Anonymous
Source: County of Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture is pleased to announce “Sunflowers on State,” a new public art exhibition on State Street running March through May. Six larger-than-life sunflower sculptures fabricated by local artists and painted by students will be on display on the State Street corridor for the public to enjoy.
Designed in the Impressionistic style, the flowers represent one of many programs developed in tandem with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Vincent Van Gogh exhibition, “Through Vincent’s Eyes.” A ribbon cutting will take place on 1st Thursday, at 5 p.m. on March 3 at the sunflower sculpture in front of Old Navy, 1137 State Street, Santa Barbara.
The flowers were painted during art class at local schools, which was facilitated by the Santa Barbara Education Foundation. Participating schools include Dos Pueblos High School, Goleta Valley Junior High School, La Colina Junior High School, Santa Barbara Junior High School, Santa Barbara High School/VADA and San Marcos High School.
Margie Yahyavi, Education Foundation Executive Director, shared, “Engaging our students in this project is a great opportunity to showcase their talents and creativity for the larger community.”
The sunflowers were fabricated by artists from The Environment Makers who developed and produced the sunflowers at The Arts Fund Gallery in Santa Barbara. Community members were invited to join in the production of the flower petals during open workshop hours.
The artists offered virtual painting instruction to the student participants. “Making this project as inclusive as possible to represent the talents of local artists and residents was important to us,” added Environment Makers co-founder Kym Cochran.
Project sponsors include the City of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Beautiful, County of Santa Barbara, American Riviera Bank, Farmers and Merchants Trust Company, Fess Parker Winery, Stephen and Libby Erickson, Santa Barbara City College Foundation, Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Downtown Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Education Foundation, Vista Paint, Home Depot, Santa Barbara Public Library, and The Arts Fund.
Santa Barbara Beautiful Board Chair Deborah Schwartz said, “Santa Barbara Beautiful is excited to be a collaborative funder in this year’s Sunflowers on State Street exhibit. Internationally-renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers are among his most famous works and some of the most iconic paintings in the world.”
