Thematic Learning Initiative
Transform your life. Transform your community. Arts & Lectures’ Thematic Learning Initiative (TLI) extends the conversation from the stage into the community, enriching lifelong learning and initiating dialogue and empowerment through special events, book giveaways and more.
All Thematic Learning Initiative events are FREE.
2025-2026 Theme: Paradigms at Play
Paradigms shift when we begin to experience the world around us in new ways. This season’s theme highlights artists and thinkers who play with our perceptions and expand how we feel, see, hear and imagine. Through shared experiences, we will play with paradigms to explore how we learn, connect and imagine what’s possible.
Fall 2025 Book Giveaway
Abundance
by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished. Exploring how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic and cultural barriers to progress and issue a paradigm-shifting call to renew a politics of plenty.
FREE copies of Abundance will be available starting September 23 at Arts & Lectures’ Campbell Hall Box Office at UCSB and the Santa Barbara Public Library (40 E. Anapamu St.). Books available while supplies last.
Related Event: Ezra Klein, Nov 4
With thanks to our visionary partners, Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, for their support of the Thematic Learning Initiative