Tag archives: Funk Zone

Helena Mason Gallery Closes
By Joanne A Calitri   |   October 8, 2024

Jamie and Natalie Sanchez announced this week their decision to close their Helena Mason Art Gallery at 48 Helena Street in the SB Funk Zone on September 27, immediately after their final exhibition party the same evening. The event offered one last look and serious discounts for purchases of the works of current exhibiting artists […]

Green Gala Gets Funk-y
By Richard Mineards   |   October 1, 2024

How appropriate that a Funk Zone locale dubbed the Bakery Block raised a lot of dough when the Community Environmental Council hosted its annual Green Gala for 250 guests raising more than $100,000 to help its work in protecting California’s Central Coast from the climate crisis. The boffo bash, co-chaired by Carolyn Fitzgerald, Katy Powers, […]

Poe-tent Potables and Performances: Mixing up the ‘Master of the Macabre’ 
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 17, 2024

I can still recall the chill running up and down my spine, not to mention that evening’s nightmares, after a teacher read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” aloud during an English class. But fans of Master of the Macabre, those who find pleasure in Poe’s powerful and often poetic horror stories – some of […]

Cecily Barth Firestein at the Funk Zone’s Art & Soul
By Jeff Wing   |   March 5, 2024

A New Yorker, iconoclast, and pioneering expressionist painter and printmaker, Cecily Barth Firestein’s “career” as an artist paralleled – and was subordinate to – what she would surely have described as her first calling of wife and mother. Therein lies a story. Firestein’s large format wonders will be on display in the Funk Zone’s communal […]

Tom Pazderka ‘Dust to Dusk’ Art Exhibition at Silo 118
By Joanne A Calitri   |   October 24, 2023

Giving a new meaning to Friday the 13th, artist Tom Pazderka opened his show of his latest 13 art works at the Silo118 Gallery in the Funk Zone on precisely Friday, October 13. The show will be up through, you guessed it, 13’s reversed number, October 31st (yes, and Halloween). I attended the opening, having […]

Summer of La Lieff
By Richard Mineards   |   September 19, 2023

Animal activist and winemaker Gretchen Lieff threw an end of summer bash at her La Lieff winery in the Funk Zone for 50 guests. “It has been a wonderful summer,” says Gretchen. “We hosted events for Planned Parenthood, the Wildlife Care Network, C.A.R.E.4Paws, the Adopt-a-Pet program, UCSB Arts & Lectures, and the Teddy Bear Cancer […]

Care for Wildlife Care Crew
By Richard Mineards   |   January 24, 2023

It was all too beastly for words when Gretchen Lieff, vice president of the board for the popular Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network, hosted a boffo bash at her La Lieff tasting room in the Funk Zone for 200 volunteers. “It’s the least we could do to show our gratitude for the many hours they […]

Post-Interview Review
By Richard Mineards   |   January 17, 2023

On Sunday night, a group of my Montecito neighbors gathered with animal activist Gretchen Lieff at her La Lieff tasting room in the Funk Zone with a three-man crew from U.K.’s ITV, led by Washington, D.C. news editor Alex Chandler, to watch the Duke of Sussex’s controversial half-hour interview with Cooper and give our thoughts […]

Lobero Gets TRAP-ped Again, for the Last Time
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 27, 2022

More than 40 musicians and singers – including session and touring artists who have played on more than a thousand different albums and thousands more concerts – will be gathering on the stage at the Lobero Theatre to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Rhythmic Arts Project, aka TRAP, this weekend.  TRAP is the Santa […]

La Lieff Tasting Room Opens
By Richard Mineards   |   August 30, 2022

Montecito animal activist Gretchen Lieff, who has been making wine for 17 years, has opened her first La Lieff tasting room in the Funk Zone. The 1,000-square-foot Gray Avenue locale, formerly a storage facility for the late Pierre Lafond, had a sneak preview for Tama Takahashi’s 10-year-old Inside Wine club with 37 guests to show […]

From Commercial Portraits to the Streets of the Bronx: Artist Stephen Holland
By Joanne A Calitri   |   January 25, 2022

To start 2022 off strong in the local art world, renowned painter Stephen Holland, at 80 years young, is exhibiting his latest works in a show titled “Longneck Circus,” at the Silo118 Gallery in the Funk Zone in Santa Barbara.  The new art is a breakout session for Holland, who spent his career painting commissioned […]

Book signing with Patricia Houghton Clarke on December 1 to benefit Human Rights Watch
By Nick Masuda   |   November 29, 2021

On December 1, from 5-8 pm, Montecito Journal Magazine and art gallery Silo118 are co-sponsoring a “Facing Ourselves: Reckoning” book signing by Patricia Houghton Clarke, with proceeds from the book designated to Human Rights Watch.  This book is featured in the upcoming Montecito Journal Magazine as part of a retrospective of Houghton’s significant body of work. […]

Nothing Short of a Miracle: Santa Barbara’s Pearl Social Transforms into the Ultimate Christmas Pop-Up
By Gabe Saglie   |   November 22, 2021

One of the sexiest cocktail bars in Santa Barbara just became the merriest. Pearl Social — a consistently great place to sip and be seen in the heart of Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone — is now part of what’s become a global Christmastime phenomenon. They call it Miracle. And it officially makes Acme Hospitality’s landmark […]

Welcome to The Boroughs Your Neighborhoods. Your Stories. A City Bountiful
By Nick Masuda   |   November 22, 2021

We can’t help but smile a bit brighter this time of year — the holidays just elevate the already epic nature of our slice of South Coast heaven. With this being our final issue of 2021, we naturally sat back and tried to highlight some ways you can enjoy the holidays, both alone and with […]

Neon Art by Rod Lathim and Chris Gocong — It’s a Gas
By Joanne A Calitri   |   October 19, 2021

On October 9, Rod Lathim and Chris Gocong premiered their collab art — large-scale abstract acrylics on canvas with neon light accents — at Commen Unity, a new Funk Zone barbershop and art gallery owned by Isaac Gonzalez.  Lathim, no stranger to our town for his prolific work to establish live theater as the founding […]

It’s Crystal Clear: Maria Constanza Ferreira Has a Special Skill
By Zach Rosen   |   September 9, 2021

Much like how an interest can form and spread, a crystal begins from a seed point and grows from there. For Maria Constanza Ferreira, her interest in crystallography and animation has led to her own life growth with her award-winning films and artworks being displayed around the world. Maria has had a deep fascination for […]

Creative Characters: An Ode to Pop Culture
By Zach Rosen   |   August 5, 2021

Tom Sanford is one of the featured artists from the visiting gallery, Gitler&__, that is presenting a series of shows at REH GraySpace Art in the Funk Zone. His gripping range of acrylic paintings are done with a colorful animated style reminiscent of Mad Magazine that pulls from his childhood love for comic books. He […]

The Boroughs
By Nick Masuda   |   August 5, 2021

With COVID freedom has come a return of hugging friends — or maybe strangers — and gathering at breathtaking art exhibits. Or maybe you’ve celebrated by buying a ticket to a comedy show at the Santa Barbara Bowl, a nice treat for anyone that participates in the Santa Barbara Triathlon at the end of August […]

Pop the Cork, Hold the Booze: Local Winemaker Launches Alcohol-Free Wine-Inspired Drinks
By Gabe Saglie   |   May 13, 2021

As we begin to push out of this pandemic, and as the light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter, many Americans are taking stock of how their drinking habits have changed over the last year. As one would guess, the angst and anxiety wrought by many months of lockdowns, restrictions, and Zoom calls […]

Summer’s Savory Meats & Tasty Craft Brews
By Claudia Schou   |   July 23, 2020

The Shalhoobs’ Secrets for Smokin’ Summer Barbecues For some folks in the neighborhood around Shalhoob’s Funk Zone Patio, the aroma of burning white oak has the same tantalizing effect as a chuck wagon dinner bell. If you love Santa Maria-style barbecue then you’ve come to the right place. Shalhoob’s hip outdoor barbecue joint is famous […]