The Santa Barbara Sea Glass & Ocean Arts Festival (SBSGOAF) is having an Instagram silent auction from October 11-18, with 100% of the proceeds going to @sbmaritimemuseum. The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum has been closed for the duration of the pandemic and may not be able to reopen until the end of the year. We wanted to help them out, and we are hoping you will support our efforts. 12 amazing professional artists are transforming wood fish into beautiful original art for you to bid on!

Makers Market is the best outdoor market that Santa Barbara has to offer. Meet the artisans in person. This market offers unique one of a kind items in an outdoor European style setting.

Part I (March 22 – July 5, 2020): Works on Paper
Preston Morton Gallery

Part II (May 10 – August 30, 2020): Painting & Sculpture
Davidson Gallery

This two-part exhibition highlights recent acquisitions to SBMA’s permanent collection of contemporary art. Featuring over 40 artworks in a variety of media, including painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, and sculpture, the majority of the objects are on view at SBMA for the first time. These include painted works on paper by emerging artists acquired through the recently established Basil Alkazzi Acquisition Fund, as well as significant pieces by internationally recognized artists such as Sterling Ruby, Andrea Bowers, and Nigel Cooke. Tying these artworks together is a distinct sense of individuality, innovative use of materials, and playful ambiguity between traditional artistic genres.

The exhibition is comprised of works from artists in various stages of their careers, ranging from the emerging to the well-established. Artists include: Scott Anderson, Edgar Arceneaux, Elizabeth Bonaventura, Andrea Bowers, Bruce Conner, Nigel Cooke, Miles Coolidge, Petra Cortright, Noah Davis, Wim Delvoye, Jacci Den Hartog, Daniel Douke, Jim Drain, Vernon Fisher, Helen Frankenthaler, Peter Halley, Frederick Hammersley, Zach Harris, Naotaka Hiro, Mustafa Hulusi, Nathan Huff, Jim Isermann, Raffi Kalenderian, Tom Knechtel, Emma Kohlmann, Hew Locke, Eamon Ore-Giron, Carl Ostendarp, Cheryl Pope, Nathlie Provosty, Sterling Ruby, Aaron Siskind, Jeni Spota C., Donald Sultan, Stephanie Washburn, and Jane Wilbraham.

This exhibition is curated by Julie Joyce, Senior Curator, ArtCenter College of Design (and former Curator of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art) with assistance from Rachel Heidenry, Curatorial Assistant, Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Image: Nathlie Provosty, "Council, Untitled (16-38)" (detail), 2016. Watercolor on paper, diptych. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by The Basil Alkazzi Acquisition Fund, 2018.10.2a,b. © Nathlie Provosty.

The Preston Morton Collection, which forms the core of American art at SBMA, was gifted in 1961 upon the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Museum’s founding. In so doing, Preston Morton ensured that SBMA could boast one of the most comprehensive overviews of American art from the 18th to the mid-20th century among mid-sized institutions. The timing of the gift was significant, representing a corrective to the European bias of midcentury canonical modernism and a proud reassertion of home-grown American art.

This selection of small format paintings is a reminder of the breadth of the Museum’s holdings in this area. Oil and brush conjure the illusion of near and far persuasively, from the close perspective of still life, to the life-size proportions of bust portraiture, to sublime expanses of land and sky. Whether within hand’s reach or at an immeasurable distance, both types of visual experience are captured within the confines of a canvas no more than 15 inches in diameter.

Artists represented include William Merritt Chase, Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Thomas Eakins, Walter Gay, George Inness, George Luks, Jervis McEntee, John Frederick Peto, Levi Wells Prentice, Edward Henry Potthast.

Image: William Merritt Chase, "Children on the Beach" (detail), 1894. Oil on board. SBMA, Bequest of Margaret Mallory.

Vegan Chef Challenge to Return to Santa Barbara in April, Expands to Oxnard and Ventura : Open call to area chefs to join the challenge 

Jane Belleau Road A Visual Story By Brendan Briggs on Women

Join UCSB Reads 2020 author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore for a free online community talk on Earth Day about Rising and the impact of sea level rise on the United States.

To sign up for this free talk, please fill out the short registration form at
https://www.library.ucsb.edu/events-exhibitions/free-online-community-talk-ucsb-reads-author

Join Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, Assemblymember Monique Limón, and Congressman Salud Carbajal for a teleconference town hall this Wednesday, April 22 at 5:30 p.m. to hear a COVID-19 update from county public health officials as well as have your questions answered.

Hotel Santa Barbara Makers Workshop Series - Join Allison Zeager of AZ Designz to create a pair of eco-friendly earrings made from recycled leather samples!

In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party began to form alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city, including the Latino group, the Young Lords Organization and the southern whites of the Young Patriots. Banding together in one of the most segregated cities in postwar America to collectively confront issues such as police brutality and substandard housing, they called themselves the Rainbow Coalition. The First Rainbow Coalition tells the movement’s little-known story through rare archival footage and interviews with former coalition members in the present-day. Post-film discussion with the filmmaker, Ray Santisteban, Young Lords founder, Cha Cha Jimenez, and Black Panther Party leader, Ericka Huggins, to follow. 56m

Thousands of years ago the Syrian goddess of the sea, Atargatis, transformed herself into a mermaid by flinging herself into a lake. She emerged with the lower body of a fish and upper body of a human. Ever since, mermaids and mermen have captivated the imaginations of people and cultures around the world.

Visualizing the myths and legends of mermaids through photography was a part of the underwater photography course Clevenger taught at Brooks. This show highlights images created by Ralph and a few of his former students during extended trips to the Channel Islands.

Turn your love of cooking and cannabis into an art form and learn how to make delicious cannabis-infused edibles and meals. Tickets are $35 and include instruction on techniques such as proper, consistent dosing and decarboxylation. You will also receive a free dairy-free ice cream sample to take home and three recipes for mouth-watering cannabis cuisine you make yourself. Learn more at www.sespe.org/events.