Tag archives: museum

Calling Area Artists
By Scott Craig   |   March 22, 2022

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art is accepting submissions through April 15 from local artists for its upcoming juried exhibition, “Uncanny.” Westmont alumnus Robin Eley (’01), a hyperrealist painter raised in Australia, is the juror of this year’s Tri-County exhibition, which is open May 19 to June 18. A free, public, opening reception for the […]

Etched in History
By Richard Mineards   |   November 2, 2021

Social gridlock reigned at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum when it launched its latest publication, the 320-page book Edward Borein: Etched by the West written by Byron Price, a West Point graduate and former director of the Cowboy Hall of Fame, to which Borein was posthumously inducted in 1971. The book, handsomely illustrated with 400 […]

Dinosaurs in Santa Barbara
By Lynda Millner   |   April 8, 2021

Those things that go “bump” in the night! They could be caused by five dinosaurs that now reside at the Museum of Natural History, permanently, along with some babies. After the summer of 2019 when the electronic dinosaurs visited and were then shipped onto the next place, the kids have been asking for them. One […]

Pointers on Point Conception
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 28, 2021

Barely 50 miles from downtown Santa Barbara is one of the most fascinating and important parts of the California coastline. Point Conception is the headland where the coast transitions between north-south and east-west orientation, a very rare delineation that works as a natural division between Southern and Northern California. It also marks the location of […]

Fiesta del Museo
By Hattie Beresford   |   August 6, 2020

Though the beautiful and elegant Fiesta del Museo is cancelled this year, Project Fiesta: A History of Old Spanish Days is not. And what better place to see the latest exhibition than outdoors in the spacious and beautiful courtyard of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, where fresh air and social distancing create an idyllic environment? […]

Twenty Years Behind the Mast
By Greg Gorga   |   July 23, 2020

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum celebrates a milestone and sails into the future Back in 1994, a small group of divers, fishermen, and sailors began meeting at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club and the Breakwater Restaurant to start planning a museum that would “present and interpret the rich and diverse maritime history of the Santa Barbara […]

Virtual Visual Arts, Plus Chances to Actually Visit
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 7, 2020

This issue arrives on May 7, which, in normal times, would have been a time for art lovers to gather downtown on lower State Street and nearby blocks to partake in the gallery, museum, and boutique self-guided tour known as 1st Thursday. That would’ve meant huge crowds jamming the two big open spaces at Sullivan […]

Annual Member Luncheon
By Lynda Millner   |   February 6, 2020

The Women’s Board of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) began 69 years ago whose sole purpose was to support the SBMA and so they have. We met in the Santa Barbara Club for one of the club’s wonderful lunches. The Board is especially grateful to its sustaining members whose leadership and support provide […]

Art Exhibit Features South Texas Drawings
By Scott Craig   |   February 6, 2020

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art features the works of 60 different artists with a wide range of artistic styles from minimalism to realism, pop to op, narrative to symbolism in “Contemporary Masters: Works on Paper from the Collection of the Art Museum of South Texas” from January 30-March 21, 2020. A free, public opening […]

The Museum Collection
By Lynda Millner   |   December 26, 2019

The Santa Barbara Historical Museum (SBHM) invited members to celebrate the season and see the opening of their latest exhibition, the Henry Chapman Ford (1828-1894) collection. Holiday cocktails and canapés set the festive tone along with lighting and white fabric “walls.” Deputy director Dacia Harwood said that many thanks go to sponsors Sharon and David […]

The Steedman Silver
By Lynda Millner   |   December 19, 2019

The “Christmas at the Casa” gala this year was all about silver. Silver cloths on all the tables with greens sprayed silver and lighted cabinets on display filled with pieces of silver George Steedman had made in the ‘30s and ‘40s. He’s known to have made about one hundred pieces between 1927 and 1940, when […]

Exhibition Explores ‘Belly of the Whale’
By Scott Craig   |   November 21, 2019

Kent Anderson Butler, a Los Angeles-based video and performance artist, presents an exhibition November 21-January 18 at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum. An opening reception and lecture for “From the Belly of the Whale: Kent Anderson Butler” will be January 9 from 4-6 pm at the museum. “The exhibition explores the current contemporary cultural climate through […]

Day of the Living Museum
By Ernie Witham   |   November 14, 2019

The man was using a hatchet to make a spoon out of a log. “That’s the way it used to be done,” he told us. “People needed things to do indoors when it was cold and damp.” I zipped up my raincoat. “That’s why we have Netflix.” We were visiting the Weald and Downland Living […]

Colorful Celebration
By Richard Mineards   |   October 10, 2019

The MOXI Museum, which has 150,000 guests annually, was socially gridlocked when 300 supporters attended the third annual fundraiser Colorosity, raising around $300,000 for the STEAM education, outreach, and accessibility initiatives. All three floors provided a feast for the eyes and palate, with bountiful food at each stop. The boffo bash, co-chaired by Kelly Bret […]

Surprise Summer Exhibit Features New Gifts
By Scott Craig   |   July 18, 2019

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art is showing off its newest treasures this summer in “The Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collections,” through early August. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm and closed weekends and college holidays during the summer. For more information, please visit westmont.edu/museum or contact […]

The Hard Knox House
By James Buckley   |   July 4, 2019

MJ‘s favorite painter, Thomas Van Stein, just completed a commissioned painting of the historic Knox-Cota building on Anacapa Street for the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. The house was built in the 1870s for Dr. Knox and his wife. The building’s facade crumbled in the 1925 earthquake, and has been sitting as a rather […]

Art Matters
By Lynda Millner   |   June 13, 2019

Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Director Larry J. Feinberg and the Board of Trustees of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA)invited exhibition sponsors, sustaining trustees, legacy society, benefactors circle, director’s patron and special guests for a reception celebrating several current exhibitions. Larry explained that “Out of Storage and into the Light: Sculptures That Tell Stories” […]

Maritime Merriment
By Richard Mineards   |   January 16, 2019

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum kicked off its 20th anniversary year with a boffo bash at its depository on South Salinas Street when the Kieding Collections Chandlery was named in honor of Bob Kieding, 82, one of the founders and a premier sailboat racer. As part of the celebrations, the popular museum, which is located next […]

Trusted Treasures
By Richard Mineards   |   December 20, 2018

Santa Barbara Historical Museum set its trustees, past and present, to work choosing favorite pieces of art from more than 3,000 works in the venerable institution’s vault for a Trusted Treasures exhibition featuring 16 works, with each piece accompanied by a photo of the trustee and a quote or two on why the painting was […]

Good As Gold
By Richard Mineards   |   November 15, 2018

Guests at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art certainly had a yen for the latest exhibition. Paths of Gold: Japanese Landscape and Narrative Paintings from the State Street institution’s extensive collection examines the aesthetics of the art in both private and public interiors. The colorful show, which runs through February 10, 2019, showcases nine intricate […]