Fears for DIY Culture in Santa Barbara

Two former employees of the Funk Zone, who met and fell in love in Santa Barbara’s Arts District, share their frustration with the disappearance of locally owned community spaces.

For my first article back from hiatus, I contacted my premier source for finding interesting artists to interview in Santa Barbara, my old pal Ariel. She’s a 27-year-old queer artist and musician who worked in the Funk Zone for three years. If you want to spend a weekend night supporting local artists in the Funk Zone, she knows the places to go. Or knew those places, I should say 

Once Santa Barbara’s Arts District, the Funk Zone’s DIY and community art spaces are dwindling. And with a controversial 250-room hotel on the horizon, spearheaded by L.A. real estate developers, local artists are eager to carve out more spaces designated for community gathering. Ariel (A) and her partner Claire (C), who worked at the same winery and community space [Redacted] for three years in the Funk Zone, catch me (B) up on what’s happened since [Redacted] suddenly closed last year.

B. How did you both get started working in the Funk Zone, and what was your experience working at [Redacted] till it closed down? 

A. So, I started working in the Funk Zone in 2023. When I first moved back from Brooklyn to Santa Barbara, I wanted to work in the Arts District. And then, because I’d been gone for seven years, I was like, “Oh shit, this neighborhood is so different.

Like, where is the art? There’s no art here anymore.” But then I found [Redacted]. The old school Santa Barbara that I wanted. It’s the kitschy environment that I miss and love so much. 

B. Whenever you think of old school Santa Barbara, what are some other establishments that come to mind? 

A. Like Cold Spring Tavern definitely is one. 

C. Peabody’s in Montecito. Paradise Café. 

B. Yeah. Also, Giovanni’s on Coast Village Road. 

A. Yes, Giovanni’s. Also The Funzone, which was a DIY music space alongside the Batting Cages near East Beach.

B. Also Scoops! That really tore me up. Claire, when did you start working in the Funk Zone?

C. I started working in the Funk Zone in 2018 as an artist’s assistant. It was more artsy and kind of dingy. Artists were living down there because all their studios were there, but now those are all gone. The artist I used to work for, Paul, he had a studio near Garden Street. Now, they’re putting in a 250-room hotel. Everyone had to be evicted. It was there for 15, 20 years. I mean, it’s just… they’re just ripping the soul out of Santa Barbara. 

B. Wow, I wasn’t even aware that the artists’ studios on Garden near the Funk Zone were evicted for the hotel. 

A. It’s gonna be one of the biggest hotels in the county. The charm of Santa Barbara is completely leaving this place, and it’s just becoming a mini-L.A., and that’s not what we want.

B. And I guess that takes me to my next question. What are your hopes and fears for the future of the Funk Zone and the surrounding Santa Barbara community?

A. My hope, my dream, is that the hotel gets canceled. The artists are able to come back. My hope is that the people that are developing these really expensive buildings would want to put that money towards inclusive spaces, something that’s for the community rather than just for more tourism, more money. Foster the creativity in this town. Give it back to the locals who have made this town so appealing to tourists. 

B. How have you guys been cultivating community outside of tourist spaces? 

A. Well, that was a big thing with [Redacted]. We would throw community events there: drag shows, open mics, Planned Parenthood events, book clubs. So many people got married there. It was such a celebrated local spot that had been open for 15 years. It was the second winery to open in the Funk Zone. It was a fixture of a community, and it’s a really massive blow that it’s gone now. I miss it so much. 

B. Well, I think it’s kind of a crisis for alternative communities. 

A. Yeah, there’s no space for alternative counterculture. And people say, like, “Santa Barbara is a place for the newly wed and nearly dead.” Yeah, that’s not true. There’s a lot of people here that are young and alive, and we have nowhere to go.