Tag archives: arts

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art Women’s Board held its first of two fundraising soirées, titled, “Art à la Carte,” at the University Club on Monday, March 25.  The lovely event featured an in-depth artist talk with Iraqi American abstract artist Vian Sora, and the museum’s Contemporary Art Curator James Glisson,PhD.  The opening cocktail hour […]

Grad Slam, the annual event in which UCSB graduate students present their research in three-minute talks meant to quickly spotlight the exciting work they are doing on campus, wraps up its 11th year with presentations from the seven finalists on April 5 at Campbell Hall. The pitches are designed to captures the students’ research in […]

After postponing their concert in February given a mandatory evacuation warning because of heavy rain, the charmingly named Grammy Award-winning octet Roomful of Teeth with pianist-guitarist Gabriel Kahane, performed in a UCSB Arts & Lectures show at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall. The tony troupe is dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential […]

A group donning Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree’s elegant hats visited the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art to honor their late friend on March 21. Hiroko Benko, Brenda Blalock, Chris Frisina, Mary Gates, Erin Graffy, Bobbie Kinnear, Nan Marr, Joyce Shaar, and Grace Yoon toured Ridley-Tree’s entire collection of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot that she gave to the museum. […]

In keeping with the celebration of March 2024 as Women’s History Month (spoiler alert!) this column is going to contain some seriously shameless bragging! At the close of this month I’d like to send the memo that, both in a professional capacity and as volunteers, every month of any year Santa Barbara women make huge […]

The Carpinteria Writers Group presented its first book and author event titled, Carpinteria Festival of Books, on Saturday, March 23rd, at the Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center. Suzanne Ahn from the Carpinteria Writers Group has been the volunteer lead on the event, working with the Carp Arts Center to put it on, along with Lantern […]

Considered one of America’s foremost experts on jobs and the economy, Robert B. Reich was part of the administrations of three presidents – Ford and Carter and Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton’s first term – and is also a bestselling author, award-winning documentarian, and a respected commentator. Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at Berkeley […]

In December 1922, Edward A. Johnson, president of the California Theater Company that owned most of the movie houses in Santa Barbara, announced plans to build a theater and eight-story office building on State Street. Despite touches of Spanish design, many felt the tall rectangular structure did not suit Santa Barbara’s emerging Mediterranean style. Nevertheless, […]

LM sends me a photo of a terra cotta bust (at 30” tall) of a gorgeous young French female of the late 18th century. Her beauty is classic even today: flowing hair, effortless smile, full cheeks, upturned almond shaped eyes, a heart-shaped face. Madame Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) was not only one of […]

Starting off Black History Month I attended the lecture by Joan Kee PhD, JD on “The Geometries of Afro Asia: Art beyond Solidarity,” on Friday, February 2, the Art Matters series at SB Museum of Art. Kee is a Professor of Art History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The lecture title, the same as her […]

Hopi Katsina dolls, carved and colorfully decorated wooden figures, are more than just beautiful works of art: They represent Katsinam spirits believed to bring blessings of good health, growth and fertility. A unique exhibition, celebrating the resurgence of a traditional carving method, features dozens of the Katsina (or “Kachina” to non-Hopi people) dolls and is […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures’ fall season was one for the ages, with enviable events throughout the breadth of its programming. The dance program boasted an era-spanning array, from the launch of the Martha Graham Dance Company’s Graham100 programs to the stunning West Coast debut of Turn it Out with Tiler Peck & Friends. Pop music […]

In a most progressive move, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) has acquired the iconic artwork, Den Hvide Dør (The White Door), 1888, oil on canvas, by artist Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916), and has dedicated it in honor of Larry J. Feinberg, the SBMA distinguished Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Executive Director and CEO, who was […]

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art’s exhibition and auction of 683 small pieces was a huge success. By the time the gavel came down December 15, the “5×5” fundraiser sold 617 unique art pieces, raising more than $41,000 for the Montecito museum. Ninety-two percent of people who created an account bid on works in the […]

It was shortly after the dawning of the new millennium that Santa Barbara Unified School District and a new nonprofit got together to upgrade the auditorium at Santa Barbara Junior High that had gone dark and fallen into disrepair. What started as a cleanup turned into a full-blown renovation of the historic Spanish colonial revival […]

Natalie Olivas,owner-director of the Helena Mason Art Gallery, held an impromptu holiday party open house on Wednesday, December 13, to promote local event professionals, the gallery as an event space for rent, and the art on the walls by Pedro de la Cruz, Chris Gocong, Bob Hernandez, and Rod Lathim. The placement of the art […]

A lively and enthusiastic crowd packed into the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art for the opening reception of “5×5: Westmont College Celebrating 85 Years” on November 30. There is certainly a lot to see with more than 675 small pieces of art hung in the gallery – all of which are being auctioned off to […]

There are people who so inhabit and illuminate their respective epochs, their lives can seem almost foreordained. Add to that list a starry-eyed surfer from Houston named Rick Sharp, whose canon of poster art so deeply captures the ‘70s ambiance it can truly be said to have helped define it. Sharp will be discussing and […]

Paris Chong, Gallery Manager and Curator of the prestigious Leica Gallery Los Angeles since 2013, curated an exhibition dedicated to a select group of accomplished and diverse Leica photographers, titled, Faces of Leica L.A. on view at the Ren Gallery [the Leica Annex] in the L.A. Arts District through November 30. I was invited and […]

Year four of Ready to Hang, a one-day pop-up show open to all local artists to display and sell their one-foot-square creations, takes place 6-9 pm this Saturday, November 18, at the Community Arts Workshop downtown. The free exhibition, which serves as an opportunity to see new works by a wide swath of the artistic […]