Tag archives: mission
For the first time in its 238-year history Old Mission Santa Barbara hosted a car show. The Old Mission Motor show had a cavalcade of vintage to modern vehicles gathering on the lawn in front of the iconic image of Old Mission Santa Barbara. A friar’s blessing kicked off the colorful event that was sponsored […]
In January 1904, the Santa Barbara Independent informed the public that a “very notable art exhibit” had opened at 1212 State St. in the building that recently housed the Chamber of Commerce. For 25 cents, visitors could see the much-lauded oil paintings of the 21 missions of California by Edwin Deakin. “Each of the 21 […]
by Paul Vercammen Long before David Bolton ascended to 2023 El Presidente of Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days, just another lofty position and title for him, he slept in his Honda Accord. For four and a half weeks in 1992, he crashed on a futon that replaced the removed passenger seat. David needed to be […]
No need to crane your neck seeing Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Vatican’s iconic Sistine Chapel. The internationally acclaimed exhibition of the glorious artwork has just opened at the Old Mission with the reproduction in a format that allows art lovers to get face-to-face with the legendary masterpiece through 34 artfully displayed reproductions, including world renowned […]
The ephemeral meets the everlasting in the world of arts at the Old Mission Santa Barbara this Memorial Day weekend. I Madonnari – the annual chalk drawing that turns the pavement in front of the Santa Barbara Mission into a huge series of asphalt canvases for artists of all ages – celebrates its 37th edition […]
The St. Francis Courtyard at Old Mission Santa Barbara hosted the Gems and Jeans edition of the annual Mission Moonlight barbecue with 150 sold-out guests helping raise around $100,000 towards the historic institution’s archive-library and the conservation of the historic buildings and gardens that date back to 1786. The fun fest, chaired by Donna Reeves, […]
The Santa Barbara Rescue Mission had a delightful change of venue for its 21st annual Road Trip to the Bayou with a move to the beach at Rancho Dos Pueblos rather than the main residence, which was being used as a set for a TV show. More than 350 guests turned out for the sandy […]
On Saturday, May 7, Old Mission Santa Barbara and True Vine Bible Fellowship, Lompoc’s predominantly Black Baptist church, came together for an event at Old Mission in the name of unity. These two seemingly opposite churches have created a partnership that works to break down racial, gender, and class barriers and instead focus on emphasizing […]
Rome, Italy. Postponed. Las Vegas, Nevada. Posponed. Loreto, Baja, Mexico. Posponed. Spring 2020 — this was my dilemma (as a longtime travel writer with several assignments in place), when a nasty little virus called COVD-19 began wreaking havoc with the world. It was a year the world remembers well – and not particularly affectionately. Italy, […]
Father Larry Gosselin O.F.M. is not only a priest at the Santa Barbara Mission, but also a troubadour with his guitar and now an author. His latest tome is titled Landscapes, Ballad of a Franciscan Troubadour. This book chronicles his life through the world travels he has taken. As his longtime friend Brother Bill Short […]
Janet Dowling Sands is “On a Mission” with her new book of the same name. The Lunch & Learn gang led by Maria McCall from the Montecito Bank & Trust met at the Santa Barbara Club to do just that — Lunch & Learn. Janet has developed a unique perspective to the story of the […]
The first time I ever heard of tapas was when my Navy pilot husband, Cork, our two young children Kim and Dane, and I moved to Spain in 1969. The kids went to school on the Rota Navy Base but we lived on the economy. When Friday night came we didn’t go to McDonald’s (there […]
According to the California Missions Foundation press brochure, “Nothing defines California and our nation’s heritage as significantly or emotionally as do the 21 missions that were founded along the coast from San Diego to Sonoma. Their beauty, stature, and character underlie the formation of California. Over time, many mission enclaves have developed into some of […]
While we’re waiting for this pandemic to subside it might be fun to learn a bit about one of our five National Historic Landmarks, the County Courthouse. The others are the Mission, Casa del Herrero, the Raphael Gonzales Adobe, and the Santa Barbara Club. As I write this the Courthouse has a lock on the […]
Street painting artists have been compared to masochists, in that their hobby of drawing with chalk on the sidewalk has become an obsession, back pain and sore knees ignored in a mission that is exhibited annually on the pavement in front of the Santa Barbara’s Old Mission during the I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival […]
Santa Barbara has five National Historic Landmarks – the Courthouse, the Mission, the Raphael Gonzales Adobe, the Santa Barbara Club, and Casa del Herrero. The Casa is a great tourist attraction and I have been lucky enough to be a docent there for twenty years. I would like to tell you about the origins of […]
