Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara — A Special Thank You to The David Bermant Foundation!

In this season of gratitude, from all of us at MCASB, we wish you a restorative and contemplative time with friends and family.

We would like to take this opportunity to emphasize MCASB’s commitment to working towards a more equitable and accessible museum for all of those who call Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast home. The work of systemic change within established institutions is hard, disruptive, and complicated, but we are committed to doing it. And we can’t do it without the help of the community, funders, and other non-profit organizations that support positive changes for the community. We believe strongly that today more than ever institutions of the arts should support collective community healing through art and cultural events.

As part of our desire to be transparent with our community about the progress of reopening MCASB with new leadership this year, we are sharing our gratitude to the community members and organizations who have embraced the reopening of the museum this year. Among them, The David Bermant Foundation has been especially inspiring.

The David Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion was established in 1986 to encourage and advocate experimental visual art which draws its form, content and working materials from late twentieth-century technology.

David Bermant was a visionary, one of the very first to recognize and acquire art based in technology. The artist that experienced his commitment, encouragement and enthusiasm for their work had a great affection for him. David was a huge advocate for public art and described himself as a bridge connecting art and public spaces. He exhibited in his shopping centers, public squares and corporate buildings. In January 2021 the collection was gifted to the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.

We could not be more thrilled to share the news that the David Bermant Foundation has made a three year commitment to the museum totalling $50,000. This includes an unrestricted gift of $20,000 to support and celebrate the reopening of MCASB. Further support in the two subsequent years include $10,000 towards the a new kinetic sculpture commission by the Mexico City based Tania Candiani for the fall 2024 exhibition Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Art, and in spring 2025 a $20,000 gift towards developing a new exhibition of kinetic sculpture in partnership, taking the David Bermant Foundation collection as a point of inspiration.

Bess Rochlitzer, President, The David Bermant Foundation shares  “I am proud that the David Bermant Foundation supports MCASB’s mission to inspire critical thinking through meaningful engagement with the art and ideas of our time.”

In addition to this three year gift towards the future of MCASB, we have also been recipients of the California Arts Council most recent Covid Relief grant cycle in the amount of $42,000 over two years, and the City of Santa Barbara and the County Office of Arts and Culture Organizational Development grant program in the amount of $18,000 to support the development of MCASB’s community accountability work with board and staff.

We also wish to take this opportunity to thank those individuals and organizations whose financial support has been critical to our success this year. We are grateful for a gift of any size, and here thank those ranging from $250 to $25,000, we wish to thank: 
Anonymous, Betsy Atwater, Cynthia Bermant, Brown Voss Trust, Judy & Robert Egenolf, J. Scott Francis, the Francis Family Foundation, Marti & Gil Garcia, Randy & Sofia Greif, The Earl and Shirley Greif Foundation Trust, Betsy Ingalls, Frederick Janka & John Connelly, Laurie Siegel & Joe Nosofsky, Laurie & Marc Recordon, The Resonance Foundation, Richard & Ro Sanders, Elizabeth Scharpf & Sarita Bhatt, Danner & Arno Scheffler, Wendy Wheeler Smith, Christy & Hans Swildens, Margot & Bill Williams, Zegar Family Fund.

Along with a special thank you to our Board of Trustees for the labor that has been tireless and their contributions incalculable: 
Adriana Arriaga, Ingrid Bostrom, Porfirio Gutiérrez, Arturo Heredia Soto, Debra Herrick, Laura Hyatt, Frederick Janka, Vanessa Wallace-Gonzales.

Since we do not and cannot do this work in a vacuum, we also wish to thank our Institutional Partners this year that have helped ensure the success of our exhibitions and public programs. We wish to thank:
Art, Design, and Architecture Museum at UCSB, Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Center Stage Theater, Community Environmental Council, The Culver Hotel, The Free Republic of California, Frieze Art Fair, The Fowler Museum at UCLA, The Fund for Santa Barbara, The Getty Foundation PST ART: Art & Science Collide, HAIR + NAILS, KCRW, LUM Art Magazine, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture, Paseo Nuevo, Prism Places, Riviera Beach House, Ysidro.

We invite you to join us in supporting the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara today!