Events around Santa Barbara
Writers of all levels are invited to participate in this informal exploration of the Museum’s galleries as an impetus to writing. Monthly sessions are led by a visiting writer who begins with a conversation and prompt, partially inspired by works on view. Participants write on their own, then reconvene to share and comment on each …
A special one-day lecture series. Expert art historians offer detailed glimpses into some of the many facets of the flower-and-bird genre in Chinese painting and reveal how these images of intimate nature can be thresholds to worlds rich with beauty and private emotions.
Ages 5-12 Combine materials and techniques to create mixed media pieces that include painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. Create traditional and unexpected portraits and self-portraits inspired by the Museum’s collections and special exhibitions. Instructors: Nicola Ghersen + Jason Summers Tuesdays, January 9 – February 13 3:30 – 5:30 pm Ridley-Tree Education Center 1600 Santa Barbara …
Artists of all levels are invited to paint in the garden under the heady double influence of Lotusland and Master Painter of the lotus garden, Bada Shanren. Participants gather for a brief introduction to the Chinese tradition of Bird and Flower painting, and then go off to explore the scene and site that most inspires …
In this conversation, resonating with both the past and tradition exemplified in the exhibition Flowers on a River and with the distillation and duality explored in Inside/Outside, Jenny Xie opens up, as US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera described, “multiple terrains of seeing.” With longing and memory, nuance and subtlety, the “anxiety of bilingualism,” and the unknowability of …
As part of, Inside/Outside, an exhibition of recent acquisitions, SBMA is pleased to invite Keith Mayerson for a conversation with James Glisson, Curator of Contemporary Art. Keith Mayerson has long swum in the sea of mass media that we exist in and reframing them by painting them, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art recently acquired …
Beloved by artists across the decades for his fierce, uncompromising dedication to art, John Densmore occupies a rarified space in pop culture. His musicianship landed him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His writing consistently earns accolades and has appeared in a range of publications including the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. As his friend …
Art Matters Lecture with Joan Kee, Professor of Art History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor How might we think about art and its histories from the perspective of a “global majority”? Spanning North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, Joan Kee looks at the relationships that formed between Black and Asian artists at critical historical junctures—including …
As part of the Museum’s continuing series of performance and dance, Vanessa Agle Isaac, dancer, choreographer, and Director of the Vanessa Isaac Dance Company, will perform in the Museum galleries with members of her company and musicians from the Santa Barbara Symphony. Symphony musicians include pianist, Natasha Kislenko and associate principal cellist, Jonathan Flaksman. Embodying …
Join us for a sensory experience where select art from the SBMA collection inspires music, design, and taste. Midwinter Night’s Dream is a symbol of contemplative beauty and the promise of new beginnings, and the season of winter captures the very essence of the theme—discovery, reflection, wonder, and renewal, making for an immersive and transformative experience. …
The Ying Quartet occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical music world, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of chamber music in today's world. Now in its third decade, the Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications. Their performances regularly take place in many of …
Art Matters Lecture with Judith Mann Over the last 75 years, Artemisia Gentileschi has developed into an icon of female empowerment and the emotive drama of baroque painting. Identified with images of Judith decapitating the general Holofernes, she has come to be understood as a woman who succeeded in a man’s world, overcoming considerable obstacles …
Noted photography scholar Beth Gates Warren will present a fascinating lecture on Julien Levy (1906–81), who is best remembered today as the art dealer who brought Surrealism to the United States. His eponymous New York City Gallery (1931–49) was generally regarded as the best place to view cutting-edge work by such artists as Salvador Dalí, …
Writers of all levels are invited to participate in this informal exploration of the Museum’s galleries as an impetus to writing. Monthly sessions are led by a visiting writer who begins with a conversation and prompt, partially inspired by works on view. Participants write on their own, then reconvene to share and comment on each …
As part of programming for "Made by Hand/Born Digital" (on view through August 25), this free-flowing conversation between artist Yassi Mazandi and SBMA Curator of Contemporary Art James Glisson will cover her explorations with new technology, including NFTs, and her tendency to work with traditional mediums, like painting and ceramics, against the grain.