Return of Curated Cocktails

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) has announced that its Curated Cocktail programs and Longshot Bar are returning. On the second Thursday of each month, from May through December 2022, SBMM will host a Curated Cocktail event on its patio from 5-7pm, with the first one scheduled for Thursday, May 12, 2022. Each program’s theme will be centered on the Museum’s lecture series, an important historic maritime event, a current exhibit, or items from the Museum’s collections, and each will feature a speaker, a signature cocktail, a full bar, and refreshments. Although free for the Museum’s Navigators Circle members, all other SBMM members will be able to attend for $20. Navigators Circle members should RSVP to mdonelan@sbmm.org; other Museum members can register online at https://sbmm.org; and members of the general public who are not members, may join and pay at the door or become members on SBMM’s website at https://sbmm.org/membership/.

For its inaugural 2022 event on May 12, the Curated Cocktails theme will be the visit to Santa Barbara of the Great White Fleet 114 years ago during the last week of April 1908. The featured speaker, SBMM’s Collections Manager Lydia Kaestner, will present and discuss an antique Copper Halftone plate printing block, from the Museum’s collection, that was used to reproduce an innovative panoramic image of the fleet and local festivities for newspapers and postcards of the time.

The Curated Cocktails program was piloted during the fall of 2021 and met with such success that the Board of Directors and staff of the Museum decided to continue the events as the weather warmed up in 2022. Last year’s attendees enjoyed meeting and hearing from maritime experts including surfboard shaper Renny Yater, artist John Comer, and the crew of SBMM’s flagship Ranger; heard live music provided by Michael Holland; tasted innovative cocktails, beer and wine from Cutler’s Artisan Spirits; and enjoyed food from various culinary traditions. During each Curated Cocktails event, the Museum Store will be open and the Museum itself will be open for guided tours with Executive Director Greg Gorga.

Note: SBMM’s in-person lecture, scheduled for May 19, 2022, at 7pm, is “Dearest Minnie: A Sailor’s Story, ” the story of the Great White Fleet told through postcards sent by one of the sailors to his girlfriend in 1907 and 1908.