Studio Channel Islands Art Center (SCIART) presents Out of Many, One, opening April 2 and on display through May 28. In this exhibition artists use their collective voices to invoke feelings such as fear, joy and frustration to explore and celebrate our differences.
Mayor John C. Zaragoza is pleased to announce that the City of Oxnard along with the Disabled American Veterans – Chapter 24, Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County, Salvation Army, Knights of Columbus Council 750, Military Officers Association of America Ventura County Chapter and the Boy Scouts of America – Troop 231 will jointly host a Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday, May 30, 2022, at Plaza Park starting at 11 a.m.
SBMA Art Matters lecture explores “The Multiple Surrealisms of Wifredo Lam” with Mey-Yen Moriuchi, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Art History La Salle University, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 2.
Studio Channel Islands Art Center (SCIART) presents Echoes of Nature, a contemporary Chinese art exhibition opening on Saturday, June 4, beginning at noon with a full schedule of activities throughout the day. Events will take place at Studio Channel Islands Art Center located at 2222 E. Ventura Blvd, Camarillo.
The second ever Oxnard Insect Festival returns on Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to Plaza Park (500 South C St., Oxnard).
Community members are invited to see, touch, buy and even taste a variety of creepy crawlers at this free event hosted by the City of Oxnard. All youth attendees are encouraged to pick up an Insect Festival passport upon arrival and get it stamped at each booth. The first 200 youth that visit eight booths will receive a free special insect activity kit to take home!
The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature is pleased to announce Brunch al Fresco, a fundraising event taking place at the historic Alisal Ranch Adobe on Sunday, June 5, 2022, 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Attendees will enjoy a unique live auction supporting the Wildling Museum with opportunities to bid on getaways to Sedona, Arizona; Park City, Utah; and San Francisco, one-of-a-kind artworks, and more. Several local artists will also be onsite for the event, providing live demonstrations, as well as selling their unique handcrafted works.
In partnership with national nonprofit NeighborWorks, the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (Cabrillo EDC)?will be hosting a Mental Health Fair at Paseo de Luz Apartments in Oxnard, June 10, 1:30 to 4:30 pm. The event will help bring communities together and support NeighborWorks’ goal to help empower communities for success.
Art is Passion Gallery at Portside Ventura Harbor will hold a gallery reception from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 11 at 864 Schooner Drive, Unit 103 Ventura.
Complimentary refreshments
Oil Portrait live painting
Storm Chasing photography
Exclusive art raffle
The Ventura-based art gallery & studio focused on art that motivates others and brings light to positive change. Studio services include residential and commercial mural painting, graphic design, print design, canvas art commissions, custom vinyl apparel and more.
The Channel Islands Maritime Museum (CIMM) is pleased to announce that Captain Christine Healy of the ship Mystic Cruzar, will be its featured speaker for June.
Captain Healy will share the journey of the beautiful tall ship Mystic Cruzar as she made her way from Connecticut to her new home of Channel Islands Harbor via the Panama Canal in the fall and early winter of 2021-22.
Your Museum is being transformed. Experience the Museum with a fresh and fascinating take on local history and a new visitor experience design, for free. Learn more about the exhibits below.
Reception made possible by:
Paradise Pantry, Peirano’s, and Ventura Spirits
All That Glitters Is Not Gold
A surprising history of the 1920s and Prohibition in Ventura County. As population and wealth boomed, creativity flourished – but so did a tide of repression and exclusion. This exhibit tells the local story of the jazz age through our collections and archives.
The Channel Islands Maritime Museum will be a hub of activity and fun on Father’s Day, June 19, 2022, as it celebrates the day with “Classics by the Sea.” This family-friendly event will feature a wonderful display of woodies and classic cars of all vintages, many one-of-a-kind, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Museum will also be hosting its unique annual maritime treasure sale including used books, ship models and art. The event will feature live music and food (for purchase) will also be available.
Join us at MCASB for a date night for LGBTQIA+ individuals and allies in honor of pride month! Grab someone special and head downtown for a night out featuring art, drinks, and special discounts to Downtown Santa Barbara restaurants and bars. Visit MCASB’s current exhibition Through What Agency?, enjoy a drink with us, make your own pride flag, and more! A walkthrough of the current exhibition will take place at 7 PM led by Alexandra Terry, Chief Curator.
Try your hand at our new ‘donate-to-play wheel’ to win some fun prizes. Follow up your night of contemporary culture with dinner and dessert at one of our favorite nearby restaurants!
This event is FREE for all. Bar proceeds and donations from this event will benefit MCASB and Pacific Pride Foundation.
THOUSAND OAKS — The 66th Annual Conejo Valley Days (CVD) will feature 10 days of carnival rides, food, live entertainment and line dancing. Through June 26 (dark June 20) at Conejo Creek Park South (23 Freeway/Janss Rd. exit) in Thousand Oaks.
Kastl Amusements will operate15 rides plus midway games for all ages at CVD as well as offer traditional fair and specialty foods. CVD will also feature live entertainment with more than 10 bands scheduled including the Colette Lovejoy Band, Mirage (Fleetwood Mac cover band), Three Rivers Band, Rebel Heart, Psychedelic Summer (Woodstock era tribute band) and Rick Schule’s John Denver sing-along. A full list of bands and performance times is posted at www.conejovalleydays.us/home/band-schedule.
The Museum of Ventura County will present “Story Time at the Museum: Read Beyond the Beaten Path” from 3 to 4 p.m. Friday, July 1 at 100 E. Main St., Ventura.
Your Museum with the county library have bilingual Story Time every first Friday of the month at 3pm. That way kids will have time to come right after school. Join us for stories, then play and learn in the Evelyn and Howard Boroughs Children’s Garden, a fabulous and FREE outing for ALL!
Santa Barbara Museum of Art to present Free Lecture by Acclaimed Photographer Janna Ireland — “The 2022 Lorna Spencer Hedges Photography Lecture,” at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 9 at SBMA’s Mary Craig Auditorium, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.
The Channel Islands Maritime Museum (CIMM) is inviting the public to join it for a special blessing ceremony in honor of a soon-to-be-created mural at the Museum. Chumash Elder Alan Salazar will be conducting a traditional Chumash blessing ceremony at the mural site. Museum friends and the public are invited to join in the ceremony. The ceremony will take place on Saturday, July 9, at 11:00 am at the Museum which is located at 3900 Bluefin Circle, Oxnard.
Ventura Land Trust broadens its public program offerings with an Artist-Led Plein Air Painting Workshop on Saturday, July 9th at 8:00 am at Harmon Canyon Preserve. Artists Debra Holladay, Laura Wambsgans, and Marian Fortunati will offer instruction for beginner and experienced artists on how to capture Harmon Canyon’s natural landscape through composition, form, color, and paint handling.
Participants will receive instruction as a group and one-on-one. Group discussion will allow painters to learn from one another. Ventura Land Trust staff will join the workshop to share elements of Harmon Canyon Preserve’s natural and cultural history.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art will present Grammy Award-winner Ted Nash in free concert on SBMA’s Front Terrace from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, July 10 at 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.
In his fourth summer as SBMA artist-in-residence,?Grammy Award-winning musician and composer Ted Nash shares insight and experience with a selection of Santa Barbara City College students and fellow musicians culminating in a free concert.
The California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. (CRLA) will host a free-of-charge clinic for U.S. citizens eligible for criminal record expungement from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, July 14in the Elizabeth R. Topping Room of the E.P. Foster Library in Ventura, 651 E. Main St., Ventura.
During the clinic, volunteer attorneys will analyze individual criminal records and prepare criminal record expungement paperwork for free. Appointments are preferred, but walk-ins are welcome. Interpreters will be available to assist clients whose primary language is not English.
After a two-year hiatus of holding in-person festivities, the Mental Wellness Center (MWC) is bringing its Mental Health Arts Festival back to De La Guerra Plaza. As in the past, the festival will showcase the artwork of local artists in mediums including painting, drawing, jewelry, poetry, sculpture and arts and crafts. But what’s really special about the festival doesn’t end with the artwork.
“It’s an opportunity for artists to display their work and showcase their talent the community in a way that is positive, productive and meaningful for them,” explained Darcy Keep, MWC Board Members and Administrative Director of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at Cottage Health.
Twenty-five years after the first Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival was held, and following a two-year pandemic-caused hiatus, the event kicks off its joyous return to California Lutheran University’s Kingsmen Park with performances of one of the Bard’s most popular comedies.
The Kingsmen Shakespeare Company will perform “As You Like It” at 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through July 17 on the Thousand Oaks campus.
Warren C. Bowles, who has decades of experience in Shakespearean and contemporary theater throughout the country, presents the play as the festival’s first Black director. He has spent many years working with Mixed Blood Theatre Company in Minneapolis as a director, actor, playwright, stage manager and fight choreographer. Mixed Blood uses theater to disrupt injustices, advance equity, build community and inspire people to create ripple effects of social change.
Join Hospice of Santa Barbara at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 20 for their next illuminate Speaker Series Event, Kristin Neff: The Strength of Self-Compassion.
Kristin Neff is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research and is the author of the bestselling book, Self-Compassion.
On Thursday, August 4th, the Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) will hold its eleventh annual Night in Oaxaca. Night in Oaxaca is a celebration of the indigenous migrant community of California’s Central Coast and MICOP’s largest and most-sought after fundraiser. After two years of virtual programming, we are proud to bring our supporters a hybrid experience, in-person at Olivas Adobe in Ventura and online.
This year we are gathering around the theme of “Fortaleciendo Nuestras Raíces” or “Strengthening our Roots.” Reflecting on the pandemic and our recent growth, Night in Oaxaca will celebrate our indigenous community’s resiliency and rooted connection to our organization. The evening welcomes a diverse crowd of supporters and leaders from across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. All proceeds fund MICOP’s work of supporting, organizing and empowering indigenous migrant communities of the Central Coast.
Kids’ Art Camp: Pottery Projects (Ages 8-13)
Monday, July 18, to Friday, July 22, 2022
9 AM to 12 PM each day
$150 per child for five-days of camp
The Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival is closing its 2022 season with one of the most performed tragedies in theater history, but under the guiding hand of a veteran director seeing the play in a new way.
“I grew up with productions of `Macbeth’ that felt like the tale of a coldhearted murderer who reaps what he sows,” said director Brett Elliott. “This production will present the Scottish king and his lady differently. I see him as a decent man who talks himself into doing the unthinkable. Once he crosses that line, he regrets it instantly, but of course, it’s already too late.”
The Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, the professional theater company of California Lutheran University, will present “Macbeth” at 8 p.m. Aug. 5-7 in Kingsmen Park on the Thousand Oaks campus.
Single (non-series) tickets for the 2022-2023 season of UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) go on sale Friday, August 5 at 10 AM. Series subscriptions with savings of up to 25% are available now; as are single tickets to the season opener, Charley Crockett, at the Arlington Theatre on Sunday, October 2.
A&L’s big 2022-2023 opening week continues on Thursday, October 6, at the Granada, where DakhaBrakha, the world music quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine, will perform their electrifying blend of Ukrainian melodies and contemporary rhythms from around the world.
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Hot Fun in the Summertime: Moonrise Kingdom, on Friday, August 12th at the County Courthouse Sunken Garden at 8:30 p.m.
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing offshore – and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in every which way. The all-star cast features Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray and Frances McDormand among others, and introduces Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as Sam and Suzy, the boy and girl. (Wes Anderson, 2012, PG-13, 94 min.)
The Nyeland Acres Bike Rodeo will take place this Saturday, August 13 from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Nyeland Acres Community Center, giving children of all ages an opportunity to learn proper hand signalling and traffic safety skills to reduce riding accidents involving youth. At the event, the Oxnard Bike Hub will set up a series of stations which will provided participants an opportunity to learn correct riding skills and techniques. One of the stations includes a mechanical inspection for participants’ bikes and equipment. Children will receive free helmets, bikes, safety reflectors and other educational materials. Many residents are expected to attend the Bike Rodeo.
As part of the Bike Rodeo, children will be able to test their newly learned skills by going for a bike ride around Nyeland Acres escorted by Ventura County Sheriff and Oxnard Police Department. A Gold Coast Transit Bus will follow the bikers full of parents and community leaders. The bikers will make a quick stop at the big Santa on Ventura Blvd.
Meet artist Kay Zetlmaier inside the Museum and watch as she demonstrates her abstract, oil painting process, including her use of cold wax medium. The demonstration coincides with Zetlmaier’s current solo exhibition, Geomorphic: The Living Earth, on view now through September 11, 2022, at SPAM. Reservations are not required.
To celebrate National Health Center Week 2022, Clinicas will be hosting a Community Health Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13 at the El Rio Health Center, 2600 Vineyard Ave., Oxnard.
The Wildling Museum is pleased to announce its second annual free Summer Family Day on Sunday, August 14, 2022, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Visitors are invited to bring the whole family and enjoy free museum admission during event hours, a fairy visit and eco glitter tattoos by Parties and Paint by Kate from 1 – 3 p.m., art activities for all ages, and more.
“We are thrilled to open our doors for our second annual Summer Family Day at the Wildling Museum,” said Executive Director Stacey Otte-Demangate. “We feel it is important to invite the community to visit with art and activities that all ages can enjoy.”
Visit SBMA for Third Thursday celebrating the newly-installed iconic portrait bust by artist Awol Erizku, Nefertiti – Miles Davis (Gold), now on view over the Visitor Services desk at the State Street entrance and featuring the following free activities and offerings:
Free Museum admission, 5 – 8 pm
Music by DJ Darla Bea on the Front Terrace, 5 – 7:30 pm
Complimentary docent Ten Talks for Going Global: Abstract Art at Mid-Century at 6 and 6:30 pm
Teaching Artist-led art activities in the Family Resource Center, 5 – 7 pm
Free raffle entry for a chance to win a gift bag of artful treasures from the Museum Store
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art will present art historian and critic Suzanne Hudson explores Abstraction after Psychology from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18 at 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.
Suzanne Hudson discusses mid-century abstraction in relation to psychology and projective testing and examines the ways that the use of images in clinical settings conditioned audience encounters with art.
The Channel Islands Maritime Museum (CIMM) will be hosting a new volunteer orientation in August. Orientations will take place at the museum at 3900 Bluefin Circle in Oxnard on Saturday, August 20, from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm.
These orientations will share the history of the Museum, its collections, and the many ways in which volunteers can help to support the Maritime Museum. CIMM has volunteer opportunities in several areas including Museum tours, education, events, the CIMM Building Brigade, and visitor services.
The Museum asks for attendees to please RSVP to office@cimmvc.org or call CIMM at 805.984.6260 if they would like to attend either orientation.
Ventura Land Trust’s annual benefit, the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, returns for its 13th year on Saturday, August 20th at Ventura County Credit Union headquarters. This signature event raises funds each year to support Ventura Land Trust’s mission to permanently protect the land, water, wildlife and scenic beauty of the Ventura region for current and future generations. Film Festival doors open at 5:00 pm, and films begin around 7:45 pm. A virtual ticket option is available for guests who prefer to enjoy the Film Festival from home.
Over the past two weeks, artist Maria Arroyo and her supporting team from Slingshot / Alpha Art Studio have been busy at work completing her mural Nature Dream Windows. Selected by project partners Community Environmental Council (CEC), MCASB, and Paseo Nuevo from submissions from across Ventura, Santa Barbara, and SLO counties, Arroyo’s mural illustrates what Earth Day and Climate Leadership mean to her.
Nature Dream Windows will be revealed on Paseo Nuevo’s Instagram Live at 1:45 pm PST on Saturday, April 23, 2022, during Community Environmental Council’s Earth Day Celebration at the Arlington Theater.
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Hot Fun in the Summertime: In the Heights, on Friday, August 26th at the County Courthouse Sunken Garden at 8:30 p.m.
Usnavi is a bodega owner who longs to go back to his native Dominican Republic. In the meantime, he spends his time in a small neighborhood in Washington Heights pining after Vanessa, who works at the beauty salon, and looking after Abuela Claudia, the elderly Cuban lady living next door who raised him. One day, Usnavi’s childhood friend Nina comes back from college with a secret, and Abuela Claudia wins the lottery. (Jon M. Chu, 2021, PG-13, 142 min.)
UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is thrilled to announce the return of their annual free summer cinema series to its original home in the Sunken Garden of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. The 2022 theme, Hot Fun in the Summertime, means that there will be something exciting for everyone. Bring breathable blankets, low chairs, a picnic and your friends!
UCSB students can see the films on Wednesday evenings at Campbell Hall. These screenings are co-presented with UCSB Summer Sessions. Students must present a valid current UCSB ID for admission.
“After a challenging three years I can say with confidence and unfettered joy that the SUMMER FILMS ARE BACK at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse,” says A&L Miller McCune Executive Director Celesta M. Billeci. “Our community can gather at the Sunken Garden once again to laugh and be moved by these summer-inspired buddy and adventure films – some nostalgic, some silly, and some just plain fun! Our partners at the County Office of Arts & Culture and Montecito Bank & Trust didn’t skip a beat when we asked them to join us to bring back this beloved summer tradition. Together, we’re doing this once again Santa Barbara!”
The Museum of Ventura County to present Going Wild Opening Reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27 at 100 E. Main St., Ventura.
For novelist Melina Sempill Watts and artist Jeff Sojka, falling in love with a landscape means interconnecting the lives of the plants and animals that make it alive. Watts’ first novel Tree is an exploration of 229 years in the life of a California live oak from the point of view of … the tree. Sojka dove into the book and painted his vision of the tree’s reality, each painting honoring the aliveness and richness of California’s landscapes. This multimedia experiment, with the exhibit being available both on-site and virtually, will offer the audience the opportunity to expand their imagination, stepping into the life of a tree from multiple vantage points. Consider the world from the plants’ perspective: begin going wild.
Washington DC’s legendary DJ duo, Shaolin Jazz, are making their West Coast debut this summer as part of their “Can I Kick It?” series, which scores live hip hop, soul, and funk music to cult classic kung fu films. The Oxnard Performing Arts Center Corporation (OPAC) is proud to bring “Can I Kick It?” to Ventura County audiences as part of an end-of-summer celebration.
he City of Port Hueneme in partnership with the nonprofit REACH is hosting the Hueneme Beach Festival, Saturday and Sunday, August 27 and 28 from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The admission is free.
The festival features live music on two stages, fair-style carnival rides and games, local vendor booths, arts and crafts, and a variety of food and drink. Carnival rides will feature kiddie, family and teen/adult options.
Live entertainment on the Main Stage includes guitarist and singer Taylor Sackson; Fleetwood Mac cover band Twisted Gypsy; classic and fresh New Orleans sounds from New Orleans Suspects; post-third wave ska band Beebs and Her Money Makers, two-time Grammy award winner The Phantom Blues Band and soul and funk The Nth Power. The Toni Young Community Stage will feature a wide variety of performances by local bands from throughout Ventura County.
Los Mixos, one of Oxnard’s newest music bands, in collaboration with Red Sky Productions and HOPE Social Skills for Teens with Autism, will be performing live for a multi-camera, internet-streamed studio concert called Downtown Window (DTW), to promote their original 5-song music EP. The concert will be performed and streamed on the internet at www.DowntownWindow.com on Saturday, August 27th at 4pm at the Red Sky Productions studio in downtown Oxnard. Through the livestream, fans will see and hear Los Mixos’ newly released songs filmed in a music video type set with lighting, set design and props with the help of a crew of camera operators, sound engineers, a cinematographer and television director.
Twenty stunning works of art by historic and contemporary local artists will be up for grabs during the Santa Paula Art Museum’s virtual 12th Annual Fine Art Auction Fundraiser. Online bidding opens Saturday, August 13, 2022, and closes Saturday, August 27, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. PDT. The auction artworks can be previewed during a special, in-person preview reception at the Museum on Saturday, August 13, 2022, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission to the preview reception is free. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art will present Activating the Spectator by Reshaping the Aesthetic Field: Op, Kinetic, and Participatory Art at Mid-Century at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31 at SBMA’s Mary Craig Auditorium, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.
Art historian Alexander Alberro explores the development of a research-based artistic practice that fused abstract art with mathematics, science, and technology in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The stated goal of the artists involved was to demystify the creative process in favor of an objective investigation of visual phenomena. Alberro addresses how and why these experiments evolved into a greater concern with the participation of art spectators.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Art Matters Lecture explores Julius Caesar as the Second Founder of Rome from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1 at SBMA’s Mary Craig Auditorium, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.
Art Matters Lecture features Chris Hallett, Ph.D., Professor of Roman Art with the Department of History of Art, UC Berkeley
The 8th Annual Labor Day Vintage Tractor Fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 5 at the Agriculture Museum, 926 Railroad Ave., Santa Paula.
Friendship Center is looking forward to our 10th Annual Wine Down to be held Thursday, September 8th, 2022, from 4 to 7pm outdoors at our Montecito Center’s courtyard. This delicious and delightful event brings us together to enjoy an evening of great local wines and beer, along with hearty hors d’oeuvres and live music, all for a good cause!
The 14th Annual Ventura Art & Street Painting Festival returns to picturesque Ventura Harbor Village on September 10 and 11, 2022 from 10am to 5pm. www.venturaartfestival.com What’s more, the seaside enclave, located off of California Highway 101, invites visitors to experience a stunning backdrop of majestic yachts, stunning sunsets, blissful weather with gentle ocean breezes paired to casual open-air and sit down dining and unique one-of-a kind boutiques, galleries, and specialty stores. The destination is the picture-perfect staycation/midweek/weekend getaway for couples, friends, and families.
Antonio Rey, one of today’s most important and popular multi-award winning Spanish flamenco guitarists and composers – a true master of the instrument – will be making his Santa Barbara debut, promising an incredibly exciting and moving performance on Sunday, September 11 at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara at 7:00 p.m.
Rey’s 2020 “Flamenco sin Fronteras” album was awarded the Latin Grammy for Best Flamenco Album. He has composed for and played alongside artists such as Antonio Canales, the Japanese dancer Yoko Komatsubara, Rafael Amargo, Richard Bona, and Farruquito. He has also worked and toured with the Maestro Paco de Lucía.
Rey Rey is a winner of several national and international flamenco guitar competitions and after such an impressive career accompanying some of the most important figures in flamenco – both singers and dancers – it’s time for Antonio’s guitar to take center stage. Performing with Rey in Santa Barbara is guitarist Jose Tanaka, Diego Alvarez on percussion, along with dancer Maria Bermudez.
