Tag archives: arts

There is a technical process inherent in both art and business. While these two industries may seem at odds, innovative tech companies and businesses will be run with an artistic flair, and successful artists often understand the business side of their process. With their upcoming weekly Art | Tech Nights (July 22 – August 12), […]

In a new book of poetry, Paul J. Willis takes his readers on a path through California’s coastal redwoods and giant sequoias in the Sierra, weaving in adolescent practical jokes and sharing unexpected epiphanies. Slant Books published the latest book by the Westmont professor of English and former Santa Barbara poet laureate.  Willis’ seventh volume […]

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art invites visitors to explore the diverse expressions and meanings of abstract art through the exhibition, “Towards a 21st Century Abstraction,” on display through August 14. Artists and visitors are welcome Monday through Friday between 10 am to 4 pm. Before coming to campus, guests must fill out a health […]

For nearly 40 years, Marlene Vitanza and her late husband, Jim, have been bringing together a unique blend of paintings, jewelry, and ethnographic arts at their local establishment, Peregrine Galleries. They had a shop in Santa Barbara about 10 years prior to opening Peregrine Galleries on Coast Village Road in 1984. Their first gallery had […]

Jeanne Thayer never felt comfortable on a pedestal, ever since she was a young girl, too tall and lanky to feel like she belonged at the center of attention. Modesty followed her like a shadow, from her self-perceived awkwardness of youth into the awareness of her own privilege as a young adult. She lived a […]

In 1919, Santa Barbarans had learned to work together for the war effort, and the time was ripe for a new era to begin, one that would start with the formation of a community chorus and blossom into a cultural renaissance. The community chorus idea had been borne of the idealism of the Progressive Era […]

The performing arts venues in Santa Barbara each responded to the pandemic in different ways. SOhO, the Granada, and the New Vic Theatre more or less went into hibernation, save for a one-off production or two (Montecito’s Pete Muller recording a Save Our Stages video; Grace Fisher’s holiday show; and Ensemble’s one-man An Iliad, respectively, […]

I wish I had thought of that title, but Leslie A. Westbrook did in an article she wrote about Carpinteria. It deserves a rerun because their Art Center in the middle of downtown (855 Linden Avenue) is a happening place and one that everyone can enjoy. They just welcomed in a new executive director, Linda […]

Part of the mystique of nature is revisiting an area at different times of year, or even just different times of the day. The scenery is always familiar yet ever changing as the light, weather, and seasons impart their effect on the view. Longtime landscape painter John Comer has been capturing these subtle changes of […]

The creative works of 31 local artists are front and center in the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art’s new show, At the Edges: Tri-County Juried Exhibition, on display through June 19. Visitors are welcome Monday through Friday between 10 am – 4 pm, while the exhibition is open. Before coming to campus, guests will be […]

It was a late afternoon in early 2017 and Jonathan Fox was en route to a pre-dinner cocktail with Lee Luria, the philanthropist extraordinaire that had just given Fox’s Ensemble Theatre Company a new lease on life — quite literally. With her favorite gin and tonic at her side and Fox acquiring a glass of […]

As I was heading up to the Paseo Nuevo parking lot roof to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), I saw two artists painting a gigantic mural on the wall outside. Turns out it was due to be finished the following day in honor of Earth Day. Check it out the next time […]

A new media arts x science exhibition launched in March, 2020, and is nested in a retail-shop-turned-museum at La Cumbre Plaza called The Museum of Sensory & Movement Experiences or MSME (“miss me”). This interactive all ages exhibition allows one to get “lost” in time, imagery, sound, and perception of what really can be transmuted […]

During a year in which the world’s art galleries and museums have been closed, 13 graduating art majors overcame innumerable obstacles to offer their capstone art projects on April 8. The exhibit, which includes oil paintings, drawings, collages, digital illustrations, sculptural installations, prints, photographs, videos, and stop-motion animation will be on display through May 8 […]

With vaccines becoming more available and establishments reopening, it seems that a sense of normalcy might possibly be on the horizon. The recent changes offer a chance to safely get out and see some entertainment that doesn’t take place over Zoom or in the context of one’s own home.  The Museum of Contemporary Art Santa […]

The opening sequence of UCSB Dance Department’s COVID-coping triptych of dance films shows a series of eerily empty spaces all over the seaside campus. But it’s not meant to be a metaphor or pandering to the pandemic, said artistic director Delila Moseley, a longtime professor of dance at UCSB. Moseley has been able to actually […]

During a year in which the world’s art galleries and museums have been closed, 13 graduating art majors overcame innumerable obstacles to offer their capstone art projects on April 8. The exhibit, which includes oil paintings, drawings, collages, digital illustrations, sculptural installations, prints, photographs, videos, and stop-motion animation will be on display through May 8 […]

In an effort to rethink traditional in-person fundraising efforts, Lotusland has announced a new benefit event, Sanctuary.  Earlier this year, 36 local artists were asked to create new work inspired by Lotusland. The artists were given three days to visit the Garden and only eight weeks to create, capture, and complete their muse at Lotusland. […]

Professional dancer-choreographer Harout Aristakessian self-describes as being at the intersection of three nationalities – Lebanese, Armenian, and American, as well as a gay-feminist-cisgender Christian, ultimately seeking to break the social constructs of sex, gender, race, nationality, and creed through dance.  He is the founder and artistic director of the Dance with Harout (DWH) Performance Company […]

Veteran journalist and author Robert Whiting is one of only a few Western writers to have written a regular newspaper column in the Japanese language. The author of several highly successful books on Japan and the city where he has lived on and off for more than half a century include the best-selling You Gotta […]