Photo Exhibit Exposes ‘Watershed’ Moment

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art explores the increasingly fraught relationship between humankind and the environment with a number of events to coincide with the exhibition “Watershed: Contemporary Landscape Photography” through March 23 in the museum.

“Throughout North America, we share these sustainability issues, and although each need is specific to its region, ‘Watershed’ is able to highlight the mutual issues that connect us,” says Judy L. Larson, R. Anthony Askew professor of art history and museum director. “In Santa Barbara, we have personally experienced the effect of a fire-ravaged forest, the need for water availability and the environmental clean-up that must continue, and ‘Watershed’ illustrates that these issues are not solely ours. From rural Alabama to Labrador, Canada, these photographs provide visual evidence of our shared environmental concerns.”

The exhibition highlights several of the country’s most celebrated contemporary photographers, including William Christenberry, Gabriel Orozco, and Joel Meyerowitz, and two of Southern California’s best-known photographers, Macduff Everton and Bill Dewey. “This exhibition establishes wide-reaching connection of shared issues, from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the Midwest to the South,” Larson says. “This interdisciplinary, environmentally focused exhibition urges us to pay attention and get involved.” 

Westmont has recently approved a new minor in environmental studies, which will be presented to the trustees in January. “We know students have a keen interest in the topic of sustainability,” Larson says. “This exhibition lends itself to programming and activities where students will be able to get involved, and explore this topic further.”

The lower level of the museum will feature paintings by Rose Compass, a group of six artists with six differing techniques and from six diverse backgrounds with a passion for painting and a love of nature to create and explore through gouache. “Rose Compass: Paintings of Santa Barbara’s Watershed,” which features the works of Connie Connally, Nina Warner, Nicole Strasburg, Holli Harmon, Libby Smith, and Pamela Zwhehl-Burke, will be on display until June 22. 

Michael Kidd is sponsoring the exhibition in memory of Dr. John Janzen and Benjamin Ortega.