redwood forests. With both the materials and makers carrying their own origins and entanglements, concentric circles of relations emerge through tending to the discarded and, in deference, awe, and dialogue, with a world that has been harmed. This installation is the final location of Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements, a multi-sited exhibition also on view at the Institute of Arts and Sciences (100 Panetta Drive, through August 16), The Quarry Amphitheater on the UCSC campus (1156 High St), and Variance Objects in downtown Santa Cruz (1537 Pacific Ave, Suite 101).
Community Rattle Workshop @ the MAH
On March 7th, 2026, the MAH invited the public to participate in a workshop led by artist Gina Athena Ulysse. Together, participants co-created a large-scale community rattle using string, cowrie shells, paper, and other tactile materials. Participants were encouraged to bring odd jewelry, beads, and small found objects that could be woven into the rattle as offerings. This community rattle can now be found suspended at the base of N'ap Balansé in the MAH Atrium.
Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements
A site-specific regrouping of African diasporic resonances in the Redwood forests.
Explore all the installations:
Redwoods Rasanblaj, 2026
Location:
Institute of Arts & Sciences
100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Hours: Wed-Sun, 12-5pm
Fèy (Leaf) 2026
Location:
The Quarry Amphitheater (Campus)
1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
The work is hung up about 20 feet high between a group of redwood trees as you enter the quarry from the UCSC plaza.
Free and open to the public.
Lamercie’s Variance Residency, 2026
Location:
Variance Objects
1537 Pacific Ave #101, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Hours: Wed-Sun, 12-5pm
About The Artist
Support the MAH
Your generosity enables us to maintain our collections, develop and produce exhibits like this, and present inspiring and educational programs year-round.