Tag archives: artists

Lotusland Art Sale
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   April 22, 2021

In an effort to rethink traditional in-person fundraising efforts, Lotusland has announced a new benefit event, Sanctuary.  Earlier this year, 36 local artists were asked to create new work inspired by Lotusland. The artists were given three days to visit the Garden and only eight weeks to create, capture, and complete their muse at Lotusland. […]

A Life in Focus
By Katherine Stewart   |   April 22, 2021

From photojournalist in Tennessee to two tours as Second Lady to a new start in Montecito, Tipper Gore has had a remarkable journey To spend time with Tipper Gore – even by phone, as I did, thanks to COVID-19 safety restrictions – is to marvel at the vivid tapestry of her life. As the nation’s Second Lady […]

The Constant of Change
By Gwyn Lurie   |   April 22, 2021

Why do people who can live anywhere so often choose to live here? With its recent influx of newcomers, some fear Montecito is changing. I suppose it’s true that every new resident – even every new visitor – puts a mark on a place, bringing with them their unique story, their aspirations, their values. It […]

Arts in Lockdown #24: Artist Baret Boisson
By Joanne A Calitri   |   April 1, 2021

Baret Boisson is an American artist currently working from her studio in Carpinteria. Her renowned series, “Inspiring Greatness,” which opened at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis in 2016, continues to this day with a new portrait of Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, commissioned by Lisa Loiacono Lloyd. The series began humbly with her passion […]

Thomas Reynolds Gallery
By Lynda Millner   |   March 25, 2021

There’s something new at 1331 State Street: the Thomas Reynolds Gallery near the Arlington Theatre! The Gallery was founded in 1994 in San Francisco in the Pacific Heights neighborhood and was known for contemporary California art and artists. I met with Thomas Reynolds the other day and he said, “I am also an editor-publisher and […]

Plaza Granada Breaks Ground
By Richard Mineards   |   March 11, 2021

A new pathway to the historic arts district in downtown Santa Barbara, Plaza Granada, broke ground near the venerable theater. The project, costing nearly $2 million raised from donors and theater board members, will totally transform the parking lot behind the Granada and the pedestrian walkway into a safer, more accessible, and aesthetically pleasing space […]

Arts in Lockdown #22: Bi-Racial Arts Champion Entrepreneur & Mom Ashley Woods Hollister
By Joanne A Calitri   |   March 11, 2021

The multi-faceted bi-racial Ashley Woods Hollister is an arts champion and curator, and supporter of the Santa Barbara nonprofit community. She’s served on the boards of Explore Ecology, on the Santa Barbara Mental Wellness Center since 2007, and just joined the board of the Foundation for Climate Change Action. She is the co-founder of T.W. […]

Museum Exhibits, Sells 450 Art Pieces
By Scott Craig   |   December 10, 2020

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art celebrates its 10th anniversary with a fundraising exhibition, “5×5: Celebrating Ten Years,” which features about 450, five-inch-square works of art from December 3-18. The art will be available for purchase through an online auction at westmont.edu/museum/5×5 that ends Friday, December 18, at 5 pm. The exhibition, which benefits the […]

Art Gifts to Find New Home at Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art
By Scott Craig   |   November 19, 2020

The Forest Foundation, which has supported the arts and education in California and Illinois since 1963, is donating several sculptures and more than three dozen pedestals and sculptural stands to the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. Museum officials are working with Brander Vineyard to create a long-term sculpture exhibition at the Santa Ynez winery. “Navigating […]

SBIFF: Grappling with Graphics
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 18, 2020

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of John Van Hamersveld‘s iconic “Crazy World Ain’t it” emoji – it was called an illustration back in 1969 when Van Hamersveld created his first versions of the drawing at Bellevue Studio on Bonnie Brea in Echo Park and went on to develop the idea for a T-shirt graphic […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures’ House Calls: Just What the Doctor Ordered
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 24, 2020

UCSB Arts & Lectures is by far the area’s busiest arts organization, presenting in the pre-pandemic era upwards of 100 public events every academic year, not to mention add-ons in the summer. So, naturally A&L is stepping to the front of the line again as the COVID-19 crisis passes the six-month mark. After transferring its […]

Graduating Seniors Art Exhibition Goes Online
By Scott Craig   |   August 20, 2020

Twelve Westmont art graduates, unable to exhibit their artwork at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum on campus in May due to COVID-19, are displaying their senior projects virtually. “Adjacent: Westmont Graduate Exhibition 2020” is available in person at the museum only to the artists and their families by prior appointment. The exhibition, including a virtual tour, […]

Arts Lockdown Series Part 3: Skye Gwilliam and Dari Mos
By Joanne A Calitri   |   August 20, 2020

It’s 2016 and a millennial Santa Barbara gallery owner and multi-medium visual artist is seated writing furiously in his journal at the Café Rendez-Vous des Amis in Montmartre, once home to 19th century artists Gauguin, Monet, Degas, and Cézanne. Also sitting there is a chic femme artist-musician from Belarus studying philosophy at Sorbonne University Paris. […]

Online ‘Personal’s
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 16, 2020

Center Stage Theater’s daily Digital Arts Festival came to a close back in May, with the daily doses of videos, photos and interviews with local artists of all kinds to share  their creative processes and samples of their work perhaps set to return later this summer. In the meantime, a Quarantine Edition of Speaking of […]

Play Reading Season Launches on Zoom at UCSB
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 16, 2020

After the sensational success this spring of UCSB Launch Pad’s Alone, Together project that found more than 20 past playwrights-in-resident contributing short original works created to be performed and directed by theater students and faculty over Zoom, the 2020 Summer Reading Series: New Plays in Process might seem a bit anticlimactic. But don’t sell the […]

Digital Arts Festival Dives into Dance and Drama
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 9, 2020

Center Stage Theater (CST), the black-box venue that makes itself available to the community through largely low-cost rentals, is also stepping up its game in perhaps an even bigger way by offering a new streaming service every night through the end of the month. The segments will run each night at 7 pm, also starting […]

Persevering Through the Pandemic with Performances
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 9, 2020

The stated purpose of the Lois & Walter Capps Project is “Connecting our community through authentic and essential dialogue,” but its mission comes down to an even simpler three-word mantra, said president and executive director Todd Capps: “Bringing Us Together.” That encompasses all of the project’s enterprises from Common Table – which began a few […]

It’s on the House
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   March 12, 2020

“It takes a heap of living to make a house a home” is probably the best-remembered line of Edgar Guest – even though – as I’ve often found when my own work is (mis-) quoted – that isn’t exactly what he wrote. The public has an ability to improve upon things it likes, often by […]

Musicians Compete for Scholarships
By Scott Craig   |   February 27, 2020

The eighth annual Westmont Instrumentalist Guild Competition features eight musicians vying for Westmont music scholarships on Saturday, February 29, at 7 pm in Deane Chapel on the lower Westmont campus. Prospective Westmont student instrumentalists Sean Tran (piano), Daniel Macy (violin), Katie Peel (French horn) Natasha Loh (bassoon), Emma Wu (piano), and Evan Zhou (violin) will […]

Festival of Hearts
By Lynda Millner   |   February 20, 2020

Friendship Center brought 2020 roaring in with their 21st Festival of Hearts “The New Roaring ‘20s” held at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. The hotel was a sea of feather boas, sequins, fringe and headbands as the flapper ladies and a few dandy gentlemen sipped Fess Parker wines to the live music of A […]