Tag archives: Lotusland

More than 150 guests arrived at The Well in Summerland on December 1 to view owner Shane Brown’s first art exhibition at the venue, co-curated by Ashley Woods Hollister and Tedde Minogue, who chose the work of photographer Michael Haber. The exhibition features nine black-and-white large-scale framed photographs of the collaboration of Haber and his […]

After premiering at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2014, the documentary Lutah – A Passion For Architecture: A Life In Design aired at the Lobero, fittingly a building she conceived, to raise funds for a George Washington Smith pavilion restoration project at Lotusland, the 37-acre Montecito botanical garden owned by opera star Ganna […]

Ganna Walska Lotusland and the Lutah Maria Riggs Society are collaborating to screen the award-winning documentary, Lutah – A Passion for Architecture: A Life in Design, this Saturday, November 20, at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara.  Lutah Maria Riggs is an integral part of Santa Barbara architectural history. Lotusland’s archives contain several drawings by […]

Anyone who’s visited Lotusland over the past quarter-century knows that the gorgeous botanical garden in the Montecito foothills boasts 37 acres of natural wonder that encompass more than 20 distinct gardens and exhibitions. Most folks who have walked the grounds are aware of how Lotusland remains a personal expression of its former owner, the opera […]

Lotusland’s fabulous summer soirée was dazzling as usual, this time mixing motors (cars) with Ganna Walska plants. As quoted by the Los Angeles Times, “For Walska, plants were more than plants; they were colors to paint with, a family to nurture, characters to direct.” The 30 cars were all privately owned and all Italian, who […]

Millions of dollars’ worth of exotic horsepower was on display when Lotusland, the 37-acre paradise founded by the late Polish opera singer Ganna Walska, hosted its 26th annual gala, raising nearly $500,000. The botanical bash, co-chaired by interior designer Caroline Thompson and David Jones, chair emerita Belle Hahn, and honorary chair Hania Tallmadge, had a […]

Released 80 years ago this September, director Orson Welles’s debut film Citizen Kane has been inspiring countless arguments, articles, books, documentaries, parodies, and homages ever since. Playing a significant part in the film’s enduring mystique is the widespread belief that its two main characters, bombastic newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane and his much-younger mistress, alcoholic […]

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. […]

The multi-faceted bi-racial Ashley Woods Hollister is an arts champion and curator, and supporter of the Santa Barbara nonprofit community. She’s served on the boards of Explore Ecology, on the Santa Barbara Mental Wellness Center since 2007, and just joined the board of the Foundation for Climate Change Action. She is the co-founder of T.W. […]

Santa Barbara International Film Festival Film Talk finds its way to the Montecito hills for a viewing and discussion of The Garden is Singing, Karen Kasaba’s 11-minute paean to Ganna Walska’s Lotusland that screened as part of the 2019 film festival. Singing does a credible job of capturing the beauty, diversity, history, and breadth of […]

It was First Thursday and Christmas month. No wonder there were so many people strolling State Street. I began at the big G, the Granada Theatre, with an unusual art exhibit on the fifth floor hosted by Raymond James Associates Management Company. Their invitation touted beautiful views, art, food, and people. The elevator coming up […]

Gwen Stauffer’s eleven-year stewardship of Lotusland will be remembered by many achievements, most recently the completion of Lotusland’s Japanese Garden renovation. Lotusland’s Board of Trustees has named Rebecca Anderson, currently the Garden’s Director of Philanthropy, as Lotusland’s Interim Executive Director. “We are all very excited to have Rebecca help lead the organization moving forward,” said […]

“Lotusland was created by Polish opera singer Madame Ganna Walska, and visitors should prepare themselves for the ultimate theatrical garden experience. Perhaps only in the climate and culture of Southern California could such a creation have been conceived and accepted, a fantasy of remarkable set-pieces of design and planting quite unlike any other garden.” The […]

It was all a very hush-hush affair when Belle Hahn, daughter of the late billionaire art dealer Stephan Hahn, who died in 2011, celebrated her 35th birthday with a night on the tiles. More than 120 guests gathered on the rooftop of the MOXI Museum for the top secret bash, with Belle thinking she was […]

Lotusland, the 37-acre botanical nirvana created by the late opera singer Ganna Walska and dubbed one of the ten most beautiful gardens in the world, took on a decidedly oriental flavor when it celebrated Memoirs of a Garden for its popular sold-out annual 500-guest gala, which was expected to raise around $500,000. The floral fest, […]

Did you know that we have one of the ten best gardens in the world right here in Montecito? That would be Lotusland, which just celebrated its famed flower – the lotus – with the annual LotusFest. July is supposed to be their prime blooming time, but as one of the volunteers explained, “They are […]

Lotus lovers were out in force as Lotusland, the delightful botanical paradise, celebrated its annual LotusFest! in idyllic weather. More than 20 wineries and breweries poured their products for more than 300 guests, as they explored the late opera singer Ganna Walska’s 37-acre floral nirvana. Among those having a blooming good time were Tom and […]

Lotusland, the late opera singer Ganna Walska’s 37-acre botanical paradise, has just completed the biggest project in its history with the $6 million two and a half year renovation of the one and a half acre Japanese Garden. The massive project, designed in conjunction with Lotusland CEO Gwen Stauffer, Derrik Eichelberger of Arcadia Studio, and […]

Teresa McWilliams was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1937, and lived there with her family on their farm in the countryside. Her father, Mr. Glinski, was a concert pianist and composer in Poland, and they lived the gentry life, until the Germans came and occupied the country. When Teresa was just two years old, the […]

After over two years of extensive renovations, Lotusland has announced the opening of its Japanese Garden, which was originally created in the 1960s and is the only remaining post-World War II Japanese Garden that is open to the public on the central coast between Los Angeles and the Bay Area.  Construction began in February 2017, […]